HOW I WORK
I work with you individually or in groups to explore how the integration of body, mind, emotions and spirit can impact health, personal fulfillment and relationships. For thousands of years, human beings have used nature, art, and ritual to create meaning, activate personal power, and build community. I bridge these modalities with concrete skill development to facilitate change. I work in partnership with you to reveal what is hidden or stuck thereby bringing you freedom to experience your desires like authenticity, vitality, and joy.
All Integrative methodologies may be combined with talk therapy or coaching. They are also a powerful adjunct to therapy or coaching you are already engaged in. Scroll down to find out how these tools can help you grow:
Expressive Arts
Voice Dialogue
Body Based Therapy & Coaching
Ecopsychology/ Nature Therapy
Mind Body Medicine
Guided Imagery
Sandplay
EXPRESSIVE ARTS
Relief from a glass sculpture by Chihuly
“As we tap into the deep
sources of bodily wisdom
through creative art
expression we dance
the renewal, recreation and
healing of ourselves and our world”
~ Anna Halprin
You must give birth to your images.
They are the future waiting to be born.
~ Rilke
In a culture dominated by verbal language and logic, the arts help us reach both unique and universal parts of ourselves that words cannot. The timeless symbols of our dreams call to us; this is partly what we mean when we say "a picture is worth a thousand words." For example, I may invite clients to make a self portrait at the beginning of our work together and at the end. When the pictures are put together, a deeper recognition of personal changes reflected in the art are visually powerful . We are all art-makers, designing the canvas of our lives.
VOICE DIALOGUE
Do you feel pulled in several directions or
conflicted about something important in yourlife Perhaps you are avoiding making a change?Are you in a period of transition, confused about the next step?
Do you want to shift from self criticism to self acceptance?
Voice Dialogue is a personal and spiritual growth process that can address all these issues and more. It was designed by psychologists Dr.‘s Hal and Sidra Stone. The Stones developed a theory called "The Psychology of Selves."
Voice Dialogue is a dynamic process of working with the many sub-personalities within us to help recover lost aspects of the self. You can experience wholeness, compassion, and intimacy. Directly experiencing our inner cast of characters rather than talk about them, can be the vehicle for deep change. The goal is to develop an awareness that is the empowering foundation for self-expression, and true choice.
Help for Self Criticism
I often have clients who are so self critical that at times they feel imprisoned by the harsh voice of their inner critic. Voice dialogue is a powerful tool for transforming this foe into a friend. As we come to understand this part of ourselves - how it serves us, why it does what it does, we can shift our relationship to the critic and as a result, inner peace is possible.
I began practicing Voice Dialogue in 1990 and worked with Hal and Sidra as well as with their senior trainers. Voice Dialogue is the reason I became a therapist. I found it such a potent resource that I made a career change from training and consulting to psychotherapy.
SOMATIC (Body Based) AWARENESS WITH BODY DIALOGUE
“The way we relate to our body is a template
for the way we relate to the world”
~ PHILIP SHEPHERD
Do you overeat without knowing why or use food to numb instead of nourish?
Are you tired of the cycle of gaining and losing weight?
Is stress taking a toll on your body?
Have lost touch with your deeper needs and joys?
Are you struggling with chronic illness, pain, or loss of vitality?
Do you want access to a deeper wisdom within?
In our culture today, we live quite separate from our bodies. We are exposed to the notion that we can multitask, push ourselves beyond our capacity, and have it all. Many of us have never been taught the warning signs how to listen to our bodies needs for rest and rejuvenation.
Body Dialogue enables us to speak directly with any part of our body or listen to the wisdom of our whole bodies. Tamar Stone, creator of Body Dialogue says that Body Dialogue, "creates the opportunity for conscious communication with the overall voice of the body and the many selves/parts which support the bodies miraculous functioning." This process helps us learn the unique language of our body, to befriend ourselves in a most intimate way.
I have studied with Tamar individually and have completed her advanced practitioner training.
NATURE BASED THERAPY
“Never does Nature say one thing & wisdom another.”
~ Juvenal (60-130 A.D., Roman Satiric Poet)
A new offering: Take the therapy hour outdoors!
An interactive walk in the beauty of Marin can unleash your healer within.
We have forgotten the wisdom of our ancestors: that we walk upon sacred ground.
Restoring our kinship and belonging with the living earth is part of healing.
We have become estranged from our animal nature and therefore separate from the power of our deeper nature. Reclaiming our lost peace, our self, through nature is the heart of ecopsychology.
In "A Psyche the Size of the Earth," the forward to the book Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind, James Hillman writes:
An individual's harmonizing with his or her "own deep self" requires not merely a journey to the interior but a harmonizing with the environmental world.