Approaches
Mostly I use traditional "talk therapy" approaches that address the underlying causes of issues rather than their resulting symptoms. Some of these approaches include psychodynamic, Jungian, Polyvagal trauma informed, client-centered, CBT and NLP.
When appropriate I also employ a form of meditative movement called qigong which transforms anxiety, trauma and dysregulation into calm, stability and emotional resilience. Qigong means energy (qi) work (gong) and is part of Chinese medicine. I wrote my dissertation on the use of qigong in psychotherapy and have practiced it for many years.
Trauma Informed
Most people are familiar with fight/flight and freeze/please as responses to dangerous circumstances. The Polyvagel Theory is an elaboration on these ideas. I use a Polyvagel approach to help you get back to feeling safe in your body after you have experienced trauma. After people experience trauma they usually get stuck in either fight/flight or freeze/please. As a result the entire world begins to like a threat. The Polyvagel approach helps restore safety and regulation to your body--specifically your nervous system so that you can feel safe again.
Depth Counseling
Depth Counseling works beneath the surface of symptoms to address and transform their deeper dynamics. The psyche is more than just conscious thoughts, feelings and emotions. It also includes your sub- and unconscious mind and body.
These deeper layers have a profound impact on how you experience yourself, your relationships, and the external world. Depth counseling addresses these deeper layers in a variety of ways to help create less strife and more joy and satisfaction in your life.
The goal is to help you heal, re-integrate and further develop yourself so that more meaning, joy and fulfillment are present in your work and relationships. It supports a richer life with greater purpose and resiliency.
Depth counseling is a holistic approach that draws on a range of psychological and physiological tools including: psychodynamic psychotherapy, psychoanalytic psychotherapy, Jungian psychology, affective neuroscience, interpersonal neural biology, gestalt therapy, classical five element Chinese medicine, and five element archetypal qigong.
“The separation of psychology from the basic assumptions of biology is purely artificial, because the human psyche lives in indissoluble union with the body.” -C.G. Jung
Qigong
Counseling and Qigong:
Qigong (pronounced: “chi gong”) means energy work, or the practice of working to balance and harmonize your energy. It is a moving meditation that is part of Chinese Medicine to promote psychological and physical wellbeing.
I use psychologically oriented forms of qigong to help you transform trauma and challenging thoughts, feelings, and emotions. These exercises are very gentle and effective for treating anxiety, depression, and the impacts of traumatic experiences. When talking is not enough, qigong is ideal tool to use to supplement traditional, talk-based counseling.
Benefits of qigong in counseling:
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Symptoms decrease and you feel better. Qigong harmonizes excess and deficient energies and emotions. As a result you to move through challenging circumstances with more fluidity and less difficulty.
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Changes last longer and are more complete. By working with the mind and body simultaneously, the work you do takes root at the deepest levels and is thus more thorough and effective.
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Self-regulation. It is a tool to use between sessions. Often times psychotherapy creates co-dependency and narcissism–the very things some people seek to change. Practicing qigong on your own offers a sense of independence and interdependence instead of dependence.
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Empowerment. Beyond your session time with me, the practice of qigong gives you a tangible tool to deepen, expand, and explore the work we begin in sessions.
Articles
Healing Trauma:
An Embodied Approach with Qigong
Feeling constantly anxious and/or dissociating from the body are hallmarks of surviving any traumatic experience. Splits between body and mind occur as a result of intensely shocking events. The moving meditation of qigong is ideally suited to repair these splits in a safe and gentle manner. Psychotherapeutic qigong works to re-integrate the body and mind after extremely disturbing experiences.
World renowned trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk, MD, author of Traumatic Stress and The Body Keeps the Score offers the following four concrete steps for clinicians working with trauma. All four steps directly relate to the benefits of using qigong in psychotherapy.
Step 1: Start with Self-Regulation
I would say the foundation of all effective treatments involves some way for people to learn that they can change their arousal system.
Before any talking, it’s important to notice that if you get upset, taking 60 breaths, focusing on the out breaths, can calm your brain right down. Attempting some acupressure points or going for a walk can be very calming.
So the issue of self-regulation needs to become front and center in the treatment of traumatized people. That’s step number one.
Step 2: Help Yourself Take Steps Toward Self-Empowerment
The core idea here is that I am not a victim of what happens.
I can do things to change my own thoughts, which is very contrary to the medical system where, if you can’t stand something, you can take a pill and make it go away.
The core of trauma treatment is something is happening to you that you interpret as being frightening, and you can change the sensation by moving, breathing, tapping, and touching (or not touching).
It’s … about knowing that you, to some degree, are in charge of your own physiological system.
