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When you walk in my door, you’re likely trying to deal with some type of crisis or trauma – something that was too much, too soon, or too fast for your nervous system to handle. Trauma isn’t always a result of a car crash, a typhoon, or a war zone! There are a host of reasons: divorce, surgery, illness, childhood injury, death of a loved one, a major medical diagnosis.
At the very least, trauma results in a decreased ability to feel satisfaction, or emotional or physical pleasure. Its effects are surprisingly enduring. Now you’re ready to get help to address it.
We don’t have to talk about it!
We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to: For many, talking about trauma is not only painful, it adds to and reinforces the pain by making us re-experience. Instead, through a proven, field-tested path of slowly increasing tolerance for difficult bodily sensations and emotions, you’ll learn to better self-regulate – to bring your reactions into balance
Why use this mind-and-body approach?
Brain research and neuroscience have overwhelmingly revealed how closely body and mind are connected. We’re much more physical than we’d thought! Classic talk therapy ignores that mind-body connection, missing many avenues to healing. I was trained in talk therapy; it’s a big part of what we’ll do together. But I’ve studied many other approaches [link to About] and incorporated the best ones into my practice.
What this means to you is that I will use whatever approach or set of approaches that suit you and your situation. [Click here for a one-pager on the different clinical approaches I bring to my therapy.]
An introduction to Somatic Experiencing®
Some of you are here because you are interested in Somatic Experience (SE). Others will have never heard of it. LET’s DISCUSS – WENDY WILL GIVE ME INFO ON THIS
SE is a body-oriented approach to the healing of trauma and other stress disorders. It’s the life work of Dr. Peter Levine, who holds a doctorate in medical biophysics from the University of California at Berkeley and one in psychology from International University. SE is the result of decades of study of stress physiology, ethology, biology, neuroscience, indigenous healing practices, and medical biophysics – together with 45 years of successful counselling work.
At its core, SE argues that the traumatic event isn’t what caused the trauma, it’s the unaddressed ‘overwhelm’ response. SE offers a framework to assess exactly where you are stuck in the fight / flight / freeze responses, then works to gently increase tolerance for difficult bodily sensations and suppressed emotions.
By renegotiating unhealthy reactions and patterns, you’ll move to better self-regulation and resiliency. Put bluntly, you’ll no longer be stuck in the past. From this, freedom comes.