Welcome. I'm glad you decided to visit. I hope this will be a step in the direction of increased understanding and happiness for you.
Also, I'd like to offer a wish that your new year be one of greater and deeper healing, contentment, fulfillment and peace for you and yours. Happy 2012.
Trauma Care and Treatment. Virtually everyone has experienced trauma. Ordinarily, we do not recognize it, and therefore do not acknowledge it. Not acknowledging it, we do not recognize its effects on us. Trauma and its effects become"normalized". We either do not question our distress, or we imagine that it is "not so bad", or that there is in fact "nothing wrong", when there actually is. Acknowledging that "ordinary life" is often traumatic is a first step in beginning to take care of ourselves, in healing the parts of ourselves that have been injured, and in developing the personal and relational balance and well being we want.
Signs of trauma can include a wide range of experiences including feelings of insecurity and fear, anxiety, depression, isolation, compulsive behaviors (addictions), low self esteem, self sabotaging behaviors, feelings of guilt and shame, unhealthy anger, violence, eating disorders, distorted body image, relationship turmoil and distress, substance abuse, sleep disorders, spiritual disconnection, and more.
Self Compassion.
This is a deeply elusive, yet essential aspect of psychological,
emotional and spiritual health and well-being. Developing a truly
compassionate, kind, and loving relationship with oneself provides a key to liberation
from all manner of distress, imbalance, hostility, judgement, self hatred and all of the unhappiness that flows from these conditions. Depth therapy has the capability to facilitate and promote self compassion and its healing balm.
http://www.self-compassion.org/exercises.doc
Psychotherapy has the potential to blend an understanding of basic life skills, with the exploration of deep identity. Making relationships work well; learning to work effectively with one's own mental processes; developing insight about and understanding of one's behaviors, language, thinking, and feeling; having and making choices beyond what one thought was possible or available; addressing "symptoms" and manifestations of distress and unhappiness; accessing real meaning and value in one's life; re-connecting with the lost deep ecology of one's right place in, and one's right relationship to the (natural) world; being able to love.
Basic (and advanced) life skills: how to relate properly to oneself; how to relax and renew; how to align one's behaviors with true (ie., substantive, satisfying, grounding, beneficial) meaning and value; how to be effective in controlling oneself, rather than trying to control others; how to most effectively and beneficially change thoughts and feelings; how to develop humility, courage, and trust; how to release attachment to what one thinks one needs; how to experiment and explore intelligently and beneficially; how to cultivate the true precursors of happiness; how to surrender (in the best and healthiest sense of the word).
Please check out my blog for a more in depth look at my orientation, and at what we might do together.