There needs to be a considerable emphasis on “cultivating in myself,” not only as a therapist, but also as a patient – this knowing that you can actually calm yourself down by talking or through one of these other processes.
So, step number two is the cultivation of being able to take effective action.
Step 3: Learn to Express Your Inner Experience
Learn to know what you know and feel what you feel. And that’s where psychotherapy comes in: finding the language for internal experience.
The function of language is to tie us together; the function of language is communication. Without being able to communicate, you’re locked up inside of yourself.
Step 4: Integrate the Senses Through Rhythm
Tango dancing, Qi Gong, drumming and various other rhythmical movement practices that put an organism in rhythm with other organisms provide a way of overcoming the frozen sense of separation that traumatized people experience.
Therapy and Qigong:
Good for Clients and Therapists
Incorporating qigong into counseling offers many benefits for both clients and therapists. This article is about those benefits and the complementary nature of therapy and qigong.
A sweeping comparison in 2010 by the National Institute of Health (Jahnke, R., Larkey, L., Rogers, C., Etnier, J. & Fang Lin, 2010) found that anxiety and depression improved significantly for clients as a result of practicing qigong and tai chi. My experience as a client and therapist affirms these findings.
While complementing talk therapy and psychopharmacological treatment, qigong improves many of the symptoms associated with anxiety, depression and mood disorders. For example, qigong is a widely accepted practice for lowering individuals’ blood pressure and heart rate, normalizing breathing, and reducing hypertension and reactivity—all symptoms of anxiety. For depression, qigong works to diminish symptoms like hypersomnia and insomnia, while regulating energy and appetite, and promoting concentration and decisiveness.
Qigong also clarifies various types of conflict, promotes authenticity, and fosters relational sensitivity. When practiced between sessions, it furthers the psychological work accomplished during sessions and gives clients an easily accessible and readily available tool for self-soothing and self-efficacy. People suffering from a wide range of adverse symptoms benefit from using qigong as an effective, low-cost means of holistically supporting psychological healing and wellness.
The highly eminent qigong master, China scholar, and health expert Kenneth Cohen (1997) writes, “I firmly believe that qigong and psychotherapy are congruent and comparable healing modalities. Sometimes either technique is enough to solve a problem; often both are required” (p. 227). Accordingly, many therapists utilize qigong in their practices.
Psychologist, qigong teacher and author Michael Mayer writes that, “A fundamental part of the suffering of civilized men and women comes from being out of touch with nature, our nature…[when we use qigong] we “re-member” our connection with the elements of our wider nature” (Mayer, 2007). Echoing Mayer’s sentiments, author, therapist and qigong teacher Patrick Dougherty writes that, “Integrating qigong into therapy offers immediate, effective tools to not only help people mitigate the effects of their stress-filled world, but to help them maintain the changes they have made in therapy” (Dougherty, 2007).
My experience squares with the writings of all three authors: as a client and therapist I have found that changes occur more readily, hold much easier, and last much longer when qigong and therapy are used concurrently.
Qigong benefits therapists too.
When therapists use qigong in their practices they prevent burnout and enhance their effectiveness and longevity as practitioners. During the long sedentary days of sitting with clients, practicing just a few minutes of qigong between sessions re-establishes integration between the thinking mind and the feeling body. As a result, therapists’ increase their capacity to understand and track their clients’ processes.
Using qigong with clients during sessions deepens the therapeutic alliance by increasing previously established safety and trust. It also gives therapists access to information precluded from exclusively verbal sessions. Practicing qigong with clients often exposes new revelations, insights, and details that organically change previously held thoughts, feelings and behaviors.
For clients and therapists alike, using qigong and therapy together has a synergistic effect. It helps both people work better.
References:
Cohen, K. (1997). The way of qigong: The art and science of Chinese energy healing. New York, NY: Ballantine Books.
Dougherty, P. (2007). Qigong in psychotherapy: You can do so much by doing so little. Minneapolis, M: Spring Forest.
Jahnke, R., Larkey, L., Rogers, C., Etnier, J. & Lin, F. (2010) A Comprehensive Review of Health Benefits of Qigong and Tai Chi. American Journal of Health q Promotion: July/August 2010, Vol. 24, No. 6, pp. e1-e25.
Mayer, M. (2007). Bodymind healing psychotherapy: Ancient pathways to modern health. Orinda, CA: Bodymind Healing.
“This above all: to thine own self be true.”
-William Shakespeare
The people I work with seek counseling because they realize something could be better. There is a part in all of us that knows how to best take care of ourselves. It is that part that brings us to therapy and guides us through the changes we need.