Somatic Experiencing
Somatic Experiencing (SE), founded by Peter Levine, PhD, is a powerful modality that focuses on increasing the flexibility and coherency of your autonomic nervous system, brain, and psyche so that you can feel more like yourself. We work incrementally together on-line, via Doxy.me or Zoom, to create the conditions to allow thwarted fight or flight activation cycles in your physiology and psyche to complete organically. You don’t need to have any memory of events, however if you do have flashbacks or want to share distressing stories, I support your body and being to move towards completing aspects of the overwhelm while you talk. I use my attuned presence, care, and training to facilitate your body to discharge some of this stuck life-force via involuntary muscle movements and for your psyche and soul to be able to fully re-inhabit your body
SE addresses all types of overwhelm and trauma, including intergenerational and institutional trauma. Somatic Experiencing is a gentle approach and I track your body throughout each session to ensure you don’t re-experience being overloaded. Each session typically is 50-minutes long; however, you can schedule a 75-minute or 100-minute, depending upon availability. At some point in our work together, with your permission, I might weave Gestalt to create a sacred container for you to listen to, and integrate, aspects of your being that were previously disowned or buried.
Trauma is a one-time event or is overwhelming pervasive exposure which is life-threatening, or is perceived to be life-threatening. Instincts of survival kick in, such as fight, flight, freeze, and fawn to protect you, however your physiology, brain, and psyche become overwhelmed. Thwarted survival mechanisms remain held in your physical body and brain. You might feel as though the gas pedal is stuck “on” – the fight or flight response – leading to anxiety, panic, hostility/rage, chronic pain, insomnia, emotional flooding, hypervigilance, and digestive issues. You might feel like the brake pedal is stuck “off” – the freeze response – leading to feeling depressed, numb or detached, dissociated, chronic fatigue, complex health syndromes, pain, and poor digestion. You might also feel that you vacillate between these two polarized states. With developmental trauma, in-utero through the first few years of life, and childhood trauma, your brain and autonomic nervous system typically went into a freeze or fawn response because it wasn’t feasible to successfully use fight or flight. (A freeze response is when fear and immobilization are coupled together.)
Unprocessed trauma can narrow your window of tolerance to emotions, hijack your felt sense of safety and trust in your body, and compromise your ability to exist in the present moment. With consistent SE sessions, new neural networks often are forged leading to a broader capacity to navigate stressors of life, greater feelings of contentment and joy, and an expanded capacity to be grounded and authentically expressive in real time.
Brainspotting
Brainspotting, discovered and coined by David Grand, PhD, is a brain-based modality that supports you to process emotional distress or trauma by focusing your eye gaze on brain spots that we’ve identified. Often with overwhelming experiences or trauma, your brain can’t fully process all of the input, leaving pieces in a frozen, unprocessed state. These pieces can be linked to symptoms associated with chronic illness or pain, habitual limited beliefs about yourself, feeling stuck, creative performance issues, addiction, not feeling loved, challenging relationship dynamics, or trauma of all kinds, . This exciting approach is different than EMDR, which is more methodical and therapist-led, and attunes to your instinct and intuition to locate the brain spots together. Your limbic and brainstem areas, subcortical regions of your brain below cognition, process residual material while you keep your eyes focused on specific brain spots. This often results in reduced or resolved distress. You don’t need to know any details of the upset or trauma, you might process sensations with or without memories, and you can process in silence – if you prefer. I’m present each step of the way during your sessions on Doxy.me or Zoom, which are typically 50-minutes long,; however, they can be scheduled for 75-minutes, 100-minutes or for half-day intensives, when availability permits. I bring attunement, care, and training to facilitate your access to this potently efficient treatment modality. I weave Somatic Experiencing approaches to enhance your healing and empowerment.
Gestalt
Gestalt, originated by Fritz Pearls, MD, is an existential and experientially-based somatic modality that works with the assumption you unconsciously disowned parts of yourself in order to have minimized the risk of social disapproval or rejection. By working to establish a continuum of awareness, or what is now called ‘mindfulness’, you become conscious of your internal moment-to-moment reality and make space for an organic regulation of these parts. I bring my keen attunement, deep presence, and care to support you during on-line sessions so you can drop within the unknown of your being. Guiding you to use mindfulness, compassion, and curiosity, you shift your focus to listen to aspects of yourself which, as a coping strategy, have been relegated to the shadows. We meet on Doxy.me on Zoom for sessions, which typically are 50-minutes long; however, you can schedule 75-minutes or 100-minutes, depending upon availability. Over time, Gestalt parts work can profoundly enhance your relationship to yourself and foster a sense of wholeness and completeness. When appropriate, I utilize Somatic Experiencing approaches to facilitate a greater sense of safety, inquiry, and insight.
“Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting — over and over announcing your place in the family of things.”
Mary Oliver