Tag: <span>somatic therapy</span>

“I woke this morning, and found myself – accepting myself – loving myself. The boulders of self-doubt had rolled away, and I could see for miles.” ~ Jane O’Shea

Start where you are. Your feelings matter.

What is your lived experience of being in your body?

During our session(s) together, we will explore sensations and feelings in your body – and how they relate to what is happening in your life now. We also explore touch, movement, quiet and stillness.

Without realizing it, we are holding longstanding stress patterns from our early development and our family of origin – and although these patterns were set a long time ago, they are still affecting us now.

With support, care and understanding, those patterns and feelings can shift, along with the difficult feelings we’ve been experiencing towards ourselves and others – such as shame, guilt, anxiety. self-hatred and fear.

You may be experiencing the symptoms of unprocessed and often hidden trauma that keep you stuck in a loop of exhaustion, emotional chaos, relational conflicts, pain and internal unkindness.

When you slow down, and allow in nurturing care, you can slowly begin to access your nervous system, heart, brain and the emotional patterns held in the body – so that you will begin to find more softness and kindness in your responses to yourself in many ways.

Many of us are not used to slowing down and resting. Our identity is bound up in what we do, how busy we are and what we accomplish – and we can find it truly unsettling to stop and rest. Even during a pandemic. All of this busyness keeps us from the questions that may arise in in our unconscious when we slow down – Do I matter? Is there any meaning to life? Why do I feel alone? Am I doing the right things in life?

Healing trauma is a nurturing process that opens our heart and allows us to begin to open to the possibility of relating to ourselves with kindness – beginning a practice of being kind to ourselves on a regular basis, just because we are a human being facing struggles and difficulties – as most of us do.

Practice kindness to yourself – even when things are hard. Begin again.

Allow yourself to take part in the work of being kind to yourself- of slowing down, resting and compassion. This is where freedom begins.

We will explore the energy of your body – how it feels, when it feels stuck and how your emotions feel within the body. Learn how you live in, sense, and experience your body.

As we bring awareness to our emotional wounds – and gradually access and integrate the bound energy of trauma into our nervous system and psychic structures, we begin to experience greater freedom, expansion and connection to our true self. As we integrate those wounds, the instinctual survival response embedded within trauma can catalyze authentic transformation. ⁣

Unprocessed, hidden trauma lives in our body and effects our emotional and physical health in ways that we may not be aware of. When our brain, body and nervous system are working well together, we feel more awake, alive and well.

Co-Regulating Touch SomaFlow Bodywork for Trauma allows you to connect to a deeper awareness of yourself in your body. Attune to your internal experience through breath, sound, awareness and fluid movement expands our experience of embodiment and opens us to new possibilities of inhabiting our bodies and expressing our wellness through them.

Your thoughts and bodily sensations are one system – in a highly sophisticated and developed organism of being a human being. What happens emotionally, happens physiologically in your body and all of its systems. Your emotional circuits in the brain are connected to your nervous system – connected to heart, lungs, viscera, hormones.

It can feel emotionally intolerable to feel your feelings – in order to healthy we have to have boundaries and say no to things that are too much for us. We have limits and we must begin to know what they are. We also have preferences that are important to notice because we are unique – and it is important to pay attention to what we want and need.

Allow yourself to take part in an embodied recovery process. It takes time.

Unwind the chronic rigidity, tension and/or sense in to the fact that you may not feel much at all.

Know that whatever your behaviours are, your nervous system is doing what it feels it needs to do in order to feel good enough and survive. Become familiar with the energetic sensations of your survival instincts⁣ – and feel in to that the fact that the past is no longer present.

Consider how it feels in in your body when you answer these questions for yourself:

1) Where in your life are you not saying no? There is no that wants to be said, but you are not saying it.

2) What is the impact on you for not saying no? Depressed, anxious, frequent colds, aches and pains, chronically stressed and feeling ill.

3) What is the hidden belief beyond not saying no? I’ll be responsible for others’ suffering or disappointment – if I get angry, I won’t be accepted or loved – what else?

4) Who would I be if I learned how to say a healthy no?

5) Where do I not say yes? Is there a yes in my body or soul that wants to be said, and I’m not saying it?
6) Do you make room for creative and/or emotional expression – when you don’t express yourself the way that nature intended you to – you will be hemmed by frustration – another source of illness.

Consider some false beliefs that may be underpinning your emotional life:

– I must never disappoint anyone.

– I must be good all the time – and suppress my other emotions of anger, sadness, frustration or emotional pain. There is no space for my feelings unless they are ‘positive’.

– I am responsible for how people feel around me – I need to take care of them. – Where are you struggling with chronic stress and illness, in your personal relationships, at work – where and why am I not saying no?

