Therapy Chat (Laura Reagan, LCSW-C)

Episode 101 of Therapy Chat is the last in the "Best Of Therapy Chat" segment. Our number one most popular episode is the interview with Stuart Fensterheim, the Couples Expert! Stuart talks about how our attachment style affects our adult relationships. 

Welcome to episode 62 of the Therapy Chat Podcast with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C. This is the third episode in the trauma and attachment series featuring Stuart Fensterheim, LCSW. Stuart is a clinical social worker in Scottsdale, Arizona, practicing with couples using Sue Johnson’s Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) which is an attachment-based couples therapy method. 

In the episode, Stuart talks about how he works on making connections with couples and how our childhood attachment affects the way we show up in relationships as adults. He also touches upon John Bowlby's Attachment Theory, which focuses on your relationship with your primary caretaker and how it influences everything through your life. To make sense of this theory, he talks further about the relationship young babies have with their caretaker, avoiding failure to thrive and how the needs of a young baby to experience touch and closeness, continue with us throughout our adult life.

Resources

http://www.thecouplesexpertscottsdale.com

http://www.thecouplesexpertscottsdale.com/podcasts

http://www.iceeft.com

http://www.simplypsychology.org/bowlby.html

Thank you to this episode's sponsor, TherapyNotes! You can get a free month of TherapyNotes plus 10% off for a year using the code CHAT17 ! Visit https://therapynotes.com to sign up! Or just click here to get the 10% discount for 12 months!

Visit Therapy Chat website at Http://therapychatpodcast.com and send host Laura Reagan a voice message letting her know what you think of Therapy Chat! Did you like this episode? Did you dislike it? Let her know!

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! In this first episode of 2022 Laura welcomes guest Dr. Lindsay Gibson, author of several books, including most recently, "Self Care for Children of Emotionally Immature Parents." Laura and Lindsay had a fascinating conversation about how emotionally immature parents - those whose emotional/attachment needs weren't met by their own parents - can affect their children's development.

Lindsay explains identity formation in fascinating detail. Listen to this compassionate and eye-opening conversation about the pain of growing up with emotionally immature parents, how having emotionally immature parents can interfere with connecting to your authentic self, and how to move forward if this is your story.

Lindsay C. Gibson, Psy.D. holds both a Masters and Doctoral Degree in clinical psychology. She has been a psychotherapist for over thirty years, working in diverse settings such as the Juvenile Court system, community mental health, psychiatric hospitals, group practice, and solo practice. During her career in psychological testing, doing literally thousands of evaluations of children and adults, Dr. Gibson was uniquely in demand for her ability to understand people from a developmental perspective.

Dr. Gibson is also a gifted teacher and public speaker and has offered training on multiple topics to other mental health professionals throughout her career. She has served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor for the Virginia Consortium Program for Clinical Psychology, leading doctoral student workshops and independent study classes.

Dr. Gibson is the author of four books: Who You Were Meant to Be, Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents, Recovering from Emotionally Immature Parents, and Self-Care for Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents. Since its publication in 2015, her second book has been a repeated Amazon #1 bestseller in several categories and has been translated into seventeen languages. She has also writes a monthly column on Well-Being for Tidewater Family magazine. Dr. Gibson lives and works in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Resources

Learn more about Dr. Lindsay Gibson at her website: www.drlindsaygibson.com 

Thank you to this week's sponsor, TheSuperBill.com! Therapists: If your practice doesn’t accept insurance, go to thesuperbill.com to get started with SuperBill, a service that can help your clients get reimbursed. The next time a potential client asks if you accept insurance, let them know that you partner with SuperBill to help your clients effortlessly receive reimbursement.

Your clients can get a free month of service with the promo code "THERAPYCHAT" and don't forget, you can receive $100 for each therapist you refer!

Thank you also to Trauma Therapist Network for sponsoring this week's episode. Trauma therapists - clients with trauma are searching for specialized therapy related to their specific needs. Let them know you're out there! Now is your chance to lock in Founding Member pricing and receive all the perks of membership at the lowest price!

Founding Members pay only $33/month for the duration of their membership and receive:

A dynamic, beautiful therapist listing page that highlights all of your skills and areas of specialization while helping trauma survivors find you so they can get the therapy they're looking for! Your page is customizable with links to articles you've written, videos, photos, and more!

Quarterly open-ended community calls starting in January 2022.

Beginning March 1, 2022 all members are invited to participate in 4 weekly live calls focused on: training in specific topics related to trauma; case consultation; self-care and member Q&A. All but the case consultation calls will be recorded and become part of a library accessible for current and future members.

Founding Member pricing ends January 31, 2022 so don't wait to lock in your best price and receive all of the goodies!

Starting February 1, 2022 the price of membership increases to $97/month and registration will close on 2/28/22. After that, the price will go up again and anyone who wants to join will be added to a waiting list with the $97/month price locked in when next registration opportunity opens - likely mid-summer 2022.

Sign up at: https://traumatherapistnetwork.com/therapist-submission-form/ 

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio 

Thank you to this episode's sponsor, TherapyNotes. Get a 2-month free trial of TherapyNotes by going to www.TherapyNotes.com and using the promo code TherapyChat. 

