NSW, Australia
Inspiration for trauma healing
On this page I share with huge gratitude a few of the many wise and wonderful people who have inspired, informed and given me hope for my own healing, and for my practices as a therapist, supervisor and educator. I hope you will find some treasures here and some hope to light your way. Please share with me what inspires you.
Interbeing, Thich Nhat Hanh
“Interbeing is the understanding that nothing exists separately from anything else. We are all interconnected. By taking care of another person, you take care of yourself. By taking care of yourself, you take care of the other person. Happiness and safety are not individual matters. If you suffer, I suffer. If you are not safe, I am not safe. There is no way for me to be truly happy if you are suffering. If you can smile, I can smile too. The understanding of interbeing is very important. It helps us to remove the illusion of loneliness, and transform the anger that comes from the feeling of separation.”
Equity & ecotherapy
Reconciliation with the Earth
"learning to see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing, and from the other eye with the strengths of Western knowledges and ways of knowing and learning to use both these eyes together, for the benefit of all."Etuaptnumk (Two=Eyed Seeing) by Mi'kmaw Elder Albert Marshall
Liberation ecotherapy
"I believe it's possible to expand our healing connections to nature AND engage in the important work of social justice at the same time"
Phoenix Smith - Ecotherapy and social justice, Ecopsychology Voices
Meeting the parts
Structural dissociation
"Although telling 'the story' provides crucial information about the client's past and current life experience, treatment must address the here-and-now experience of the traumatic past, rather than its content or narrative, in order to challenge and transform procedural learning."Dr Pat Ogden: Structural Dissociation
Integration & transformation
"the key to healing is not knowing what happened but transforming how our younger selves still remember it. When we accept the child we once were and welcome them into our minds and hearts, we can finally heal"
Healing the fragmented self after trauma with Janina Fisher (Full Video)
Making connections in the sand
Safe expression
Sandplay, " a concretely defined somatosensory space within which to share through miniature figures
and metaphoric ideas. The sand provides a tactile, soothing experience. Miniature figures provide the nonverbal words and symbols through which safe expression may occur."
Lyles, M., Homeyer, L. E., Yasenik, L. A., & Goodyear-Brown, P. (2024). Safety in sand and symbols: Polyvagal shifts in the sand tray. In Polyvagal power in the playroom (1st ed., pp. 192–207). Routledge.
Neurofeedback loop
"letting things come forward in a way that's safe.... you're not just connecting to your own story, you begin to connect to the stories of your people, stories of your culture, the land..."
Dr Lorraine Freedle and Sandplay Therapy in conversation with Licia Sky (& Bessel van der Kolk)
Resonance circuitry
“much is happening within this person [the sandplayer] and we [the witness] can participate by feeling the implications of body language, facial expression, breathing, ways of handling the pieces—resonance circuits again filling us with the experience of the other"
TU83: Establishing neurological safety through relationships with guest Bonnie Badenoch, Therapist Uncensored Podcast
Modern attachment & emotional regulation
Right hemisphere processing & regulation
"The core self system is relational and emotional, and lateralized to the right hemisphere"
Dr. Allan N. Schore - Modern attachment theory; the enduring impact of early right-brain development
Relational neuroscience
Therapist Uncensored Podcast: Sue Marriott and Ann Kelley provide an overview of the Modern Attachment Regulation Spectrum - a model developed to integrate the varied attachment research, relational neuroscience, and the impact of culture & context.
TU149: Modern Attachment Regulation Spectrum: An integrated model of change
Playing in the window of tolerance
Play, in the absence of danger, helps us to broaden our repertoires of possible thought–action tendencies. The high-arousal thought–action tendencies overlap two branches of the autonomic nervous system, the social engagement and the sympathetic. Normally the sympathetic system is associated with fight/flight/freeze as a result of the neuroception
of danger, but in the case of play, face-to-face interactions allowed the players to co-opt the sympathetic branch for purposes of play. We learn to manage pleasurable high-arousal states (sympathetic) for positive purposes, thus building resilience. Play therapy is instrumental in widening the window of tolerance." (Kestly, 2016, p.21)
"Therapeutic play also allows for experimentation of ventral meeting dorsal, where clients can experience the healing potential of stillness, which is immobilization without fear" (Dana, 2018)
"The process of creating sand worlds and processing their narratives offers many moments of both playful arousal and healing stillness." (Homeyer, Yasenik, & Goodyear-Brown, 2024)
Transformation
Co-regulation
"the quiet in my nervous system can help you find a quieter place in yours... cos we become part of one system, it's the most natural thing"
Co-regulation, transgenerational healing, & radical inclusiveness, Dr Bonnie Badenoch
Glimmers
"Glimmers are a cue in the day, either internal or external, that sparks a sense of wellbeing. These tiny moments gently yet significantly shape your system toward well-being. They help you become regulated and ready for connection." Glimmers journal with Deb Dana at Polyvagal Institute
Welcome
Thanks for visiting. Individual supervision and therapy appointments and group supervision sessions are available to book online. See you soon, warmly Alison