Mindfulness and Integrative Approaches

Cutting-Edge Therapies Offer More Complete Healing

Throughout our lives, something compels us to evolve—to grow. Something moves us from where we’ve been, to a new and—with consciousness and commitment—better place. Something compels us to learn, to expand, to become more fully ourselves. Yogis describe that force as agni—fire; followers of God describe it as faith. Whatever it’s name, this transformational potential—the force that moves you from where you are to a better place—can be found inside each of us.

I believe the key to this transformation is integration. Too often we create separation from the parts of ourselves we don’t like. We naturally want distance from the pain these parts cause—isolation, addiction, behavior issues, depression, etc. Despite our best efforts, however, these parts ultimately reappear. They may have developed initially for a good reason, trying to protect us or keep us safe somehow. By developing mindful compassion for the totality of our experience—including the disavowed, abandoned, or loathed parts—we forge a holistic, integrated pathway toward lasting change.

Integration is key to many healing approaches: Dialectical Behavior Therapy seeks to integrate acceptance and change; the goal of Somatic Experiencing is to integrate traumatic events through the nervous system. Internal Family Systems works with all parts of the self in the service of the larger Self; mindfulness approaches, yoga, and many wisdom traditions/religious philosophies seek to bridge the dualistic nature of perception (separation) with the non-dual truth of our wholeness.

My integrative approach involves the whole person and can include the present process, gentle curiosity about the primary emotions we typically protect, body experience, expressive art, movement, sand tray, imagery, and mindfulness—all in the service of building competent, productive responses to life.

This approach includes taking much of what we have conveniently separated into halves and holding them instead on a continuum that includes every shade in between the polarities. Examples include race, gender, beliefs, freedom/confinement, love/disgust, and positive/negative. Each can be experienced as fluid, inclusive, or something beyond a simple polarity that one’s personal, family, or national culture has supported. The integrative approach considers multiple dimensions and directions to include all experiences. 

It also takes into account trans-generational transmission of traits and behaviors and family systems and patterns. This includes among other things genetic expression, family history of trauma, and the attachment behaviors of your parents, their parents, and beyond.  Trauma serves as a block to integration because it creates a need for survival first, which typically involves a narrowing—or disintegrating—view of the world.

Working this way can uncover and distill new messages and meanings, encourage growth toward something new, foster corrective experiences and rewire the brain, build competencies, create a self-knowledge that supports stability and flexibility, and develop satisfying and respectful responses to all that life has to offer. Is this not the dream of your soul?

Coping With Climate Change Workshops

I offer workshops and groups emphasizing our interconnectivity with the planet and all species with which we share aliveness. Change is inevitable, but being part of an evolutionary trajectory and culture causal in the sixth mass extinction in 4.5 billion years of planetary existence brings up inevitable grief, rage, and despair. Based on Joanna Macy’s Work That Reconnects, my workshops explore both our love for and dependence on the natural world, and our reliance on one another for hope and salvation.