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! In today's episode, host Laura Reagan, speaks to Rebecca Bloom, LMHC, ATR- BC about vicarious trauma + art therapy. 

Rebecca received her training in clinical art therapy at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, graduating with a Masters Degree in Art Therapy and Creativity Development. She is a Board Certified Art Therapist and Washington State Licensed Mental Health Counselor.

Over the last twenty years, Rebecca has provided counseling, training, and consulting services in the areas of youth and family services as well as adults struggling with addiction and mental health issues. Having worked in diverse racial, cultural, and socioeconomic settings Rebecca has worked hard to bring cultural competence to her work. For eight years Rebecca taught in Antioch University Seattle's masters Art Therapy program

Currently, Rebecca is studying with Pat Ogen's Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute and am a Level 2 practioner, www.sensorimotorpsychotherapy.org.

Rebecca is committed to her own creative process and is enjoying nature photography and felting.

Resources

www.bloomcounseling.com 

Leave me a message via Speakpipe by going to https://therapychatpodcast.com and clicking on the green Speakpipe button.

Thank you for listening to Therapy Chat! Please be sure to go to iTunes and leave a rating and review, subscribe and download episodes. You can also download the Therapy Chat app on iTunes by clicking here.

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio 

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! This week, in a replay episode from early 2022, host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C interviews Dr. Lindsay Gibson, a developmental psychologist based in Virginia Beach, Virginia who has authored several books on the effects of being raised by parents who are emotionally immature. Lindsay explains how our identity and sense of self form around attachment experiences in childhood and the challenge of focusing on our own self care needs when we were raised in an environment where our emotional needs were unmet. Lindsay's newest book, Disentangling From Emotionally Immature People, is coming out soon and Lindsay will be returning to Therapy Chat soon to talk about it! 

Learn more about Dr. Lindsay Gibson's work, books, and all of her offerings at her website: www.drlindsaygibson.com

Get 16 meals for FREE when you try HelloFresh using our coupon code! Go to https://hellofresh.com/chat16 and use code chat16 for 16 FREE meals PLUS free shipping!

Thank you to TherapyNotes for sponsoring this week's episode! TherapyNotes makes billing, scheduling, notetaking, and telehealth incredibly easy. And now, for all you prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly introducing E-prescribe! Try it today with no strings attached, and see why everyone is switching to TherapyNotes, now featuring E-prescribe! Use promo code "chat" at www.therapynotes.com to receive 2 FREE months of TherapyNotes!!

Therapists: bilateralstimulation.io is a free and simple tool used by more than 10,000 EMDR therapists worldwide to provide bilateral stimulation to their clients, during both telehealth and in-person EMDR sessions. With their software, you can provide visual and auditory BLS, and with their groundbreaking remote tactile buzzers you can even provide tactile BLS over the internet!

The basic version of their BLS tool is free, and for Therapy Chat listeners, they offer an extended two-month trial of their paid version as well as a special discount on their remote tactile BLS buzzers. Visit bls.software to learn more and claim your special offer! 

Find Laura's most frequently recommended resources for learning about trauma here - includes recommended books and trainings.

Love Therapy Chat? Leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts to help more people find the show!

Find a Trauma Therapist on the Trauma Therapist Network:

www.traumatherapistnetwork.com 

Therapists, Trauma Therapist Network includes a searchable directory as well as a membership community meeting weekly for support, consultation, training and self care. Learn more here!

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! This week host Laura Reagan returns with a new interview with Akilah Riley-Richardson. 

Akilah Riley-Richardson, MSW, CCTP, is a published researcher, Relational Healing Facilitator, couples therapist, and Certified Clinical Trauma Professional. She has been in clinical practice for sixteen years and has experience working with couples and persons practicing consensual non-monogamy, both in the Caribbean and internationally. Akilah also specializes in working with sexual minorities and racial minorities.

Akilah has presented in various spaces including the Psychotherapy Networker Symposium and the Black Mental health Symposium. She has been a Social Work Educator at the University of the Southern Caribbean since 2012. She is the founder of the BIPOC Relational Healing Institute and the creator of the P.R.I.D.E model.

In this conversation, Akilah explains how individuals with marginalized identities such as being a member of the LGBTQIA community, living in a minoritized body or being in an interracial relationship face barriers in relationships which may not be understood by therapists. She speaks of the importance of addressing the wider system that clients exist within, beyond simply the individual and their family of origin or community. And she gives us a window into the course she is offering to teach therapists and the general public to understand how these dynamics affect relationships and how to help, and avoid causing further harm. 

Akilah is offering a FREE webinar to introduce the course material, which is found here: Liberatory Connections: Healing the Impact of Systemic Trauma In Couples Therapy. You'll want to check out the course, "Systemic Trauma & Couples Therapy," too. It looks amazing and includes a lot of wonderful bonus content including conversations with Resmaa Menakem and Adrienne Maree Brown, among many others!  

Learn more about Akilah Riley RIchardson’s work here: https://akilahrileyrichardson.com 

Contact Akilah for therapy, training and/or consultation via e-mail: info@akilahrileyrichardson.com 

Find Akilah on Instagram here: https://instagram.com/akilah.rileyrichardson  

Additional resources:

Janina Fisher has a new FREE webinar about healing the shame which is a common reaction to trauma. Register here to learn how to address this difficult emotion in therapy with trauma survivors!

