Holistic counseling
gives us the opportunity to explore our perceived obstacles to living fully and learn tools in which to work with whatever
challenges arise in a safe and transformational way.
Through Emotional Connection and release, Somatic Experiencing®, Dialog,
Mindfulness Practices, Contemplative Exercises and other holistic methods we learn the tools and gain the resilience to naturally unfold and feel safe and content in our bodies and in life.
Some
different methods that may be used during a counseling session:
• Emotional Connection
And Release
Together we can enter the present moment and explore
feelings and emotions through the direct experience of the body. Through the simple,
organic process of Emotional Connection we safely and gently learn to feel and release emotions that
limit us from experiencing a full, content and productive life. When we don't take the time to experience
our emotions fully and learn to release them, we hold toxic energy in the body, which can create many
problems with our physical and mental health. When not released this emotional energy can also affect
how we relate to others in personal and work relationships.This process allows our emotional system to come
back on line and emotions once again flow freely in a natural way.
• Somatic Experiencing®
Is a therapeutic tool used to treat stress, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder
(PTSD) and other trauma-related disorders, Somatic Experiencing focuses on the patient’s
“somatic experiences,” or perceived body sensations. I
use Somatic Experiencing in my sessions as a means
to help clients open to and work with past trauma, stress,
anxiety and sensations
in the body, as well as the fear and resistance that are coupled with
experiences in the body. Through Somatic Experiencing we feel more open, safer and more comfortable
in our bodies. After the SE sessions are complete clients often reports a feeling of being free and more engaged with life, as well as decreasesin
levels of physical pain and the absence of other problems with mental
connections.
• Contemplative
Dialog
Through a playful yet penetrating dialogue we will explore
thoughts, stories and emotions that may be holding you back while neither
giving preference to silence or speech, so both can arise naturally. Through this effortless process
our limited beliefs, ideas and concepts that keep us from living life fully can naturally dissolve through dialogue, silence
and gentle inquiry.
• Mindfulness and Natural Meditation
Mindfulness and meditation are both powerful ways of developing more awareness and a greater capacity to meet the
challenges in our life. When all experience is allowed to be as
it is our bodies and minds naturally settle like a still forest pool,
clear and reflective. This is a natural, but powerful effective way to release stress and tension, bring awareness to
emotions and trauma trapped in the physical body and helps us create
a greater capacity to rest in out body. Because we can't heal if we cant feel.
• Contemplative Exercises
Contemplative
exercises challenge us to meet and open beyond the boundaries that limit us from living fully. These exercises can help us to see more clearly how we react in certain situations
and what thoughts and feelings arise. The exercises are usually very simple and insightful and can be an important part of
our growth and healing.
Whenever your not willing to experience a particular emotion, your life is run by your resistance to that emotion.
You make choices that are
about avoiding the feeling, rather than serving your best interests.
Emotional resistance, therefore, is the one thing
holding you back.
-Raphael Cushnir
