How I Work

Life after trauma, whether the trauma wounds but eventually heals or deepens and lasts, is greatly affected by our support system. Recovery from trauma is faster, less difficult, and fuller if one is supported by others with compassion and skill. I create the conditions in which healing and transformation can take place. I listen with interest and complete attention, without judgment, and facilitate processing of deep emotions from a place that is safe. I frequently ask if I can interrupt to ask about a client’s experience at the moment, to be sure that a client feels safe, that we are working together, and that the client is not feeling alone.

Most people, even in the absence of trauma, are raised by primary caregivers who have fears around certain strong emotions. As children we learn which emotions cause distress in our caregivers, and we steer away from them. A kind of impoverishment results. For a trauma survivor this can lead to an inability to correctly identify emotions, experience them fully or act appropriately on the information emotions provide. Whether the emotion is fear, love, sadness, anger, or joy, it is like painting from a palette that is missing a primary color, or systematically removing a note from chords in a musical composition. In both cases the experience is impoverished, incomplete, less than it could be if all colors or tones were present. In therapy I work collaboratively with clients to help them invite back into their lives all the emotional colors and tones that their trauma has muted or silenced.

Emotions originate in bodily feelings. Emotions are body-based, not verbally based. In therapy sessions I monitor and explore somatic experience, voice, rhythm, breath, subtle movements and changes in facial expression. I use techniques derived from tai chi, chi kung and meditation to deepen this exploration. I also use video to help accurately identify the source and nuanced nature of emotions, and, if clients wish, to provide material they can later review in sessions or at home.

Experiencing true emotion is a natural, spontaneous heart/ body/ mind experience. You experience true emotions as discernable strands, not as knots or complex tangles. Different emotions point you in different directions, color your interpretation of events, prime you for different responses, and invite different explorations. In therapy we work through emotions experientially, untangling the knots which block their natural free flow. When you safely experience emotions in this way you come to understand them and trust their wisdom. For some, dreams provide additional new insights concerning the wisdom of emotions. Stronger and clearer with insights from our work together, your emotions will no longer pull you back into the experience of painful past events. They will instead free you to choose in new ways and to live more fully in the present as circumstances unfold