In partnership with the Academy of Therapy Wisdom, I'm excited to invite you to a free webinar offered by my colleague and previous Therapy Chat guest, Juliane Taylor Shore. Jules is a gifted therapist who likes to geek out on neuroscience and then share it in ways that therapists can understand and apply. She’ll do just that in this webinar on Memory Reconsolidation for Anxiety. Register here for free! 

Therapists, join the waiting list for Trauma Therapist Network membership. We now have new membership levels and options for Group Practice Owners and Canadian therapists! Get the details and join the waiting list to receive first access when membership reopens here: https://go.traumatherapistnetwork.com/join ! What is TTN? Go here to check it out! Registration opens again this summer!

Therapists - Attend another free webinar presented by Dr. Janina Fisher. In this recorded webinar, Healing the Shame of our Fragmented Selves, Janina will address helping clients who struggle with shame and self-loathing. As a special gift, when you register for the free webinar, you’ll also get access to two one-hour trainings from Dr. Fisher so you can learn the foundation of her Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment model right away.

Therapists - get free trainings on Energy Work and Spirituality with trauma survivors from Dr. Frank Anderson and save on his training when you register here!

Find Laura's most frequently recommended resources for learning about trauma here - includes recommended books and trainings.

Love Therapy Chat? Leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts to help more people find the show!

Get our free PDF download to learn about the 5 mistakes most people make when searching for a trauma therapist here!

Thank you to TherapyNotes for sponsoring this week's episode! TherapyNotes makes billing, scheduling, notetaking, and telehealth incredibly easy. And now, for all you prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly introducing E-prescribe! Try it today with no strings attached, and see why everyone is switching to TherapyNotes, now featuring E-prescribe! Use promo code "chat" at www.therapynotes.com to receive 2 FREE months of TherapyNotes!

Find a trauma therapist near you at Trauma Therapist Network's trauma therapist directory. www.traumatherapistnetwork.com Trauma is real, healing is possible and help is available. 

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! In this episode, the last for now in the series on women's wellness in midlife, I spoke with Dr. Erin Kinney, a naturopathic doctor in Annapolis Maryland, to discuss the connection between chronic stress and women's wellness. Dr. Kinney explained the impact of chronic stress - like developmental/childhood trauma - on our endocrine systems, affecting our hormones. I talked a bit about how this happened in my life and created a health crisis for me just around the time that Therapy Chat was born, interestingly! Erin explains that Cortisol, which we usually think of as the "stress hormone," is also responsible for our energy levels, and how we can change our relationship to cortisol by making simple lifestyle changes. Dr. Kinney explains these complex processes clearly, making this information easier for listeners to understand. 

I also shared exciting news about the upcoming Psychotherapy Networker Symposium, where I'll be live podcasting and interviewing speakers, in partnership with PESI. It's not too late to register for the Networker, there's a link in the show notes to save $50 on your registration - and these interviews will be available for everyone, whether attending or not. Join my e-mail list and follow Therapy Chat on social media to keep up with the details!

About today's guest: 

Dr. Kinney is a Naturopathic Doctor, speaker, author and podcast host who helps stressed out patients improve their mood, balance their hormones and increase their energy. She is incredibly passionate about teaching her patients to understand WHY stress causes so many problems in the body and HOW they can change their response to stress so they can take back control in both their bodies and their lives. Dr. Kinney currently runs a private practice in Annapolis, Maryland where she specializes in treating patients with chronic health conditions related to hormonal and nervous system imbalances. In addition to her practice, she offers workshops, retreats and online programs.

Find Dr. Erin Kinney's online here: https://drerinkinney.com and her clinic is at: https://thekinneyclinic.com

Follow Dr. Kinney on social media: https://instagram.com/drkinney

Join the TTN e-mail list to learn what's coming up in 2024 with Therapy Chat, Trauma Chat and Trauma Therapist Network and get my free PDF 5 Common Mistakes People Make When Searching For A Trauma Therapist here!

We are accepting new clients in my therapy practice (for those located in Maryland). Learn more via our website: https://bahealing.com 

Find a trauma therapist near you via https://traumatherapistnetwork.com ! We believe that trauma is real, healing is possible and help is available at Trauma Therapist Network. 

Will you join me at Psychotherapy Networker Symposium in DC? It's coming up fast - the dates are March 21-24, 2024. Registration is still open, and you can get an additional $50 off with my coupon code: PARTNER50. You can join us live in person at the Omni Shoreham in Washington, DC, or virtually from anywhere. Register Now, and - something exciting is happening! I'll be live podcasting at the event - with special interviews of speakers! I hope to see you!

Thank you to TherapyNotes for sponsoring this week’s episode! TherapyNotes makes billing, scheduling, notetaking, and telehealth incredibly easy. And now, for all you prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly introducing E-prescribe! Try it today with no strings attached, and see why everyone is switching toTherapyNotes, now featuring E-prescribe! Use promo code “chat” at www.therapynotes.com to receive 2 FREE months of TherapyNotes!!

Find my most frequently recommended resources for learning about trauma here – includes recommended books and trainings.

