Embodied Connections

As a therapist, I am rooted in attachment- and somatic-based approaches.  I am informed by AEDP, Polyvagal Theory and Interpersonal Neurobiology.

It is important to me that, whatever the content of our work, our process unfolds at a pace that is sustainable for both of our nervous systems.

In our session together, this means I will slow us down often, checking in, pausing, noticing.  What is happening as you tell your story?  What responses do you sense in your body?  Your thoughts?  What images are you visualizing?  What else is here?  Who and what is here to support you?

Generative Listening

In our hustle-and-bustle, scroll-driven civilization, we have become reliant on having troves of data available instantly at our fingertips.  This is undoubtedly useful, but we have lost the skills of a different kind of inquiry that search engines can never fulfill for us. 

I am interested in collaborating with you to slow way down; pause in the unknown; ask questions that have no ready-made answers; listen for your deepest longings; sense the spark of support and generativity in the least likely places; delight in the glimmer of intelligences that are embodied, wild, dynamic, and alive.  ​​
There are practices that can help us with generative listening.  We all have the ability to enter into states of absorption, play, and flow. With gratitude to Stephen Gilligan's teachings on Generative Trance, I have cultivated my own style of tapping into generative flows.  Together we will explore what the entryways may be for you.  Perhaps it is visualization, centering, meditation, or devotional practices.  It could also be playing with sand, movement, or engaging intuitive arts.  Everyone's way is different.

Bringing Attachment Theory Down to Earth

There is increasing discussion of intergenerational healing in our world today.  The violent legacies of of colonization, patriarchy, white supremacy, and capitalism are stored in our DNA and in the patterns of disconnection in our bodies, our peoples, and our relationships.  Attachment theories and therapies provide important pathways for healing some of these wounds.  Part of our exploration together may be tending the web of ancestral connection, healing the ruptures that leave us feeling isolated and rootless.  We can explore and attend to these ruptures with care, and with help, so that the gifts of our connectedness can be received and reclaimed.

However, I also make space to take this even further. I suggested that we, as a species, are in need of a radical paradigm shift.

Our civilization has been built on the illusion that humans are somehow separate from "nature."  Nature is not some place "outside."  We are nature.  The human species is but one among vast communities of beings that come together to create the dynamic interconnected web known as Earth.  We are born of Earth. Earth is alive.  Earth is our primary attachment from whom all other attachments flow. 

I suggest that a vital step to even beginning to approach the despair our species currently faces is to work toward tending to our primary attachments in, of, and to Earth.  Validating this viewpoint makes possible the centering of Indigenous knowledge systems that have been thriving on the planet for millennia.  We have much to learn, and this is part of decolonizing psychology and decolonizing ourselves.