Hello and welcome. My name is Valerie Baker. Thank you for considering me as a fellow-traveler on your journey toward greater psychosomatic health. My own journey is inspired by the young Western science of psychology and the ancient Eastern practice of Yoga. This is a story of how the two came to inform my world view and, consequently, my work as a psychotherapist.

In search of a workout both gentle and vigorous, that would offset the damage of the sedentary life style imposed by work and graduate school, I started taking Yoga classes. After only a few weeks of practice, besides an improved muscle tone, posture, and complexion, I began enjoying the benefits of lowered stress levels, an enhanced immune response and improved memory and concentration. My attention span seemed to be stretching along with my muscles with each Yoga class. The overall sense of well-being was penetrating all areas of my life. Needless to say, as a therapist, I became very interested in how I could share the benefits of Yoga with my clients.

Professionals in the growing field of mind-body medicine agree that the body stores emotional information, and in this capacity the body mirrors the unconscious mind. Yoga offers the tools to facilitate access to repressed memories stored in the body's tissues as energy blocks, and bring them into the awareness, where they can be reprocessed and reintegrated.

Yoga practitioners often notice shifts in their emotional states when coming in to, holding, or coming out of specific Yoga postures. One day I began to fantasize how beneficial it would be to bring these emotional release experiences to psychotherapy sessions (If only my shrink was also a yogi!) or discuss the underlying psychological aspects with my Yoga teacher (If only she was also trained in psychology!). So I began searching for like-minded people in the helping professions and did a lot of reading and observation. This naturally evolved into developing a method of therapy that joined forces of psychotherapy and Yoga, a method that works with both the body and the mind for the benefit of attaining greater psychosomatic health.

I thank my many teachers for inspiring, encouraging, and informing my pursuit.

Please refer here for recommended reading and more links to mind-body resources.

Click here to learn more about the Psychosomatic Health Program.