Love Therapy Chat? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, and subscribe where you listen to your podcasts! Thank you!

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey – https://petebailey.net/audio

Thank you to this episode's sponsor, TherapyNotes. Get a 2-month free trial of TherapyNotes by going to www.TherapyNotes.com and using the promo code TherapyChat. 

On today's episode host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C speaks to Philip Tedeschi about animal-assisted therapies. 

Philip Tedeschi is the executive director of the Institute for Human-Animal Connection and a clinical professor at the Graduate School of Social Work. He is globally recognized for expertise in the clinical methods of animal-assisted Interventions and coordinates the school's animal-assisted social work certificate program for Master of Social Work (MSW) students, as well as the animals and human health professional development certificate program. He received his MSSW degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where his specialization was the bio-affiliative connection between people and animals.

He studies and teaches on the intricate relationship between people, domestic and wild animals, and the natural world. Tedeschi’s research, scholarship, presentations, training and community practice work have focused on human-animal interactions, conservation social work, human ecology, causes of violence toward people and animals. Tedeschi is a certified Master Therapeutic Riding Instructor, former course director and instructor with Outward Bound, wilderness medical technician, forensic evaluator and has many years of experience in non-traditional therapeutic approaches with children, adults and families. He specializes in the therapeutic and health-promoting potential of human-animal and nature interaction, trauma-informed methods and intervention in interpersonal violence, including assessment and intervention with cruelty and animal abuse.

Resources

https://portfolio.du.edu/ptedesch

https://www.amazon.com/Transforming-Trauma-Resilience-Connections-Human-Animal/dp/155753795X

Leave me a message via Speakpipe by going to https://therapychatpodcast.com and clicking on the green Speakpipe button.

Thank you for listening to Therapy Chat! Please be sure to go to iTunes and leave a rating and review, subscribe and download episodes. You can also download the Therapy Chat app on iTunes by clicking here.

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio

Hey all! I'm not releasing a new episode the week of February 1, because I'm busy working on my Q&A episode series which will start next week with Elizabeth's question about my interview with Tamara Hill on Trauma Bonding. 

I'll miss you but please join us in the Therapy Chat Facebook group! To join, request to join on FB here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TherapyChat/  and then sign up for the Therapy Chat e-mail list! You'll then be added to the group.

Talk to you soon! New episode February 8th!

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! This week we are talking sex, sexuality, eroticism, arousal and psychedelic assisted integrative relationship therapy! My guest today is Dr. Tammy Nelson, a relationship therapist who is the founder of the Integrative Sex Therapy Institute and author of six books. We had a fascinating discussion where we talked about how the Patriarchy creates shame around our relationships to pleasure, sexuality, sensuality and eroticism, and thus disconnection from ourselves. Tammy explains how individuals and those in relationships can reconnect with ourselves by reconnecting to our eroticism in this episode. We also talked about her work offering relationship intensives using Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy with her Integrative Relationship Therapy model. This is a juicy episode, I hope you’ll enjoy learning with Dr. Tammy Nelson as much as I did! 

Find special offers on Dr. Tammy Nelson’s courses and books through our partnership with PESI here: https://my.pesi.partners/L2Z3N5/W3N1D7/

Find the Integrative Sex Therapy Institute here: http://www.integrativesextherapyinstitute.com 

Dr. Tammy Nelson’s website: http://drtammynelson.com 

🌟 Trauma Therapists 🌟doors are open now through the end of October for new members joining my membership community, Trauma Therapist Network! Go here to join: https://go.traumatherapistnetwork.com/join

Watch this episode in video format on YouTube!

Thank you to TherapyNotes for sponsoring this week’s episode! TherapyNotes makes billing, scheduling, notetaking, and telehealth incredibly easy. 

And now, for all you prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly introducing E-prescribe! Try it today with no strings attached, and see why everyone is switching toTherapyNotes, now featuring E-prescribe! Use promo code “chat” at www.therapynotes.com to receive 2 FREE months of TherapyNotes!!

Join the TTN e-mail list to learn what's coming up with Therapy Chat, Trauma Chat and Trauma Therapist Network and get my free PDF 5 Common Mistakes People Make When Searching For A Trauma Therapist here!

Find my most frequently recommended resources for learning about trauma here – includes recommended books and trainings.

Find a trauma therapist near you via findtraumatherapy.com! We believe that trauma is real, healing is possible and help is available at Trauma Therapist Network. 

Love Therapy Chat? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/2cmAMcaKRH65JBCJ4U01XP?si=5ec67da3f7ac46bf and subscribe where you listen to your podcasts! Thank you!

Podcast produced by Vaudeo Productions - https://vaudeoproductions.com

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! This week host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C revisits a previous interview with Dr. Kristin Neff, the researcher and author who has made the concept of Self Compassion familiar to the mainstream.

In this interview from earlier in 2021, Dr. Neff explains how women can use the "Mama Bear" energy of Fierce Self Compassion to set boundaries and be kind to themselves and others from a place of authenticity. This is a great episode to listen to as we transition to a new year.

Kristin Neff is currently an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. She is a pioneer in the field of self-compassion research, conducting the first empirical studies onbself-compassion almost twenty years ago. In addition to writing numerous academic articles and book chapters on the topic, she is author of the book Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself.

