About
Therapist Background
I took up my career in therapy mid life wanting both to understand my own trauma, my spiritual calling and complicated upbringing and work with others on the same path of healing and wholeness. I am deeply informed by my connection with the land as a long time organic farmer and spiritual life as a Zen Buddhist teacher. Please know I honor all spiritual traditions and systems of meaning as meaning seems to be a prerequisite for living a vital life. While there are necessary healthy boundaries in the therapeutic relationship, I like to be transparent with my clients. After all, it can be a vulnerable experience to open up about what's troubling to a relative stranger and so I am committed to being real and transparent, respecting the growing trust between us.
Individual Therapy
The question I am asking when you arrive in therapy room is "what is in the way of this individual healing in the direction of growth and healing?" While we can learn vital new skills in therapy, it's equally important to remove the obstacles that are in the way of going in a life affirming constructive direction. The larger question is how do we foster a life aligned with our essential values? If we can find out together what is in the way, often the needed change emerges on its own.
My two main approaches I rely upon involve tending the body and resolving inner conflict, parts of us that are diametrically opposed to one another. It's of great benefit to understand the body's nervous system and how it creates "body memory" of past experience to foster a path of relief, release and healing. It's also very powerful to tend our inner "family" of conflicted parts that block the path forward. Other approaches I integrate involve learning how to work with difficult relationships, how to be with grief and loss, and/or make hard choices.
“If your heart is broken,
make art with the pieces."
Shane Kyoczan