Category Archives: improvisation life

Somatic Experiencing™

f7c8139bb1374a26bbefa69d11eebdf3Painting by Leon Huscha

In Somatic Experiencing®, the traumatic event isn’t what caused the trauma, it is the overwhelmed response to the perceived life threat that is causing an unbalanced nervous system. Our aim is to help you access the body memory of the event, not the story. Like other somatic psychology approaches, Somatic Experiencing® professes a body first approach to dealing with the problematic (and, oftentimes, physical) symptoms of trauma. This means that therapy isn’t about reclaiming memories or changing our thoughts and beliefs about how we feel, but we look at the sensations that lie underneath our feelings, and uncover our habitual behavior patterns to these feelings.

For the past two years, I have been studying Somatic Experiencing®.  I came to it because I was negotiating a big trauma of my own, and because I wanted to expand my Somatic Movement Therapy practice to include Peter Levine’s profoundly rich way of working with trauma.   I plan to complete my training next year.

During this last year of my training, I am offering a FREE introductory SE/Somatic Movement session to anyone who is curious or would like to experience the work to see if it might be helpful.  If you find that you would like continue, I will see clients at a reduced rate until I complete the training next October.  While the work will focus predominantly on Somatic Experiencing®, it may also integrate some elements of Somatic Movement Therapy.

To schedule a session or for more information, please contact me here:   Email Paula

 

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Happy New Year!

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My friend Suzanne sent me this this morning.  It is a flock of dancing starlings, called a murmuration.  It feels like an important part of a lesson about beauty, happiness and abundance that I am learning every day, with the help of Eckhart Tolle, Abraham, Suzanne and many others.

For Tolle, abundance is perception, and giving is the key to opening that portal.  He quotes Jesus, “For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away.”  The “having” is metaphoric and perceptual – not just about possessions or  money in the bank, but in the sensing and feeling of abundance – of sunlight, stars, love, beauty – that surrounds us and that we are a part of.  If we fail to see what we have, and do not give, ultimately our loss is complete.

This reminds me of a great gift I received several years ago from Emily Jones, the head of school at The Putney School in Vermont.  She told students to look for something beautiful every day and let it enter them and make them happy.  I would add to that, hearing, touching, smelling – let the happiness encompass all the senses.  Then share it.

behind the lens, the biggest heart

DSC_0093_2Mozart, ridden by Brandi Rivera,

DSC_0030Tashi, Luna, Dae and Esme on Lucy Vincent Beach, Photos:  Pam White

Pam has been capturing our lives with her camera for the past twenty-nine years.  In that time, she has shot me, my dances, my dancers, all of our animals, friend’s animals, weddings, our children, others’ children, sunsets, snowfall, leaves, flowers and anything that captures her attention, catches her heart, takes her breath away.  She brings her deep meditation practice and her enormous, generous heart to every moment, including those that she spends behind the camera.

Now she has a new site, and I am so excited to share it with you:  Pam White Portraits.  If you are looking for someone to take a photograph that goes beneath the surface, that takes the time to open to the moment, ask Pam.  She will find you, surprise you, delight you.  You can reach her HERE.

the big tree

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Out behind Jacob’s yard is a path through some Vineyard wetlands.  That path leads to a meadow where lives The Big Tree.  For many the tree invites climbing.  For me, it invites circling and wonder.  Each angle, each side brings a different relationship of light and space, of intersections and relationships.  And that is a lot like my friend Jacob.  Each day with him invites a new perspective, a new way of seeing and appreciating, curiosity and wonder.  Even though we may not always be able to see or understand the whole picture, god is truly in the details – in the smallest of gestures, the most subtle flickers of light.  That, I believe, is where we truly find him, and where he can also find us.