Why Psychosomatic Health?

According to the psychodynamic theory, experiences that are too painful to be fully integrated into awareness are repressed from conscious thought and become the content of the unconscious mind. These repressed memories of traumatic events play a large part in informing, or rather, misinforming people's beliefs about themselves, others, and the world. The resulting beliefs become road blocks to realizing an individual's full potential in life. As your therapist, I help you locate and dismantle these blocks.

A therapist's empathy and compassion facilitate a client's journey within. The journey, however, is not an easy one. As the unconscious material comes into awareness, the conscious mind perceives it as threatening to the status quo of what one knows to be true. In its effort to make meaning of things, the mind creates stories that distort direct experiences of reality. One of the challenges of psychotherapy is getting past the defenses put up by the mind.

My method of therapy offers an alternative way to get to the road blocks, under the radar of the conscious mind. In addition to traditional psychotherapy techniques, I rely on a source of information underutilized by classical psychotherapy, i.e., the body. Just like the mind, the body has memory, and it stores emotional information, some of which you are conscious of (aches and pains, pleasurable sensations), but most of which still lies outside the awareness. The body, like the mind, has its own unconscious. Yoga is one practice that holds a key to accessing and reprocessing the unconscious material contained in the body.

As my client, you collaborate with me not only to identify thought patterns and beliefs that hold hostage your happiest and most fulfilled self, but also to recognize the patterns of breathing and muscle response that accompany these thoughts. We map out the road blocks as they manifest in your body-mind and develop your personalized Psychosomatic Health Program (PHP). PHP comprises Yoga postures, breathing exercises, deep relaxation (which may be combined with guided imagery), meditation (sometimes including affirmations), and other techniques of Yoga and psychotherapy that work to counter the unwanted thoughts, emotions, and feelings as they arise in your body-mind on both cognitive and somatic levels. PHP is a unique method of therapy that enhances your understanding of – and empowers – your mind, body, and spirit.