“We are fundamentally designed to heal. Even if our childhood is less than ideal, our secure attachment system is biologically programmed in us, and our job is to simply find out what’s interfering with it ― and learn what we can do to make those secure tendencies more dominant.” ~ Dr. Diane Poole Heller
Our bodies are truth tellers. Pain passes through the generations until someone slows down and takes the time to feel and heal it. When we stop and listen, we can begin to release the energies, emotions and experiences at the roots of an emotional and/or physical distress, imbalance, illness or pain.
We can soften and lift unnecessary suffering, pain and illness by healing the trauma held deeply in the body. Co-Regulating Touch Bodywork for Trauma and Somatic Healing can help resolve and move through long-held patterns of chronic stress, anxiety, panic, PTSD, emotional and physical pain. As you release the trauma held in your body, you’ll feel your life energy flowing through your body – allowing you to feel more vibrant, alive and free.
Release fear and soften into yourself. Dissolve and reorient patterns deeply held in your body. When we take time to listen deeply to your whole being – body, heart, breath, movement and sensation – we will open the door to somatic healing and the truth that lies deeply within you. We work with what arises in the body – understanding its purpose and direction, while holding a particular healing framework – to release long-held, incomplete stress responses – and make space for new movement, where we once felt stuck.
Trauma and stress gets stored in the body – quickly, as a stress reaction, an accident, a sudden shock – environmental or man made, paralyzing thoughts or unresolved fears. Or more slowly over time, we become numb to an ongoing situation in our lives – and sadly, misattunement, neglect and abuse – both emotional and/or physical – in early childhood.
Working with the symptoms of undischarged traumatic stress – anxiety, chronic stress, sleeplessness and pain – and access the root causes of chronic stress patterns and develop resilience in your nervous system. Trauma symptoms exist as undischarged survival energy held in the nervous system – symptoms remain in the nervous system until they are felt, processed and moved through the body.
Being embodied is an opportunity to feel clear and grounded within ourselves as we ride the waves – the fear, disappointments, chronic stress, emotional and physical pain, grief and ups and downs of our lives – and when all the elements of what we are thinking, feeling and experiencing feel congruent throughout or body and our entire being. When we feel embodied, we feel awake and aware of what is going on within us and around us – we are connected to it and really notice it – and there are more opportunities to take in what is nurturing and nourishing and to move away from what is not nourishing for us.
Early developmental trauma, intergenerational trauma, family of origin relational trauma, birth trauma and shock trauma, can interrupt feelings of embodiment, flow and ease in our lives. When we are not feeling fully embodied, we may try to get our needs met by reaching for people, relationships, substances, food – that are not nurturing for us and effect us in ways that are not for our greatest good. These are not the things that nourish us deeply, but they are the things that we have access to right now. Even though many of the things we reach for may not be good for us, they are available now, so we reach for them to try to find some relief and ease in our lives, and to regulate our nervous system.
At the heart of this embodied healing work is a quest to restore, nourish and amplify one’s life force. Summoning life force engenders a profound respect for the intelligence of the body itself. The body, being primarily fluid, has the innate capacity to move as one whole fluid system.
The body is living tissue – a process, an unfolding space of arriving, movement and change. Various kinds of relational, intergenerational and shock trauma can interrupt the flow and somatic patterns of your body. Working together somatically is a slow, nurturing, and gentle process that is hopeful and allows change to happen – always checking in with our bodies and ourselves to find out what is your experience of your body right now.
Exploring stillness, silence, movement and flow – somatic healing refers to offering and allowing the felt experience of the body as you live in it to be at the forefront of your experience.
What do you notice when you are with people who you feel safe enough to be vulnerable with?
How does your body let you know that you feel safe?
How do you protect your vulnerability when you have to be close to unsafe people?
What feels frozen, stuck, shut down or unavailable?
How does it feel in your body when you receive support?
How does it feel when you share what you notice with me?
What images or colours do you notice?
How are you making sense of what you are experiencing?
Somatic healing is about what you notice in your body in each moment and how you make sense of it on the inside of you. We go slowly to honour your body.
We begin with an understanding about trauma and how your autonomic nervous system works – most of the trauma we hold in our body is hidden from us and places an overwhelming demand on the physiological human system. Without ongoing opportunities for us to be anchored in systems of safety and support – so we feel safe and calm – our nervous system can get stuck and not be able to regulate efficiently.
The sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system activates when we feel a stirring of unease – when something triggers a feeling from the inside of danger. We go into action – fight or flight happens here. In this state, our heart rate goes up, our breath is short and shallow, we scan our environment looking for danger – we are on the move. I might describe myself as anxious or angry and feel a rush of adrenaline that makes it hard for me to be still. I am listening for sounds of danger and don’t hear the sounds of friendly voices. The world may feel chaotic, unfriendly and dangerous – from this place, I may believe the world is a dangerous place and I need to protect myself from harm.
Some of the daily living problems include: anxiety, panic attacks, anger, inability to focus or follow through, and distress in relationships. Health consequences include heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, sleep problems, weight gain, memory impairment, headache, chronic neck, shoulder and back tension, stomach problems, and increased vulnerability to illness.
When all else fails, our bodies sense that we are trapped and action taking doesn’t work, the primitive vagus takes us into shutdown, collapse, and dissociation. Here, I am alone with my despair and escape into not knowing, not feeling, almost a sense of not being. I might describe myself as hopeless, abandoned, foggy, too tired to think and act, the world is empty, dead and dark. My body has moves into conservation mode – I may believe, I am lost and no one can find me. Some of the daily living problems include problems with memory, depression, isolation, and no energy for the tasks of daily living. Health consequences of this state include: chronic fatigue, fibromyalagia, stomach problems, low blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and weight gain.
We experience a sense of well-being when all parts of our autonomic nervous system are working well together.
When the body is experiencing too much stress, we produce too much cortisol. Some symptoms of too much cortisol production are: fatigue, irritability, anxiety, depression, stomach problems, intestinal problems and poor sleep patterns.
There are tests that can check for cortisol levels and brain chemistry including – serotonin, dopamine and amino acids. When these levels are in balance, we feel better.
- Ventral Vagal – Socially engaged / calm / feeling safe / feeling resourced
- Sympathetic Response – Fight / resistance / flee / run away / agitated / overwhelmed / alarmed / mobilize to survive
- Dorsal Vagal – Shut down / collapsed / withdrawn / foggy or numb / going through the motions without awareness / feeling lost abandoned or invisible
We will transform how your nervous system organizes itself around events and situations that are stressful to your body – understanding your own stress response and how your nervous system as it functions in your every day life.
We will focus on a wide variety of areas of concern that you may have:
- Family of Origin Relational & Ancestral Healing – Understand the effect of your early childhood or adverse childhood experiences on your emotional & physical health now
- Somatic Deep Body Healing – Reprocessing deeply held traumare within your brain and nervous system
- Attachment Healing – Rewire early attachment and familial patterns – Mother & Father Wounding
- Birth Trauma & Early Developmental Trauma Healing – Learn about your HPA axis, levels of cortisol and adrenaline and how these may be adversely be effecting you
- Embodied Recovery – Understand your somatic narrative and cultivate resiliency as a felt sense in your body
- Become aware of how stress feels in your body
- Facilitate emotional processing of deeply held or stuck emotion
- Process long-held anger, grief & loss
- Reduce feelings of anxiety, depression and overwhelm
- Integrate gut felt sense with cognition
- Work with and know your own needs and self care
- Become aware of stress activation patterns
- Work with communication, energy, movement, boundaries & limits
Many of us experienced an unavailable caregiver in our early childhood, either during the pregnancy or immediately postpartum (first six weeks following birth). This period is the most important time for us to begin developing a healthy attachment system.
Somatic memory holds all of our traumatic experiences within our physical self. Relational and physical injuries form during that formative non-verbal period, then what better way to communicate than through touch?
Co-Regulating Touch Bodywork for Trauma touches and heals early and non-verbal traumas – trauma without words – and ultimately repairing a ruptured attachment system.
The subtle repair of early attachment ruptures begins as the body and mind grow and interweave with one another. Co-Regulating Touch Bodywork for Trauma allows and holds space for those who have experienced early developmental trauma, so we can begin to reorganize and re-pattern the early experiences that are held in our physical selves, that are affecting our intellectual, emotional and physical self.