In conjunction with her colleague Dr. Chris Germer, she has developed an empirically supported training program called Mindful Self-Compassion, which is taught by thousands of teachers worldwide. They co-authored the Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook and Teaching the Mindful Self-Compassion Program: A Guide for Professionals. Her newest work focuses on how to balance self-acceptance with the courage to make needed change. In June 2021, she will publish Fierce Self-Compassion: How Women Can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Their Power, and Thrive. 

Resources

Sharon's website: https://www.livewellwithsharonmartin.com/

If you're a therapist specializing in trauma, join the Trauma Therapist Network while Founding Member pricing is still available and lock in the lowest price! 

Clients with trauma are looking for the specialized services you offer. Sign up at: https://traumatherapistnetwork.com/therapist-submission-form/

Thank you to this week's sponsors!

Thank you to Sunset Lake CBD for sponsoring this week's episode! Sunset Lake CBD is created on a small farm outside of Burlington, Vermont that is a producer for Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. 

Sunset Lake CBD customers support regenerative agriculture that preserves the health of the land and creates meaningful employment in the community. Farmworkers are paid a living wage, and employees own the majority of the company.

Therapy Chat listeners, get 20% off your entire order of Sunset Lake CBD products using promo code CHAT at www.sunsetlakecbd.com. 

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! In this week's episode, host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C interviews returning guest Thad Frye, LCSW. Thad was a guest on episode 216 in early 2020, speaking about how Brainspotting can help with grief, trauma and more. This week he returns to speak in more depth about how he uses Brainspotting to help athletes and creatives who are struggling in their performance. Listen in to this fascinating conversation!

Thad Frye, LCSW is a Brainspotting psychotherapist with a passion for supporting individual adults as they address grief, anxiety and performance issues. He has worked in hospice and in private practice companioning people through their grief process over the past 19 years. Thad has been lucky enough to study under Dr. Pie Frey and the wonderful Dr. David Grand to be able to focus his skillset in the healing power of Brainspotting. He is a consultant for other Brainspotting psychotherapists, assists Brainspotting trainings and is on the board of the Rocky Mountain Brainspotting Institute.

Resources

Thad's website: https://www.thadfryecounseling.com/www.thadfryecounseling.com

Listen to Thad's previous Therapy Chat Interview here: Episode 216

Thank you to our newest members of the Trauma Therapist Network family, Carlada Razmus, LCPC of Pasadena, Maryland and Julia Knach, LCPC of Towson, Maryland.

Also, if you'd like to have your voice heard on Therapy Chat, here is your chance! For episode 300 I am hoping to have some listener input - use this Speakpipe link to talk about what you enjoy about Therapy Chat and what you would like to see discussed in future episodes! Your comment may be included on Episode 300!

Thank you to this week's sponsors!

Sunset Lake CBD is created on a small farm outside of Burlington, Vermont that is a producer for Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. 

Sunset Lake CBD customers support regenerative agriculture that preserves the health of the land and creates meaningful employment in the community. Farm

workers are paid a living wage, and employees own the majority of the company.

Therapy Chat listeners, get 20% off your entire order of Sunset Lake CBD products using promo code CHAT at www.sunsetlakecbd.com. 

Help us make Trauma Therapist Network the best resource it can be!

Send a message about resources you think should be included in the Trauma Therapist Network Site using the form on this page.

Looking for a trauma therapist or are you a trauma therapist wanting to join the network? Check it out at: www.traumatherapistnetwork.com! Therapy Chat and Trauma Chat podcasts are also found on the site.

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Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! This week, returning guest Xanthia Johnson, a DC area psychotherapist, talks about a coaching program she co-founded called the Compassionate Anti-Racism Project. Xanthia shares how she works with individuals, groups and organizations, describing how the program is designed to prevent the emotional flooding of shame interfering with white bodied people's progress toward their goals. As black integrative neuro-psychotherapists with extensive post graduate professional training in trauma-focused therapy and expressive arts, Xanthia and her co-founder Christian are primed to help others realize the emotional and intellectual awareness needed to understand racism, so the journey to ani-racism can begin. They compassionately support white people and organizations who are ready to have courageous conversations about race and learn how to leverage their privilege to humbly support people of color.

In this conversation you'll hear Xanthia explain what she means when she says that she doesn't believe in micro-aggressions. She explains how internalized racism shows up in everyday interactions between white-bodied people and People Of Color, using examples from her daily life. When it came up in our interaction and I did harm, she compassionately supported my reflection and invited me to reconsider my actions in real time, modeling how her program would work with a similar situation. The work of becoming anti-racist requires building tolerance for the cognitive dissonance that arises when we white bodied people are confronted with aspects of ourselves we are ashamed of. 

Learn more about the Compassionate Anti-Racism Project here.

Visit the website for Xanthia's group practice, Urban Playology, here.

The Cleo Wade poem Xanthia shared is called "How to Breathe When You Want To Give Up." Her website can be found here.

The Lucille Clifton quote Xanthia shared is from her poem, "won't you celebrate with me," from Book of Light (1993). 

Get 50% off when you try HelloFresh using our coupon code! Go to https://hellofresh.com/chat50 and use code chat50 for 50% off PLUS free shipping!

