Body Centered Therapy / Trauma Recovery

Kate uses body-centered modalities in her sessions that go beyond “talk therapy” to bring biological, energetic and somatic awareness into the therapeutic process.

Through body-oriented approaches, Kate helps her clients uncover and release repressed emotions, pain, and trauma stored in their physical and energetic bodies, which have created blocks and defensive armoring and cut them off from their aliveness and true essence. She offers somatic techniques to restore resiliency, reduce pain and stress, recover from trauma and most importantly, stabilize and regulate the nervous system.

It has been found in neuro-scientific studies of the brain that when someone has a history of chronic stress and unresolved trauma, their nervous system becomes unbalanced and unstable, stuck in states of fight, flight or freeze.  But when they are calm and relaxed and know how to handle their stress, their nervous system is able to maintain a balanced, regulated, resilient state and respond to life in a healthy way.

Kate teaches her clients how to manage their stress, and regulate their nervous system through body awareness and mindfulness. They learn breathing, relaxation and meditation techniques and how to access and track their moment by moment direct experience and awareness of their body sensations. They develop tools to feel safe, become more grounded, centered, supported, empowered and connected  with their inner resources and essential self. They focus on the present moment, rather than their history, the past or future.

Neuro-scientific brain studies have also shown that “as we think, so we become” through the imaging power of the brain.  There is definitive proof that the brain has the ability to change, restructure, and repattern itself. This information, based on neuro-plasticity research, establishes the fact that our brain is not a static cell mass, but a dynamic system of neural networks, capable of continual growth and change way into our senior years.

Dr Mercola (www.mercola.com) tells us that we can “change” our brain through thought itself, and emerging research is showing that mental effort can actually result in physical changes to our mind and body.We can harness the power of our mind to not only help us improve cognition and learning, but also to develop muscle strength, recover movement lost due to a stroke, or even overcome pain, depression or anxiety. People who simply imagined doing strength-training exercises increased their muscle strength by 22 percent, compared to 30 percent among those who physically did the exercises.

Along with mindfulness and sensory awareness, Kate helps her clients work with the power of their thoughts, imagery, intention and actions to reshape and re-program their brain’s neural pathways and be able to recreate themselves and their lives in each moment.

Excellent books on this topic are, “The Brain That Changes Itself,” by Norman Dodge and “The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force” by Jeffrey M Schwartz.

Kate offers body-oriented approaches in her therapy and coaching sessions in person, on skype and online as a stand alone option or in combination with other modalities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Harmonic Journeys © Kate Marks 2013