Given the many challenges this past year has bestowed upon us it is more important than ever to not loose sight of who we are at our core, our intrinsic nature, our essence. The word essence can be viewed as ones soul, our innate defining substance, as interchangeable with consciousness, the subjective experience of being aware, the sense of knowing and that which is known. So who are you essentially? "The essence of who you are and who I am is consciousness, not the underlying thoughts but consciousness." - Eckhart Tolle Essence is palpable in babies, as they breath full healthy belly breath ..read more

Is your inner critic working overtime? Our annual marking of the Earth's passage around the Sun drives many of us to evaluate where we are in life, set goals, and begin working to achieve them. While this process can be motivating, it can also push our inner critics into overdrive. Whenever you feel inadequate, deficient, worthless, or a failure your inner critic has shown up. Its words can leave us feeling ashamed, guilty, fearful and depressed. If you were to hear its insults and complaints coming from the mouth of a friend you would find them annoying, boring, and cruel, their invitation w ..read more

One of the most dramatic shifts along my journey from complex trauma toward a more integrated and embodied sense of self came when I first received Reiki, a form of energy healing originating in Japan. Reiki practitioners tune into universal life force energy or qi ("chi"), a phenomenon that has been recognized in the East for over 2000 years, to direct healing were it is most needed. Those initial sessions were so impactful that I soon became attuned as a Reiki practitioner, and later a Certified Massage Therapist, both of which led me on the path to completing my MA and becoming a Somatic P ..read more

Trauma is the result of overwhelm to your system. It's about fear, and your ability to cope. There's no time to think when facing a threat, your primary responses are instinctual. Peter Levine, Ph.D., author of the ground breaking book Waking The Tiger, has spent over 40 years studying stress and trauma. Responsible for many discoveries in the field, Levine observed animals in the wild that escape life-threatening events instinctually shake to discharge accumulated energy before going on their way as though nothing traumatic has happened. Similarly, you may have observed a dog or small wild a ..read more

As a therapist I've sat with many individuals who have developed a deep-rooted belief that they're not good enough, not lovable, or not worthy. These beliefs are often the result of not getting some basic needs met at a very tender age when we were dependent on our primary caregivers for our survival. Infants and young children's brains cannot yet comprehend that their parent or caregiver could have both good moods and bad, be both loving and dismissive, rejecting, or in some cases even cruel. For their survival children need to believe they will be protected and cared for. When the person th ..read more

I first realized the physical imprint trauma is capable of leaving on one's heart years ago while lying on a massage table receiving Reiki. A vivid image appeared in my mind's eye of my own heart's radiance struggling to break through the cracks of a dark opaque outer shell. I knew at once that my healing would not be complete until this layer was shed. It's not that I was without the capacity to love, I loved deeply, rather, what I came to learn years later while training to be a Somatic Psychotherapist was that the image and the accompanying sensations symbolized a physical constriction of ..read more

There's no disputing that you are the expert on you, you know yourself better than anyone else, so who are you? Do you have a clear sense of yourself and of how others see you? What drives your behavior, your actions and decisions? Do you know what your strengths are and what triggers your defenses, those times when you react without conscious intention in an attempt to reduce discomfort? Everyone has their own individual combination of character traits, gifts and defenses, and just as with gifts, there are many types of defenses. An example of a defense would be the belief "I am not loveable ..read more

Life involves suffering - no one escapes it. We're born into pain, our own and that of our mothers as they deliver us into this world. A myriad of growing pains accompany us on our journey to maturation, and few have escaped the agony of a broken heart. Therapists tend to be good at guiding clients in finding relief from pain and suffering, yet therapy has limits and there are times when we must accept that relief may not be accessible. Such was the case for my older brother. As a child I looked up to David's exceptionally intelligent, creative, and rebellious nature. During his first year in ..read more

Have you ever been down on yourself? Perhaps you are your own harshest critic? Have you rejected your feelings and emotions? Of course you have, the majority of us are hardest on ourselves. We know how to, and are even good at being compassionate to our friends in their times of need, but often we don't know how to give kindness to ourselves. Fortunately we can learn to be inwardly kinder as we cultivate self-compassion. According to Kristin Neff, PhD, the number one reason people are reluctant to be more self-compassionate is fear of becoming self-indulgent. They have culturally gotten the m ..read more

Our uniquely human ability to make sense of and create meaning from memories defines and shapes the identities we create throughout our lives. As we move through our life's inevitable ups and downs, successes and failures, maturation and aging we continuously construct and reconstruct our identities. A coherent narrative is one that makes sense of our life history and its impact on our present functioning. Narrative is the comprehensive integration of our life's past experiences with our ongoing awareness of the ways we shape and grow our future. Our self-concepts form and are formed by the n ..read more