As shifts begin to happen, each person begins to move towards a new normal and they begin to feel more awareness and balance within their physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual self. This reparative work is seen as essential to heal from early attachment ruptures.
I will support and allow you to be where you are, without judgment and to bring a sense of curiosity to the session – healing the body deeply in the nervous system, brain and cells.
Oxytocin is one of a cascade of neurochemicals that are part of the social-engagement system of the brain and the body. Because being in the presence of other people is so critical to our well-being and safety, nature has provided this system to encourage us to reach out to others and connect. That’s why touch, along with physical proximity and eye contact, evokes a viscerally-felt sense of reassurance that brings your biological system back into the window of tolerance.
This work helps to support the kidney/adrenal glands and brain stem to bring them into regulation. The body has a large fluid system with electrical current running to facilitate and maintain survival. Sometimes the “engine in our body” is running too fast, too hot and too long. Touch or intentional touch brings in another electrical system to help smooth or calm the body.
Co-Regulating Touch Bodywork for Trauma & Integrative Relational Somatic Therapy – provides healing for these symptoms and many others:
- Chronic Accumulated Stress, Anxiety, Panic and Depression
- Chronic Illness & Syndromal Health Conditions – Fibromyalagia, Nightmares, Autoimmune Conditions, Kidney Disorders, Allergies, Acne, Chronic Pain, Breathing Disorders, Migraines, Chronic Headaches and Neck Pain, ADHD, Crohn’s Disease and Colitis, Female Sexual Dysfunction and Pelvic Pain, Menopause Symptoms and Aging Concerns, Sleep Disruption, Eczema, High Blood Pressure and Self-Injury.
- Trauma (Complex PTSD, Early Developmental & Complex Trauma)
- Discover and Cultivate Your Inner Mother
- Heal Intergenerational Trauma & Learn to Communicate with Family Members About Your Experience
- Shock Trauma from All Accidents including Motor Vehicle Accidents
- Dissociation & Chronic Freeze State
- Grief, Heartbreak & Loss
- Chronic Relational Breakdown, Attachment Disruption & Codependent Behaviours
- Hypervigilance & Obsessive Behaviours
- Eating Disorders & Substance Abuse
- Neglect, Abuse & Sexual Abuse
- Postpartum Symptoms
What to Expect During a Session
To begin, we go slowly. Attuning to your experience – what is happening in your body and what cannot be seen on the surface – with an understanding that there are parts of us that may be hidden due to hidden trauma – and that need a slow, nurturing pace to feel safe.
For true and deep emotional and physical healing, we can’t leave our body and how it feels and responds, out of the process. Each person needs something very specific in their healing journey, which is why it is so important to have a customized approach with sessions that are specifically tailored for you.
Your body doesn’t have energy – it is energy. When we allow traumatic stress that is contained in our nervous system to begin to move through our system – flow begins to happen in our body and we feel more energetic, grounded, healthy and alive.
For those who would like to focus on a body-focused, somatic approach, we can do this by sitting in chairs across from each other or where you are lying on a table. When you are sitting in a chair, we can do some talk therapy, and you may also be asked if you are open to closing your eyes and noticing your feelings, emotions and body sensations that are happening for you in each moment.
For those who would like to do Co-Regulating Touch Bodywork for Trauma – sessions consist of lying on a table with eyes closed – and I offer touch on several areas of the body: the head, stress organs, the belly, muscles, organs and joints in the body. There may also be some movement involved. Sessions are done fully clothed.
Each session is one-hour unless we are doing an extended session (which could be 1.5 or 2 hours in length) – and is unique depending on what you are experiencing on that day and would like to focus on during a session – we want to tune in and understand what’s really going on in your body – beyond pathology and diagnoses – to allow your body to move into a flow state, rather than to remain stuck in a stress response state – during the session and in the hours and days afterwards. healing hidden trauma.
Co-Regulating Touch Bodywork for Trauma sessions allow you to pay attention the sensations of your body, and to notice what you feel, sense and notice within when you do. We will invite ease and support into your nervous system and body – providing nurturing comfort and care. Each session builds upon itself – you develop a sacred container for emotions to arise and build resilience in the nervous system, which in turn affects how you feel about yourself and how your energy flows.
