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Somatic or Body-Centered Psychotherapy

Body-Centered Psychotherapy describes therapeutic approaches that integrate a client’s physical body into the therapy process.
Also referred to as Somatic Psychotherapy, this is a process that recognizes the intimate relationship between the human body and the psychological well-being of a person. Body-Centered Psychotherapists view the body as a resource for self-discovery and healing.

How Does Body-Centered Psychotherapy Help?
The body knows how to heal itself - we just sometimes get in the way.  Body Centered therapy help an individual listen to their own needs for healing.


EMDR

Is EMDR right for you?  EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)

EMDR - is an excellent way to help heal past traumatic events from our lives.  It  facilitates the natural processing abilities of the brain and nervous system where often traumatic events are stored. An individual's normal healing abilities are activated and one's body-mind balance is supported in its inner capacity to mend. A client's innate information-processing system is stimulated to transform dysfunctional, self-denigrating thoughts into less threatening, more integrated, self-supportive thoughts and beliefs. 

EMDR works extremely well in resolving traumas, changing behaviors, and in making the therapy experience of working with these difficulties much more rapid. Not only can EMDR help with trauma, but it can help with loosing weight, quit smoking, sexual dysfunctions, lack of sexual drive and other concerns.

EMDR can be intense because it brings up traumatic events to the forefront of our memory.  I use breathe work in conjunction with EMDR to help move the trauma out of the body so that it is easier to transform and less able to get stuck.  


Yoga Nidra


It is a universally known feature of Deep Sleep that there 
are no images in the mind. If there are images, that is the 
Waking or the Dreaming state, not the Deep Sleep state. 
Yoga Nidra relates to conscious Deep Sleep.
("Nidra" means "Deep Sleep" not "Dreaming")
Dreaming and Not-Dreaming are NOT the same thing.

Yoga* Nidra:
Yogic Conscious Deep Sleep
by Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati 

Advanced Yoga Nidra: The form of Yoga Nidra being described in this article can be called Advanced Yoga Nidra. In recent years Yoga Nidra has been distorted in ways similar to Yoga itself. Unfortunately, almost any guided practice that brings a modicum of relaxation is now called Yoga Nidra. Therefore, it is now virtually essential that we use another term, such as Authentic Yoga Nidra, Traditional Yoga Nidra, or Advanced Yoga Nidra. I've opted for the term Advanced Yoga Nidra in this article.

Yoga Nidra brings an incredible calmness, quietness and clarity. Yoga Nidra is one of the deepest of all meditations, leading awareness through many levels of mental process to a state of supreme stillness and insight. The descriptions in the article below can be difficult to understand. With patient and thorough reading, the understanding is well worth the effort, allowing you to see the profound depth of Yoga Nidra, which is far beyond just relaxation. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Sometimes it takes thousands of words to get the inner "aha" of the meaning. Most important of all, it is the persistent practice that brings the real joy of the practice of Yoga Nidra, as with all useful practices in life and Yoga.

Yoga Nidra means Yogic Sleep. It is a state of conscious Deep Sleep. In Meditation, you remain in the Waking state of consciousness, and gently focus the mind, while allowing thought patterns, emotions, sensations, and images to arise and go on. However, in Yoga Nidra, you leave the Waking state, go pastthe Dreaming state, and go to Deep Sleep, yet remain awake. While Yoga Nidra is a state that is very relaxing, it is also used by Yogis to purify the Samskaras, the deep impressions that are the driving force behind Karma (See Karma article).


Yoga Nidra has been known for thousands of years by the sages and yogis. Of the three states of consciousness of Waking, Dreaming and Deep Sleep, as expounded in the Upanishads, particularly the Mandukya Upanishad, Yoga Nidra refers to the conscious awareness of the Deep Sleep state, referred to as prajna in Mandukya Upanishad. This is the third of the four levels of consciousness ofAUM mantra, relating to the state represented by the M of AUM. The four states are Waking, Dreaming, sleep, and turiya, the fourth state. The state of Yoga Nidra, conscious Deep Sleep, is beyond or subtler than the imagery and mental process of the Waking and Dreaming states. As a state of conscious Deep Sleep, Yoga Nidra is a universal principle, and is not the exclusive domain of any more recent teachers or traditions.



Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
is a form of psychotherapy that emphasizes the important role of thinking in how we feel and what we do.  

