WHY GO TO THERAPY?
The science behind the relationship
The idea of talking about painful memories or personal issues can be daunting. It can seem safer, even more sensible, to keep things inside. However, the things we suppress require effort and energy to avoid. We bury what we cannot bear. As we mature, we develop tools to address what would once have overwhelmed us, and sometimes find ourselves ready to begin what was once unimaginable. Brain imaging studies show that the areas required for thought necessitate the use of additional structures in order to articulate them-- and even more parts are utilized when we say these thoughts aloud. To speak one's experience to another is to shift into a different gear; the kind of engagement that can radically alter the way we hold a given situation both physically and mentally. To do this with a skilled facilitator can dramatically change the way we both recall and experience our lives, and can impact all aspects of health.
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At its most essential, trauma is an interruption of healthy function. Although adult minds and bodies are capable of completing the arc of a recovery process (sometimes with assistance), children are often incapable of taking in the enormity of an overwhelming experience, and automatically store or bury much of what is felt. Although this is innately wise, and allows the child to survive without fragmenting into psychosis, our dissociative coping reflex effectively 'freezes' the natural means of digesting an event. These frozen experiences can remain on indefinite hold, like time capsules, until the child grows up and is capable of returning to finish the process.
A body whose wisdom has never been honored does not easily trust. An animal with a crazy trainer learns crazy habits, runs wild.
Marion Williamson
THERAPEUTIC SERVICES
Acknowledging and improving the connection between mind and body is essential to good mental health. Serving the greater California area, we work with clients to provide a wide range of counseling services to suit your needs.
INDIVIDUAL THERAPY
In one-on-one sessions, we work to identify and understand current concerns, and to address the potential impact of the past. We are focused on both developing insight and incorporating tools to offer new and healthy ways of responding to stress. We are trained to address both the symptomatic expressions of complex trauma and to treat it at the source, via self-directed bodily integration practices, EMDR, and a variety of other somatic interventions. We strive to empower our clients with the means to digest and process traumatic experiences, in order to improve their overall well-being and offer tangible improvements to health.
FAMILY THERAPY
In family sessions, we seek to either bring or restore balance to a relational system that may be unbalanced. Whether there has been trauma, abuse, addiction, neglect, or other harm, the wounds of family can become an ongoing cascade of blame and avoidance. Not all members of a family system need participate in order for other members to heal, repair or forgive. Where family relationships have become too painful or unsafe to negotiate, we offer resources that allow members to shift (or decline) old interpersonal patterns, toward more individuated, loving, and respectful interactions with others.
