Sessions

Why get a Session

Through symptoms, pain and crises, we are called out of our ordered lives, into a part within that is more original, natural, and unknown - our wild nature.

​Our wild nature holds everything we're after: it is a fresh stream of free, unmediated aliveness. All the answers for us, to absolutely everything, are there.

However, a fair amount of the time we’re blocked, confused, hurt, possessed by a part, trapped in a trauma response, numbed out, distracted, misled, terrified or in some other way unable to connect with our inner wild. We feel stuck in something rather than empowered to respond.

Many of us spend years in a state of arrested development (or progress in some areas while remaining stuck in others.) All of that is very common, but when that’s the case, personalized attention to help get us unkinked can be so, so helpful for getting relief and moving forward.

In sessions I play with people therapeutically and creatively to regain connection and flow with your inner wild nature, to open a clear channel, to unfreeze.

Private sessions may also be purely verbal process, following your preferences regarding whether or not to incorporate arts process. I have conducted thousands of sessions without using the arts at all, in more traditional talk therapy mode.

Approaching healing with a spirit of playfulness when and where it feels safe and natural to do so builds natural powers of vitality, depth and joy. Playfulness can help us uncover your resources for relief, inspiration, and capacity to face demons.

How to think about Suffering

Troubles hurt us, that's how they get our attention. If we're fighting, struggling, grappling, getting depressed, and suffering, something deep in our inner wild nature is trying to talk to us.  

Troubles need to be heard and understood before they will stop hurting us. They have a gift to give us, but if we haven't been answering their knock at the door, they use pain to get our attention.

By listening to our troubles we receive their gifts. Once we receive a trouble’s gift, the pain, which was a messenger, goes away. Private sessions give the attention our troubles need to deliver their gifts to us.

Why use Creative Arts

The wild communicates in soul language - through images, symbols, senses, synchronicities and symptoms. It can take a bit of openness and deepening to understand what your wild is saying, but the arts are perfect for speaking to (and listening to) Source, because art is Source’s native language.

I use methods and mindsets from Expressive Arts Therapy to help you contact and communicate with your wild, so you can unwind your painful troubles and receive your gifts.

Expressive Arts is a healing practice stemming from the creative arts and shamanism. It involves making things: visuals, music, performance, dance, writing, plays, rituals. Talking, imagination, and reflection are also part of the process. You can read a lot more about it here.

How will the Session Go

In session you and I follow your sense of beauty/truth as it flows, morphs, changes tempo and intensity, zigs and zags. We let your process organically lead us to what matters most in the now.  

We will start with seeing what seems to be presenting itself for healing that day. You may have something specific on your mind, or it may emerge on its own. In any case, we start with where you are now, and then follow your flow.

As your natural wild unfolds in real time, it might want to switch between talking, feeling into body sensations, dreamwork, active imagination, and roleplaying inner parts. Depending on you, we can involve singing and music, costumes, toys, and materials, making images, writing, and moving.

I will interact with you in whatever channel is right for that moment, that feels safe, nurturing, interesting and potent. I'll support you with hunches and ideas, but you are in charge and decide what you feel like doing next as you tune in to your inner flow.

If you have more questions about doing some part of your healing work with me, contact me!

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Thumbnail image reverently appropriated from Ruth Heller's The Reason for a Flower.