We are experiencing unprecedented times of uncertainty and challenge, on so many levels. We are in a collective experience of societal upheaval and change. This is both a crisis and opportunity for each of us to align more deeply with our authentic self. A time to reflect and assess what is truly important to each of us, in this one precious life.

Psychotherapy can be an ally during these times, to both help us with coping strategies for stress and nervous system regulation, and also to support our journey inward, to find healing and balance in everything that’s stirred by current circumstances.

I look forward to supporting and accompanying you through this journey of healing & self-awareness. We are uniquely in each of our healing journeys, yet we are stronger together💗

I am happy to share that I have completed the 3 yr training program in Somatic Experiencing! This has been an amazing journey of in-depth education and experience in the healing and integration of body and psyche.

This training experience inspires and supports me to bring body & nervous system awareness into the therapeutic relationship to facilitate healing and integration of the whole person.

So much to share and offer with clients to support nervous system regulation, anxiety/stress reduction and the healing of trauma💗

The therapeutic relationship is core to healing that can occur in therapy. Building trust and repor in relationship is essential for the psyche to feel safe and relaxed to open and explore one’s inner world.  The developmental needs of each client guide the therapist towards what is healing in the therapeutic relationship. Often, exploring one’s relational and inner experience through talking within a trusting therapeutic relationship is healing and transformative to one’s relational and intrapsychic wounding.

There are times, especially in processing specific or developmental trauma, that just talking about the trauma can be re-traumatizing or overly activating. Signs that this is happening include being in a state of over-activation, or agitation, or being in a state of collapse, or under-activation in one’s nervous system. When this is occurring, it is helpful to make sure to establish a Resource, or place of safety and soothing.  This can be a person, place, thing, animal, color, breathing, body awareness, or any soothing activity.  This is a place someone can go to when they need a break from the trauma.  The resource should simply be soothing and calming, not complex or complicated.  Once the Resource is established, then the process of Titrating the trauma, through pendulations between going into the trauma, then going into Resource, back and forth, can gently facilitate the release or discharge of trauma through the body.  Signs of release or discharge of trauma include embodied crying, yawning, shaking, trembling, or tingling.

Through this gentle titration and pendulation of traumatic material, one can experience relief of traumatic symptoms, related to Anxiety, Stress, Depression, and Relational Issues.

This is my first attempt at blogging for my updated Website. I feel excited to have this forum to express some of my passions and ideas about my work and the field of Psychology!

Here goes…

I have been steeped in Relational Psychodynamic Psychotherapy since day one of my training in 1995. I traversed through so many Relational trainings, books, training centers, analytic institutes, study groups, intensive individual and group consultation, and my own deep personal work for 22 years. I feel deeply grounded in the therapeutic relationship as an exquisite base of healing work with clients.

But what I realized, about 5 years ago, is that talk therapy is just not enough to heal trauma, which resides in the heart, mind and body. Trauma finds its home not only in our psyche and feeling self, but also in our soft tissue, organs, muscle memory and cellular being. Healing modalities that address the body’s somatic felt experience, such as SE, or Somatic Experiencing, founded by Peter Levine, actually help process and release traumatic material, through the body. What is so exciting is that we do not have to choose between Relational Psychodynamic talk therapy or body-based healing techniques, like SE. In the field of Psychology, this powerful integration of mind & body healing is taking root, because it really works!

As I am developing my new training in this effective combination of therapies and techniques, I look forward to sharing with you some of the gems and practices which can be cultivated on the path of integrated heart/mind/body healing.