What happens when you have emotions? Do you suppress them or share them?

How do you feel about expressing anger, sadness, frustration and emotional pain? What happens next?

What happens when you disappoint someone?

Do you need to be good all the time? When did this behaviour begin?

Are you responsible for the feelings of those around you?

My work consistently informs me that early developmental trauma and breaks in the attachment bonds with our caregivers – lay the foundation for all future emotional connections, with ourselves and with others. This developmental trauma creates fundamental subconscious beliefs such as “I’m not good enough” or “I’m not safe”. These beliefs undermine the body’s ability to regulate itself, resulting in both physical and emotional problems.

“and I said to my body. softly. ‘I want to be your friend.’ it took a long breath. and replied ‘I have been waiting my whole life for this.” ~ Nayyirah Waheed

Co-Regulating Touch SomaFlow Bodywork for Trauma helps everyone create new experiences in their bodies, which differ from those of tension and helplessness. Trauma can negatively impact the quality of our life, causing physical symptoms and emotional dysregulation.

There are several aspects to the process of Integrative Somatic Relational Healing & Co-Regulating Touch SomaFlow Bodywork for Emotional, Relational & Early Developmental Trauma, PTSD, Complex Trauma, Chronic Stress & Health Conditions:

1) Heal Relational Family Trauma – Including the Mother & Father Wound.

Learn to recognize the unconscious themes that can affect health, vitality, success and relationships.

Get to the roots of The Mother Wound and Relational Family Trauma with a specific approach designed to uncover and heal longstanding issues held in the body, mind and heart.
Take part in a somatic, energetic process – nurturing touch, body-centered practices based in neuroscience to ground positive experiences in the body.
Allow space for a new experience to happen in your body, mind, heart and relationships.

2) Heal Early Developmental Trauma and Longstanding Attachment Concerns.

Understand the break in the attachment bond at the roots of the somatic and emotional symptoms you’ve been experiencing.

3) Work Deeply in the Body with Co-Regulating Touch Bodywork for Emotional, Relational & Early Developmental Trauma and NeuroAffective Touch – Cultivating Somatic Resilience & Nervous System Regulation – Transform Your Brain

Without realizing it, we’re holding feelings and emotions from early childhood – and the hurt, pain, isolation and trauma has not gone away – the past is always present. Integrative Relational Somatic Healing is a way to heal long held patterns and feelings in and through the body.

Squelched, walled-off, or pushed away feelings do not go away. They simply go underground and pool there, waiting to be touched off.

Old feelings can be easily touched off by any current situation in your life that simulates the original cause of the feeling. This can be completely unrelated to the original cause and they may attach themselves to an event, experience, or person in your current life who does not deserve them.

These old feelings can be just as powerful, or even more so, as fresh ones. They may appear to come out of nowhere. They may even make you wonder what is wrong with you.

Trauma can be defined, not by the traumatic event itself, but by our response to the overwhelm that happens after an event. Whether it was one big event or a series of smaller events, the trauma response lives on in the body and when triggered, the overwhelm can greatly reduce our capacity to cope in any given situation.

This is perfectly normal by the way – because we are wired to protect ourselves. When our brains perceive a threat in our environment, we automatically go into one of the three stress response modes, freeze, flight or fight. From an evolutionary standpoint, these responses have served us well by allowing us to respond quickly to threats and get to safety. But for those living with unresolved trauma, the threat never feels like it went away, leaving them “stuck” in a stress response.

I work with clients to help them move out of overwhelm and into ease and connection with their bodies, with other people and within their own lives.

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What is Co-Regulating Touch SomaFlow Bodywork for Emotional, Relational & Early Developmental Trauma?

Co-Regulating Touch SomaFlow Bodywork for Trauma is a gentle, backed-by-science method that enables qualified practitioners to work safely with the emotions that are stored in the tissues and organs of the body. It works to unlock and release emotional pain that has been buried in the body, sometimes for as long as 10, 20 or even 50 years.

When working with Co-Regulating Touch SomaFlow Bodywork for Trauma, we reset complex physiological systems and harmonize the flow of energy in the body. We can restore what was missing in the early years – giving you greater awareness of your body’s sensations and the ability to know yourself from the inside out.

Bringing a compassionate presence to the body is another important part of healing. It helps us address the neural numbing, muscular bracing, and autonomic disorganization that are physiological by-products of grief, shame, anger, and fear.

Touch is our first language. It is the first sense to develop in the embryo, and all other senses are derived from it. The skin can be thought of as the outer layer of the brain. Throughout our lives, the tactile system will remain a potent form of communication and has immense potential for healing as well as harm.