This body-based method helps you heal physical, emotional and psychological shock states, early developmental trauma states, chronic stress and long-held trauma. It works directly with the autonomic nervous system to discharge stress and trauma and balance and restore equilibrium.
Prior to coming to your first session, you will need to fill in some paperwork and bring it with you to your first session to give me a sense of what is happening for you right now in your body, mind and heart.
Have you or someone you care about been struggling with mysterious or stubborn symptoms or feelings that don’t seem to resolve without medication, after visiting your health care provider? Our primary health care system is not poised to recognize the symptoms of hidden trauma and are not able to work deeply with you at the level of the nervous system to heal, process and resolve trauma in our systems.
This is why it’s so important to learn about and share information with friends and loved ones – because Somatic Experiencing (SE) and Co-Regulating Touch for Trauma bodywork – works deeply at the level of the nervous system to heal stubborn symptoms for lasting results that evade traditional treatment – without drugs or medication.
Physical and emotional health exists when our nervous system is in balance. When you’ve been struggling with ongoing health symptoms or chronic emotional patterns, I can help. I support you to bring balance into your nervous system – for those whose systems may be stuck in overwhelm or shut down.
Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a body-focused therapeutic approach is about finding balance and creating dynamic tension in your body and nervous system. You will learn about your own body and learn about symptoms of undischarged traumatic stress, your window of tolerance, what a healthy nervous system feels like and how it feels when it is balanced – and you are available for connection and your nervous system activation is low.
I help people learn the language of their unconscious minds and bodies. Then we can work effectively with the body, to reduce or eliminate the symptoms.
I believe that it’s essential to include the body’s feelings and reactions in therapy, because this is the primary place where the trauma lives. That’s why it is almost impossible to “think” trauma away. The body’s survival responses are much more powerful than the thought process.
Our energy gets blocked due to trauma that we may not be aware of in our lives. Trauma blocks the flow of energy in our bodies and can result in many health-related symptoms including: chronic anxiety, depression, eating disorders, chronic anger responses, autoimmune disorders, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, migraine headaches, exhaustion, chronic pain and illness in the body.
We can free our constricted sensory experience, that has been forming a protective barrier between ourselves and the world around us, increase our sensory experience, expand our perception and create a new way of being in our bodies, relationships and in the world.
Although the emotions surfacing right now may feel related to the situation you find yourself in, they probably have deep roots in your psyche. This isn’t the first time in your life that you’ve felt unhappy about what’s happening and uncertain about what’s happening next. Chances are, then and now, you’ve ended up trying to manage your negative feelings with negative behaviors. In the long run, this doesn’t work. As somatic healers know: when feelings come up and don’t move on, they get tucked away and become the body’s tension patterns. Based on this understanding, anywhere there’s habitual tension, numbness, or agitation (forehead, jaw, stomach, chest, neck, and so forth), there will be an emotional, as well as a physical component.
This work helps to restore core regulation – your symptoms are a natural response to a dysregulated nervous system.
Together, we work deeply in your nervous system to uncover and resolve:
1. How your family of origin attachment patterns effect your nervous system
2. How your trauma physiology processes survival threat in your nervous system
3. How your nervous system processes sensory information in your body
Learn how to identify sensations and feelings in your body – and allow feelings of safety and support to run freely through your nervous system.
With support, your nervous system will complete the steps of trauma resolution including:
- Nervous system arousal – a survival threat response to stimuli
- Noticing threat – knowing when we’re safe and when we’re not
- Mobilizing a response aligned to the presented threat
- Restoring coherence in your system – notice that you’ve survived and the threat is over
- Processing sensation in your nervous system – and inviting rest & digestion
- Noticing something new in your environment – open space for new energy to flow
Increase the state of flowing energy in your body – and find relief from chronic anxiety, stress, sleeplessness, disordered eating, relational struggles, chronic health concerns, chronic pain or illness.
We heal in relationship – when we bring our struggles into the light – your willingness to be vulnerable is a sign of strength. I will help you learn about and track symptoms in your body and nervous system – as well as how hidden trauma and your relational history may be contributing to current struggles, feelings and chronic symptoms, so you can live a more balanced and joyful life.
Many of us don’t have a felt sense of support in our bodies – and we need that to heal from the emotional and physical patterns that we are holding. Allow yourself to practice a felt-sense of safety and feel connected to yourself– deep in the core of your being.
