Transformation and Healing...

 "Trauma is not a disease it is a state of dis-ease" Peter Levine

Fully-A-Live: Dance/Movement groups: ongoing groups in Rockridge,Oakland  at Danspace studio: Thursdays, 1.00pm to 2.30pm. repairing after trauma through gentle guided movement. Saturday group forming February 2009. Call to find out more: 510-377-1082

Counseling support in Oakland

Trauma can be described as an overwhelming event in which a person experiences a sense of helplessness and inability to escape. Specific symptoms are unique to each individual. 

Common themes are hyperarousal, constriction, denial, dissociation,feelings of helplessness, immobility or freezing, hypervigilance, intrusive imagery, "flashbacks", extreme sensitivity to light or sound, hyperactivity, restlessness, exaggerated startle reactions, difficulty sleeping, nightmares, abrupt mood swings and excessive shyness. 

Traumatic events are events in which our very survival appears threatened e.g. Motor vehicle accidents, medical and dental trauma, childhood abuse (developmental trauma), falls and accidents, catastrophic events, natural disasters.

Psychotherapy can address trauma healing by helping us to discharge excess survival energy, uncoupling fear from the immobility, freeze, moving out of the freeze and to completion. We can find our innate intelligence, a vital and energized aliveness and inner peace, here and now. Like animals in the wild, we can utilize the same natural mechanisms to return to normal after the threat has gone. We need no longer be haunted by the past. 

We learn to regulate our inner states by cultivating curiousity, inhabiting our bodies once more, having often left them in times of overwhelmimg stress. Bringing feeling back to what was numb, our bodies become a vehicle of return.

The benefits of trauma resolution are many fold. More than symptom relief, a fundamental shift occurs in our nervous system as we regain the capacity for self regulation and increase our capacity to feel. We have a greater capacity to accept what is, without judgment and be receptive. We are increasingly able to realize more of our potential and experience vibrant living.

Click here to find out more about counseling in my office in Oakland

Peter Levine Ph.D, biological physiscist, psychologist and developer of Somatic Experiencing likens trauma healing to  the process of physical birth. " Trauma , like labor, can serve as a final instinctive push-the inner shaking and trembling.... that awakens us to a new life and leads us home"

Like a midwife, attentive and attuned to her client, the psychotherapist  facilitates this birth of the new and letting go of the old, creating a safe containiner for the healing experience.  Having available several trauma healing approaches, helps the  attunement, meeting the unique needs of each client. These include: Somatic Experiencing®, EMDR,
Resource oriented skills training, energy psychology and expressive arts including dance and movement.

Together, client and psychotherapist build a therapeutic and healing alliance. Trauma healing is a collaborative undertaking between client and therapist.

Trauma healing is both a verbal and non- verbal process. It is recommended that all trauma healing be facilitated by both verbal and non-verbal interventions.

In individual sessions we will incorporate the body experience through careful attention to the feelings in the body.

The movement and dance groups>>> I run especially for trauma survivors are highly recommended and are a good addition to individual therapy or following individual therapy.

CONTACT>>> 

 510-377-1082 me for more information or to book an appointment

TOP>>>

HOME>>>>