Co-Regulating Touch SomaFlow Bodywork for Emotional, Relational and Early Developmental Trauma works to heal the nervous system by providing an opportunity for the body to process deep-rooted trauma. Through gentle, attuned touch, we can help to rebuild an underdeveloped nervous system that has been negatively impacted by early trauma.

This method involves passive touch, with each person lying face up on the table while we “hold” various parts of the body, typically the right and left kidneys, the brainstem and many other specific places in the body that can encourage and allow regulation to come into your nervous system.

As a Registered Psychotherapist (RP), Relational Therapist, Trauma Therapist, Co-Regulating Touch SomaFlow Bodywork for Emotional, Relational & Early Developmental Trauma practitioner, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP), Movement Therapist, EMDR Therapist and Somatics Practitioner – I have specialized training in trauma therapy and offer The Safe & Sound Listening Protocol as well.

Co-Regulating Touch SomaFlow Bodywork for Emotional, Relational & Early Developmental Trauma is often the most effective therapy I can offer clients suffering from trauma symptoms and one where clients experience the most powerful shifts.

When working together, I use an intuitive approach with meticulously researched, backed-by-science methods ensuring each session is highly individualized and optimized for each person. I use a combination of touch methods including Somatic Experiencing, Kathy Kain’s Touch Skills for Trauma, Somatic Resilience & Regulation & Transforming the Experience-Based Brain by Stephen Terrell and NeuroAffective Touch by Aline LaPierre.

I work somatically doing bodywork with clients to support the integration and recovery of early developmental (hidden) trauma, relational trauma, physical injuries, pain and fear of pain – along with these elements (and more) of the healing process to:

Understanding the somatics of our survival/threat response in response to pain and healing
Self-protective responses in response to pain
Perception of threat and non-threat in the body
Understanding the role of interoception in perception of threat and safety
Understanding and sensing your survival response and how this may be impeding your recovery
Neuroception: building a felt sense of safety in the body

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 SomaFlow 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 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.

Learning to deeply care for ourselves – and heal from chronic stress and exhaustion – allows ease and aliveness in to your life. This work helps to restore core regulation – and accesses layers of your experience that are not accessed by traditional therapy – your symptoms are a natural response to a dysregulated nervous system.

This somatic healing work is offered both in-person and online.
Get in touch with the gifts of inhabiting your body – and I will answer any questions your have about working together – along with inviting you into feelings of safety, groundedness, clarity and support.

The chaos within us will not have the last say.

Let nature soothe your nervous system.

Hydrate your budding soul.

Spring comes to remind us that life is worth living.
Life is worth us trying and trying again.

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 SomaFlow Bodywork for Emotional, Relational & Early Developmental Trauma / NeuroAffective Touch 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 SomaFlow Bodywork for Trauma.

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 SomaFlow 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.

NEW OFFERING – EMBODIED RECOVERY for DISORDERED EATING offers a somato-psycho-social model – expanding beyond the current bio-psycho-social model to include the role of the body as the missing link to effective treatment for disordered eating. The core principles of this approach address the intersection between somatic organization, the subjective experience of self, and our basic human need for attachment/bonding and protective defenses. The science behind the process is supported by the contributions of pioneers such as Peter Levine, Dan Seigel, Stephen Porges, Pat Ogden, Bonnie Bainbridge, and Allan Schore.

THE SAFE & SOUND PROTOCOL (SSP) is a five-hour 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.

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 the Inner Mother – Healing the Mother Wound – uncover your family dynamics and trauma history – this is an opportunity to strengthen your internal relationship with 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 – 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 Emotional, Relational & Early Developmental 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 Embodied Recovery for Disordered Eating, The Safe & Sound Protocol (SSP), 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, Attachment, Restoration & Building Resilience.
Easing the Body ~ Calming the Mind ~ Opening the Heart.
Somatic Experiencing ~ Somatic Practices ~
Co-Regulating Touch SomaFlow Bodywork for Emotional, Relational & Early Developmental Trauma ~ Movement Practices.
Whole Body Systems Approach for Healing Chronic Illness & 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

“The very structure of trauma, including hyper arousal, dissociation, constriction and helplessness, is based on the evolution of predator/prey survival behaviors. The symptoms of trauma are the result of a highly activated incomplete biological response to threat, frozen in time. By enabling this frozen response to thaw, move ahead in time and then complete, trauma can be healed.”~ Dr Peter Levine

Tag: somatic therapy

The Courageous Emotional Work of Healing Deep Hurts – The Roots of Unprocessed Trauma and How it Lives in Your Body – Release Bound Energy Held in Your Body with Somatic Healing – Transform Your Relationship with the Deepest Parts of Yourself.

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