In-between sessions, you will practice and become more aware of the following within yourself:
- Somatic & emotional awareness
- Awareness of boundaries & limits
- Awareness of nervous system activation patterns
- Notice and pay attention to your stress response / relaxation response / pain response
- Practice & Integrate Developmental Movements and Reflexes
- Practice moving through The Action Cycle – Yield, Push, Reach, Grasp, Pull
- Learn and practice emotional regulation
- Paying attention to your felt sense of safety and the sensations in your body
Get in touch with the gifts of inhabiting your body – and I will answer any questions your have about working together. I will invite you into feelings of safety, groundedness, clarity and support.
Our bodies are holding unresolved trauma – healing happens by getting to the roots of the conditioned, somatic patterns that you are holding – and allowing this energy to move through you with support.
Take the first step. I look forward to being with you.
with love from my heart, Kim xoxoxo
[email protected] / www.s3p.d51.myftpupload.com
Whole Body Health & Well-Being from the Inside Out.
Deep healing at the level of the nervous system enables you to explore and expand your inner landscape where self – confidence and inner agency reside. When you heal your nervous system, you can more readily access deeper ways of knowing and being that include intuition, imagination, sensuality, and the subtle body of emotions.
Get in touch to learn more about working with me – [email protected] / www.s3p.d51.myftpupload.com
What to Expect During a Whole Body Health Somatic Practice Co-Regulating Touch Bodywork for Trauma Session
For true emotional and physical healing, we can’t leave our body and how it feels and responds, out of the process. Each person needs something very specific in their healing journey, which is why it is so important to have a customized approach with sessions that are specifically tailored for you – a combination of emotionally-focused psychotherapy and body-focused Co-Regulating Touch Bodywork for Trauma.
Your body doesn’t have energy – it is energy. When we allow traumatic stress that is contained in our nervous system to begin to move through our system – flow begins to happen in our body and we feel more energetic, grounded, healthy and alive.
We explore our fluid bodies through the language of sensation, co-regulating touch,and subtle movement. We have the opportunity of allowing time to slow down, to notice, let go and shed that which needs to shed, and to come through anew and refreshed.
For those who would like to focus on a body-focused, somatic approach, we begin by talking about your background, symptoms and history. We do this online and or in-person by sitting in chairs across from each other or you lie on your back on a table. When you are sitting in a chair, we can do some talk therapy, and you may also be asked if you are open to closing your eyes and noticing your feelings, emotions and body sensations that are happening for you in each moment.
For those who would like to do Co-Regulating Touch Bodywork for Trauma Session – sessions consist of lying on a table with eyes closed – and I offer touch on several areas of the body: the head, stress organs, the belly, and joints in the body.
Sessions are done fully clothed. Each session is one-hour, unless we are doing an extended session – and is unique depending on what you are experiencing on that day and would like to focus on during a session – we want to tune in and understand what’s really going on in your body – beyond pathology and diagnoses – to allow your body to move into a flow state, rather than to remain stuck in a stress response state – during the session and in the hours and days afterwards.
OFFERING – The Safe & Sound Protocol (SSP) is a five-day auditory intervention for adults and children – using headphones – that is intended to accelerate the effectiveness of other modalities by preparing the client’s emotional and physiological state. Dr. Stephen Porges (developer of The Safe & Sound Protocol & of The Polyvagal Theory) explains that we need a calm autonomic/physiological state for health, growth and restoration, and achieving this becomes the foundation of an effective therapy. The Safe & Sound Protocol is a way to support a change in your physiological state; opening the system to further neural change and improvement for other therapies that follow. The process is designed to reduce stress and auditory sensitivity while enhancing social engagement and resilience. The intervention uses prosodic vocal music that has been filtered to train the middle ear muscles to focus in on the frequency envelope of human speech. You’ll find you are better able to feel calm – less chronically stressed and/or anxious. Clients who have experienced long-held trauma and are healing from PTSD, troubling chronic health concerns, chronic pain and troubling chronic emotional responses, can experience an increased sense of safety in their physiological state.
