After a recent session focusing on inner child healing, a client of mine wrote this beautiful poem. I received permission from her to share it, because I think it so powerfully captures

Psychology Responds to Physiology In my last blog post, I spoke about the way we use compulsive heavior as a means of dealing with chronic nervous system dysregulation, aka trauma. When we experience a traumatic event, and find ourselves stuck with too much or too little nervous system charge, something psychologically resourceful happens as a result, and this something deserves attention. Humans are incredibly inventive. We are creators by nature. Each word, movement, and im

If you will indulge me…Take your right hand and begin massaging your left index finger. Start out gently and slowly use more force so that y

I began meditating fifteen years ago, when I was twenty-one. I can remember my first experiences of breath-centered focus quite clearly.

Mushrooms, ayahuasca, marijuana, ibogaine, san pedro, cacao, and other psychedelics are now gaining enormous popularity all over the world

My tween years were filled with adventures, made invaluable by my close-knit and friendly circle. I remember spending a whole summer at an o

You’re a woman in her early thirties, dressed nicely, and on the bus coming home from work. It’s about 7pm, and dusk is arriving. You take y

When I was born, I was given up for adoption. It would take me nearly thirty years to understand how much this has affected me. Speaking as a fellow sufferer and an enthusiastic researcher, I know that developmental trauma comes with challenges not necessarily faced by those enduring adulthood shock trauma. It has taken me nearly five years of working with Somatic Experiencing (SE) to become regulated enough to write such a blog post. In SE and several other forms of somatic

In a recent conversation, my mom asked me why some people become dependent on destructive behaviors, while others do not. I love when conversations go in a ch

Another reason to do psychotherapy is that we are all fucked up in some ways. Depending on your social situation, privilege, and culture, th

During client-centered therapy, the therapist is absolutely careful not to send the client down a path which is not of their making.