Thank you to TherapyNotes for sponsoring this week's episode! TherapyNotes makes billing, scheduling, notetaking, and telehealth incredibly easy. And now, for all you prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly introducing E-prescribe! Try it today with no strings attached, and see why everyone is switching to TherapyNotes, now featuring E-prescribe! Use promo code "chat" at www.therapynotes.com to receive 2 FREE months of TherapyNotes!!

Therapists - Learn from Dr. Jamie+ Marich in a FREE webinar, "Not Faking: Dispelling the Myths & Misinformation About Dissociation," on August 1st.

Find Laura's most frequently recommended resources for learning about trauma here - includes recommended books and trainings.

Love Therapy Chat? Leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts to help more people find the show!

Find a Trauma Therapist on the Trauma Therapist Network:

www.traumatherapistnetwork.com 

Therapists, Trauma Therapist Network includes a searchable directory as well as a membership community meeting weekly for support, consultation, training and self care. Learn more here!

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio

Welcome to episode 123 of the Therapy Chat Podcast with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C. Today Laura speaks to Julia Alexander, LMSW, M.Ed.

For the last decade, Julia has worked to create effective spaces for people to heal. She believes children’s behavior, especially behavior that appears problematic, often meets an important need. Using a compassionate and flexible treatment approach, grounded in the neurobiology of trauma, Julia aims to support children and caregivers in understanding the purpose of current behaviors in order to eventually develop more adaptive coping strategies. She knows that the most effective treatment involves a recognition of children, caregiver and system strengths and needs with a focus on connected, attuned relationships.

Julia was trained by leading experts in intergroup dialogue facilitation and social justice curriculum design. She has extensive training in the Attachment, Regulation and Competency Trauma Treatment model and has attended trainings in Sensory Motor Arousal Regulation Treatment for Traumatized Children and Adolescence (SMART) as well as The Neurobiology of Trauma. Julia not only brings her clinical experience to Spirit Reina but also, a lifetime of horse experience! She loves the ways in which horses support the therapeutic process by asking us to take responsibility for the types of relationships we create.

She is excited to be starting her dual certification in Natural Lifemanship. When not at Spirit Reins you can find Julia spending time exploring Austin, hanging out with her two dogs or dancing. Julia holds an MSW from Smith College School for Social Work, an M.Ed in Social Justice Education from UMass Amherst and a B.A in Psychology from Mount Holyoke College.

Resources:

https://spiritreins.org

Leave me a message via Speakpipe by going to https://therapychatpodcast.com and clicking on the green Speakpipe button.

Thank you for listening to Therapy Chat! Please be sure to go to iTunes and leave a rating and review, subscribe and download episodes. You can also download the Therapy Chat app on iTunes by clicking here.

Visit Therapy Chat website at Http://therapychatpodcast.com and send host Laura Reagan a voice message letting her know what you think of Therapy Chat! Did you like this episode? Did you dislike it? Let her know!

Thank you to this episode's sponsor, TherapyNotes. Get a 2-month free trial of TherapyNotes by going to www.TherapyNotes.com and using the promo code TherapyChat. 

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! In today's podcast host Laura Reagan revisits one of her first episodes about the challenges of letting go. 

Some points to ponder if you are struggling to let go.

What was it like for you to move out of your parents’ home and into adulthood? Did you go to college? Did you live with your parents past the age of 18? When were you ready to move out? Were your parents ready for you to go before you were ready? Or were you ready to go before your parents wanted you to leave?

Individuation is a developmental task every young adult must complete in order to become an independent and self-sufficient adult. Some families discourage individuation by refusing to allow children and adolescents to express their own individuality. Conformity is highly valued and dissent is not tolerated. These parent/child relationships can be described as enmeshed when the child and the parent are not felt to be independent people, but rather the children are seen by the parents as an extension of the parents. When you make a mistake, I feel ashamed that you have embarrassed the family. Some kids rebel and express themselves through their appearance. The parents may believe that everyone should wear khaki pants and navy blue shirts and have traditional hairstyles, but the child wants to dress in all black with long purple hair and a safety pin through his lip. Parents may see this as disrespectful and a power struggle escalates to the point where the child is kicked out of the house by the time they are 18, if not earlier. Do you know how to allow your child to leave home with grace and joy, rather than a big fight? If your parents were angry at you for wanting to be an independent adult, you might react the same way towards your kid without even realizing it.

Resources 

Daring Greatly by Brené Brown

Rising Strong by Brené Brown

Self Compassion by Kristin Neff

Are you a therapist needing support to sharpen your clinical skills in working with trauma survivors? Want to work with Laura for clinical consultation? Get in touch via laura@bahealing.com. Or if you're interested in joining an upcoming online or in person clinical consultation group, go here to sign up on the interest list! 

Please let us know what you'd like to learn more from Laura by completing this short survey! 

Want a cool Therapy Chat t-shirt, sticker or mug? Find them here: https://www.teepublic.com/user/therapychat 

Please consider supporting Therapy Chat by becoming a member on Patreon! Just $1 a month would make a huge impact to keep Therapy Chat going strong! To learn more head to - https://patreon.com/TherapyChat where members get special perks and swag too! 