Cognitive-behavioral therapy does not exist as a distinct therapeutic technique. The term "cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)" is a very general term for a classification of therapies with similarities.  There are several approaches to cognitive-behavioral therapy, including Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, Rational Behavior Therapy, Rational Living Therapy, Cognitive Therapy, and Dialectic Behavior Therapy.

However, most cognitive-behavioral therapies have the following characteristics:

1. CBT is based on the Cognitive Model of Emotional Response.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy is based on the idea that our thoughts cause our feelings and behaviors, not external things, like people, situations, and events.  The benefit of this fact is that we can change the way we think to feel / act better even if the situation does not change. 


2. CBT is Briefer and Time-Limited.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy is considered among the most rapid in terms of results obtained.  The average number of sessions clients receive (across all types of problems and approaches to CBT) is only 16.  Other forms of therapy,  like psychoanalysis, can take years.  What enables CBT to be briefer is its highly instructive nature and the fact that it makes use of homework assignments.  CBT is time-limited in that we help clients understand at the very beginning of the therapy process that there will be a point when the formal therapy will end.  The ending of the formal therapy is a decision made by the therapist and client.  Therefore, CBT is not an open-ended, never-ending process.


3. A sound therapeutic relationship is necessary for effective therapy, but not the focus.
Some forms of therapy assume that the main reason people get better in therapy is because of the positive relationship between the therapist and client.  Cognitive-behavioral therapists believe it is important to have a good,     trusting relationship, but that is not enough.  CBT therapists believe that the clients change because they learn how to think differently and they act on that learning.  Therefore, CBT therapists focus on teaching rational self-counseling
skills.


4. CBT is a collaborative effort between the therapist and the client.
 Cognitive-behavioral therapists seek to learn what their clients want out of life (their goals) and then help their clients achieve those goals.  The therapist's role is to listen, teach, and encourage, while the client's roles is to express     concerns, learn, and implement that learning.


5. CBT is based on aspects of stoic philosophy.
Not all approaches to CBT emphasize stoicism.  Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, Rational Behavior Therapy, and Rational Living Therapy emphasize aspects of stoicism.  Beck's Cognitive Therapy is not based on stoicism.   


Cognitive-behavioral therapy does not tell people how they should feel.  However, most people seeking therapy do not want to feel they way they have been feeling. The approaches that emphasize stoicism teach the benefits of     feeling, at worst, calm when confronted with undesirable situations.  They also emphasize the fact that we have our undesirable situations whether we are upset about them or not.  If we are upset about our problems, we have two     problems -- the problem, and our upset about it.  Most people want to have the fewest number of problems possible.  So when we learn how to more calmly accept a personal problem, not only do we feel better, but we usually put     ourselves in a better position to make use of our intelligence, knowledge, energy, and resources to resolve the problem.


6. CBT uses the Socratic Method.
Cognitive-behavioral therapists want to gain a very good understanding of their clients' concerns.  That's why they often ask questions.  They also encourage their clients to ask questions of themselves, like, "How do I really know that those people are laughing at me?"  "Could they be laughing about something else?"


7. CBT is structured and directive.
Cognitive-behavioral therapists have a specific agenda for each session. Specific techniques / concepts are taught during each session.  CBT focuses on the client's goals.  We do not tell our clients what their goals "should" be, or what they "should" tolerate.  We are directive in the sense that we show our clients how to think and behave in ways to obtain what they want. Therefore, CBT therapists do not tell their clients what to do -- rather, they teach their clients how to do.


8. CBT is based on an educational model.
CBT is based on the scientifically supported assumption that most emotional and behavioral reactions are learned.  Therefore, the goal of therapy is to help clients unlearn their unwanted reactions and to learn a new way of reacting.  
Therefore, CBT has nothing to do with "just talking".  People can "just talk" with anyone.
The educational emphasis of CBT has an additional benefit -- it leads to long term results.  When people understand how and why they are doing well, they know what to do to continue doing well.


9. CBT theory and techniques rely on the Inductive Method.
A central aspect of Rational thinking is that it is based on fact. Often, we upset ourselves about things when, in fact, the situation isn't like we think it is.  If we knew that, we would not waste our time upsetting ourselves.

Therefore, the inductive method encourages us to look at our thoughts as being hypotheses or guesses that can be questioned and tested.  If we find that our hypotheses are incorrect (because we have new information), then we      can change our thinking to be in line with how the situation really is.