Somatic Psychotherapy
Polyvagal Nervous System Re-patterning and Attachment Theory
Over-Active Sympathetic Stress Response
If you find yourself unable to relax, have rapid thoughts, or you experience chronic anxiety, its likely your sympathetic nervous system(SNS), the fight/flight response system, is activating unnecessarily, causing chronic stress, low energy, as well as other physiological health issues. In relationships you may be quick to upset and slow to soothe. It’s not your fault. Our bodies learn how to appraise danger at an early age.
De-Activating Dorsal Vagal Stress Response
Depression, zoning out, and fog brain point us to the dissociation that occurs when the response to stress is the “freeze mode.” Animals will play dead and reptiles use this function to survive as well. This type of shutdown appears in challenges with communication or social anxiety, procrastinating habits that lead to feeling unproductive, and the sense of being emotionally “numb.”
Socially-Engaged/Safely Connected Nervous System-Ventral Vagal System
Growing up in a home environment that could not provide adequate soothing and trust building opportunities can make it difficult to trust and open in relationships as an adult. It also can impact our abilities to respond appropriately to stress rather than reacting and reaching for unhealthy ways to regulate emotions such as sex, media, alcohol, drugs, or food.
In Nervous System Re-patterning you will learn cues of safety and comfort so that you can better soothe yourself in stressful situations and learn how to reach towards trusting others in order offer or receive co-soothing opportunities.
You will learn how to “get out of your head,” build your trust in your body to respond to stress in healthy ways, and grow your body-love and self-confidence.
We work together using breath-work and other soothing and co-soothing strategies to re-train the mind/body/heart. We have the option of using light touch through Craniosacral Therapy combined with attachment language healing, either with use of a massage table or in a sitting position. Touch is always optional and any touch in therapy is always prepared for ahead of time using our Safe Touch Agreement Guide in order to build safety and understand boundaries.
Individual Therapy
Something deep inside you is calling you to this work. It may be a longing for relief, direction, or re-connection to self.
Together you and your therapist will discover your internal power source- that which creates meaning, builds relationships, and carves careers and life ambitions.
In order to tap into, realign with, or discover, your True Self, your Natural Self, the Self that is plugged into the power line of the True Yang energy source-we focus our work on healing and transformation. Going inward we clean out that which is old and no longer serving us; moving outward we can connect and create with people and pursuits which support and nourish our True Self.
Using a Somatic and Mindfulness based therapy approach called the Hakomi Method, to work with your “core material," the composition of your memories, beliefs, and traumas that influence the major themes of life: safety, belonging, support, power, freedom, control, responsibility, love, appreciation, sexuality, spirituality, etc.
We use relationship to heal old wounds, support your longings and grow your passions.
For more on what somatic and mindfulness therapy includes, as well as the origins of mindfulness, check out the FAQ section.
Specialties
Assertiveness
Depression/Anxiety
Body Image, binge eating,
emotional eatingSelf Esteem
Romance/Dating
Career shifts
Loss/Grief
Early Childhood Trauma
Intergenerational/Inherited Family Trauma
Addiction
Psychedelic Integration
Approaches
Hakomi, Somatic Psychotherapy
EMDR
Mindfulness-Based
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Inherited Family Trauma(IFT)
Attachment/Relational Therapy
Meditation Skills
NonViolent Communication Skills
Drug/Alcohol Harm Reduction