Leave me a message via Speakpipe by going to https://therapychatpodcast.com and clicking on the green Speakpipe button. 

Thank you for listening to Therapy Chat! Please be sure to go to iTunes and leave a rating and review, subscribe and download episodes. You can also download the Therapy Chat app on iTunes by clicking here. 

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio 

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! In this week's episode, host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C revisits her two previous conversations with Lisa Ferentz. In this episode, you will hear Lisa speak about her book Finding Your Ruby Slippers: Transformative Life Lessons from the Therapist which looks at how you can overcome everyday obstacles, boost confidence, and end self-critical thoughts with simple life lessons.

Lisa is a recognized expert in the strengths-based, depathologized treatment of trauma and has been in private practice for 32 years. She presents workshops and keynote addresses nationally and internationally, and is a clinical consultant to practitioners and mental health agencies in the United States, Canada, and the UK.

She has been an Adjunct Faculty member at University of Maryland School of Social Work, University of Baltimore at Maryland, University of Maryland Department of Family Medicine, and is the Founder of The Ferentz Institute, formerly known as The Institute for Advanced Psychotherapy Training and Education, now going into its tenth year of providing continuing education to mental health professionals and graduating over 800 clinicians from her two Certificate Programs in Advanced Trauma Treatment.

In 2009, she was voted the “Social Worker of Year” by the Maryland Society for Clinical Social Work. Lisa is the author of Treating Self-Destructive Behaviors in Traumatized Clients: A Clinician’s Guide, now in its second edition, and Letting Go of Self-Destructive Behaviors: A Workbook of Hope and Healing. Her next book, “Finding Your Ruby Slippers: Transformative Life Lessons from the Therapist’s Couch,” will be out in January 2017. Lisa hosted a weekly radio talk show in 2014—2015. She writes for Psychologytoday.com and publishes her own blog. You can follow Lisa’s work on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Resources

https://www.theferentzinstitute.com

Thank you to this week's sponsors!

Sunset Lake CBD is created on a small farm outside of Burlington, Vermont that is a producer for Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. 

Sunset Lake CBD customers support regenerative agriculture that preserves the health of the land and creates meaningful employment in the community. Farm

workers are paid a living wage, and employees own the majority of the company.

Therapy Chat listeners, get 20% off your entire order of Sunset Lake CBD products using promo code CHAT at www.sunsetlakecbd.com. 

Help us make Trauma Therapist Network the best resource it can be!

Send a message about resources you think should be included in the Trauma Therapist Network Site using the form on this page.

Looking for a trauma therapist or are you a trauma therapist wanting to join the network? Check it out at: www.traumatherapistnetwork.com! Therapy Chat and Trauma Chat podcasts are also found on the site.

Follow Therapy Chat on Instagram

Follow Trauma Chat on Instagram

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! This week host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C interviews psychotherapist, author, consultant, coach and professor Dr. Nyasha Grayman. Dr. Grayman is the author of Seasonal Therapeutic Encounters with Nature Journal: 52 Experiences for Baltimoreans. Dr. Grayman specializes in helping African Americans who are grieving sudden, traumatic losses of someone important to them.

In this conversation you'll hear:

• Why nature is helpful in healing from traumatic and complicated grief.
• How Dr. Grayman structures her therapy work with African American clients who are grieving due to sudden or violent death of someone they care about.
• Why she wrote her book in a journal format.
• How others can create similar books to hers.

Dr. Nyasha Grayman is a licensed psychotherapist in Maryland, USA with certifications in grief counseling, trauma treatment, and telemental health. She holds a BA from Spelman College, an MA in Counseling from New York University, and a PhD in Counseling Psychology, also from New York University. Dr. Grayman has a boutique practice, Wisdom Counseling - Baltimore LLC, where she specializes in working with bereaved African American adults. She is also Associate Professor of Psychology and Africana Studies at a Baltimore, Maryland area college.

Resources

Dr. Grayman's website is here.

Follow Dr. Grayman on Instagram here.

Find Dr. Grayman's book on Amazon here.

Thank you to SuperBill for sponsoring this week's episode! SuperBill is free for therapists, and your clients can use the code THERAPYCHAT to get a free month of the service. Also, you can earn $100 for every therapist you refer. Learn more at www.thesuperbill.com!

This week's episode is also sponsored by Trauma Therapist Network. Therapists, join by 1/31/22 and lock in the lowest membership rate. You'll have a beautiful listing for your practice that helps trauma survivors find you so they can receive the right kind of help for their particular need. And you'll have access to additional support coming soon!  

Starting in March 2022, 4 monthly calls are added to the membership at the original Founding Member rate if you join by January 31, 2022. After February 1 the membership price goes up so this is your chance to get the lowest pricing that will be offered for the lifetime of your membership! Join now at www.traumatherapistnetwork.com!

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio 

Thank you to this episode's sponsor, TherapyNotes. Get a 2-month free trial of TherapyNotes by going to www.TherapyNotes.com and using the promo code TherapyChat. 

In today's episode, host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C talks with an associate from her practice, January Roberts, LGPC about how to help children and ourselves self-regulate during stressful times such as the current Coronavirus outbreak. January describes specific strategies parents can use and offers examples of how they can help.