Other Offerings – Nurture Surround Healing Session– 90-minute In-Person session. Allow yourself to slow down and experience deep healing. You are deeply supported on the table with weighted blankets, soft pillows and bean bags on your body – you choose what is most comfortable for you – providing soft, nurturing care – feeling supported and held – with choice. We will take time to attune to your body’s core needs and comfort at a deep level. Your needs are important. I will use a variety of touch skills with you – and invite you to place a hand wherever you would like to on your body – and to pause, slow down and notice what you feel.
Using mind-body skills to stabilize your nervous system – befriending, grounding, slowing down, tracking and resourcing. We will listen to your body’s narrative while utilizing body-mind emotion dialogue. We will explore biological survival strategies and process historical trauma by creating moment-to-moment interpersonal experiences of safe connection. We will utilize non-cognitive senses of relational connection – auditory, visual, movement, and touch – co-creating manageable ways to defuse internal feelings of pressure, anxiety and stress.
Healing Codependent Patterns in Relationships – healing through the body for codependent patterns in relationships – healing from resentment, blame, shame and addictive patterns – nurturing your inner child – learning your needs in relationships – and finding ease in the body, mind and heart for longstanding conditioned patterns.
Family Trauma Imprint – 90-minute – in-person or online Zoom session – an opportunity to get to the roots of intergenerational trauma patterns & begin a path towards relational & relationship healing.
Discover Your Inner Mother – Healing the Mother Wound – uncover your hidden family dynamics and trauma history – this is an opportunity to strengthen your internal relationship with your inner your self – as well as your mother, father and extended family – in ways that contribute to healing – get in touch to schedule an online or in-person session – [email protected] / www.s3p.d51.myftpupload.com
Sessions for Individuals & Couples – Relational Somatic Healing -Embodied an invitation for you – to slow down and feel the strength of a supportive resource, move beyond blame and notice how our nervous system states inform our interactions with our partner, feel present in your body, to unwind patterns of anxiety, depression, anger, hopelessness, chronic stress & pain, trauma, regulate your nervous system, to cultivate trust in your moment-to-moment experience, your naturally wise heart, and your capacity to connect to yourself, those you love and the love that surrounds us.
Somatic Body Learning & Practice and Somatic Experiencing Trauma Co-Regulating Touch Bodywork for Trauma sessions are available for you now. Waking you up to Somatic Resilience & Regulation – the innate wisdom of your body, healing inherited trauma patterns, feeling yourself below the level of thought, and accessing your full beingness in flowing, fluid motion.
Get in touch to learn more about The Safe & Sound Protocol (SSP), Embodied Recovery, Nurture Surround & Family Systems Imprint Sessions & Individual Body-Focused Therapy Sessions, and Co-Regulating Touch Bodywork for Trauma, NeuroAffective Touch – The Anxiety, Stress & Trauma Restorative Clinic – in-person and/or online – and to set up a time to work together: [email protected]
The Anxiety, Stress & Trauma Restorative Clinic:
Creating Well-Being Through Nervous System Regulation.
Heal Relational Trauma – Break the Cycle of Inherited Family Trauma.
Nurturing Connection, Restoration & Building Resilience.
Easing the Body ~ Calming the Mind ~ Opening the Heart.
Somatic Experiencing ~ Somatic Practices ~ Co-Regulating Touch Bodywork for Trauma ~ Movement Practices ~ Whole Body Systems Approach for Healing Inflammation.
Somatic work can be done effectively online, as well as in person – online sessions are available for those who would prefer not to come in to the office at this time, for those who live far away from the office, or prefer to work from your own home – [email protected]
Working together enables everyone who is willing to do the work an opportunity to decrease feelings of anxiety, pain, depression, chronic stress, pain or illness – as well decrease the chatter in the mind, and ground your mind and body with the depth of the intelligence found in the body. Experience lasting somatic transformation and feelings of calm, peace and wholeness – within your own body and within your relationships.
You will learn to feel and by doing so, you will move towards whole body health and well-being that you can feel within you.
[email protected] / www.s3p.d51.myftpupload.com
“If you find yourself empty from something you cannot know or name, find a stretch of ocean, a field, or mountainside, or even clouds, or trees. Because there are 1,000 simple ways to fill your tired soul so you can remember how to be, how to see, and most importantly, how to breathe.” ~ Victoria Erickson
