I bring this post to you at the time of the Winter Solstice, the time when we are closest to our unconscious, and therefore have the greatest potential to create deep shifts within our psyche-body in service of our evolution, both individually and collectively. Today I want to share with you thoughts that I have gathered that have to do with our health and healing. It also seems particularly appropriate due to so many people around the world being sick, and who are frightened as a result. The single most important factor in someone’s healing is their belief that they can heal. I realize that m ..read more

The poem below came through me as I arrived in a little cabin on a lake in Vermont a couple of days ago. I came here to meet with my shamanic/spiritual teacher, and was already beginning to experience a shift in my awareness, away from my regular life, yet quite different from a “vacation” space. I used to write a lot of poetry, but had stopped for many years. However, when I found myself by that incredible lake, I found that poetry was the only thing that could possibly come close to articulating my experience in any kind of authentic way. If I had tried to journal about it, something would b ..read more

I am not going to start yet another blog post with the pithy observation that our Western culture prioritizes thinking over feeling. Okay, well, I guess I did. That’s because this idea is so crucial, that it’s worth it to try to bring people’s attention to it, perhaps in a different way. Image intuitively chosen! (Source: Pixabay) Believe it or not, I think about this blog daily, despite the fact that I have not published anything in months. This is due to many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that so few people now take the time to actually read and think deeply about anything on t ..read more

I want to share with you all that I have recently pulled together over 30 of my favorite pieces of writing from my first 2 years of training to become a psychoanalyst, and created a Kindle e-book with them. The e-book can be found here: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B08X3TNH83 Many thanks for your support and kindness. It continues to inspire me to keep writing and creating. A longer, more comprehensive and even more personal volume is already underway! With deepest Gratitude, Vanessa ..read more

Like any other morning, the other day I sat down to meditate with one of Dr. Joe Dispenza’s guided meditation tracks*. I have been studying his work for nearly a year and find it to be a tremendous method to rework deeply-entrenched emotional patterns in an experiential way. In this post I’d like to share with you a bit of my experience, as well as some insights into how to use this kind of meditation in order to truly grow. With my eye mask on and headphones in, I found my spot on the couch where I always meditate. The session the day before didn’t seem to go very deeply, and I was hopin ..read more

This year I have been deeply studying the work of several people whose ideas and findings are extremely important to the world of healing and personal growth, although they are not in the world of psychotherapy. Three of these people — all of whom are scientists, researchers, and speakers — are Dr. Joe Dispenza, Gregg Braden, and Lynne McTaggart, all of whom have written multiple books. I couldn’t possibly do them justice in a single blog post, but I wanted to express my gratitude for their work as it shapes my understanding of both my own experience and my work with clients. I find their work ..read more

At this moment, take a breath and see if you can relax your jaw. (I just noticed I was holding my breath too.) Grab some tea, and go easy. At a time like this one all my clients are going through the same thing I’m going through — a pandemic engulfing the world and devastating entire countries. Everyone is going through it in their own unique way, but we are also in it together. With every hour, the news gets more dire and yet so many things still remain uncertain. Uncertainty is immensely difficult for all of us to live with, even the regular everyday uncertainty that we each must bear. But u ..read more

“It’s actually a good thing you’re feeling depressed”, I find myself saying to clients more and more lately. Of course, I don’t mean this comment literally, this is not an expression of some sadistic joy at another’s suffering — and I must immediately expand upon what I do mean by it. This is what this post will be about — something I truly believe about depression and something that seems to go against the grain of much of the social media’s portrayal of it. There is much being said and done for helping people speak up about depression, to be more open about it rather than hiding it as some t ..read more

I have recently attended the first level of training for Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy, or AEDP. The experience transformed me profoundly, and its tendrils will continue to flesh out into my work going forward. During the 5-day experience, I struggled with integrating the model into my psychoanalytic understanding of doing therapeutic work — which makes sense, given how deeply psychoanalysis has impacted me as both analysand and analyst. Psychoanalysis is the deepest kind of psychotherapy I know, and yet I was looking to go further, particularly in the area of technique and pr ..read more

It was the second day of a 3-day conference, and I returned to my hotel room in the evening, feeling the kind of deep fullness one has when attending a rich experience that infuses new life into your very soul. As I turned my doorknob to close the door, glad to be in the silence of my room (as an introvert, I really need that silence and space to process and recharge), I had the thought that I’m returning to my room a changed person from when I left it that morning. Of course, the intensity of a conference (or workshop, retreat, etc.) is easily conducive to that sense of growth, the almost vi ..read more