January Roberts, LGPC, takes a holistic approach to wellness and has experience and specialized training in individual and community crisis response, including support for first responders and community leaders. With a nuanced understanding of how trauma can have a wide range of effects, January helps each client explore stressors and integrate strategies that promote balance, resilience, and wellbeing. January works with children, adolescents and adults at the Baltimore Annapolis Center for Integrative Healing.

Thank you to Doxy.me for sponsoring this week's episode of Therapy Chat. Doxy.me is an easy to use, HIPAA compliant telehealth platform that is available in free and paid versions. Get $50 off a paid account by going to doxy.me and putting in the code THERAPYCHAT.

Resources

https://www.bahealing.com/meettheteam https://www.facebook.com/ConnectWithJanuary 

Leave me a message via Speakpipe by going to https://therapychatpodcast.com and clicking on the green Speakpipe button.

Thank you for listening to Therapy Chat! Please be sure to go to iTunes and leave a rating and review, subscribe and download episodes. You can also download the Therapy Chat app on iTunes by clicking here.

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio

Welcome back! In Episode 59, # 2 in the series on Trauma and Attachment, Therapy Chat host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C interviews Rebecca Wong, LCSW-R, a relationship therapist in New Paltz, NY, the creator of Connectfulness, and co-host of the upcoming Practice Of Being Seen podcast.

Rebecca talks about using play in her couples work, as well as how our attachment relates to our ability to trust our partners. Rebecca explains that needing attention is not a bad thing – it’s normal. She talks about the concept of being seen, in relationships and in our work with clients. She and Laura discuss getting out of our heads and into our bodies to connect with our partners, other people in our lives and as therapists, how we can connect with our clients. Rebecca explains how using animal-assisted therapy with dogs and horses helps us understand our emotions as shown in our bodies.

Rebecca describes her five-step process of Connectfulness, a research based practice she developed and uses with her couples therapy clients. She talks about all the things we do to avoid uncomfortable feelings and how those things interfere with connection. She offers a free download from her website, the link is below.

This is the Episode 2 of the series on trauma and attachment, which will now continue on alternating weeks through the next few months. On the opposite weeks you will hear the series on integrative mental health! Thanks for listening to Therapy Chat. Please get in touch and let host Laura Reagan know what you thought of this episode!

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Rebecca’s website for everything she’s doing: http://connectfulness.com

Please visit this to get Rebecca’s free list of 5 magical relational steps for your relationship: http://connectfulness.com/therapychat

Here’s the link to find out about clinical supervision and consultation with Laura Reagan, LCSW-C and the Trauma Therapist Community: http://www.laurareaganlcswc.com/for-professionals/

Visit Therapy Chat website at Http://therapychatpodcast.com and send host Laura Reagan a voice message letting her know what you think of Therapy Chat! Did you like this episode? Did you dislike it? Let her know!

Thank you for listening!

In Episode 67 Therapy Chat host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C interviews therapist and group specialist Katie K. May, a licensed professional counselor in the Philadelphia area who also calls herself the “Group Guru” because she loves running groups and teaching therapists how to effectively plan and market their groups. Katie talks about how therapeutic groups are different from individual therapy and why she loves offering groups in her practice. If you’re a therapist, this episode will likely inspire you to offer more groups, and if you are someone who is interested in continuing your therapeutic journey by participating in groups, hopefully you will have found inspiration.

As always, please visit iTunes to leave a rating and review and subscribe to Therapy Chat so you will receive the latest episodes as soon as they’re released!

Find Katie May’s info on growing groups for therapists here: http://katiekmay.com

Sign up for information about Laura Reagan’s Daring Way™ groups beginning in March, 2017 here: http://www.laurareaganlcswc.com/groupsandintensives/

Learn more about Laura Reagan’s Trauma Therapist Community: http://laurareaganlcswc.com/join/

Therapy Chat website: http://therapychatpodcast.com

Visit iTunes to leave a rating and review of Therapy Chat: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/therapy-chat-psychotherapy/id1031099411?mt=2

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! This week host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C revisits a previous interview with Sharon Martin, LCSW on the dynamics of dysfunctional families. While we are in the thick of the holiday season, this episode will resonate for many of us. Identifying what healthy family dynamics look like can be very helpful since we all grow up thinking the way our family does things is "the way it is" even if it really didn't work well for us. Combined with the information Sharon shared in her interview last week, this week's episode will be helpful for getting through the holidays. 

Sharon Martin, LCSW is a licensed psychotherapist specializing in codependency recovery with an online practice serving California residents. For the past 20 years, she’s been helping perfectionists and people-pleasers overcome self-doubt and shame, embrace their imperfections, learn to set boundaries, and reclaim their self-worth. Sharon writes the blog Conquering Codependency for Psychology Today and is the author of The CBT Workbook for Perfectionism and The Better Boundaries Workbook.

Resources

Sharon's website: https://www.livewellwithsharonmartin.com/

If you're a therapist specializing in trauma, join the Trauma Therapist Network while Founding Member pricing is still available and lock in the lowest price! 

Clients with trauma are looking for the specialized services you offer. Sign up at: https://traumatherapistnetwork.com/therapist-submission-form/

Thank you to this week's sponsors!

Thank you to Sunset Lake CBD for sponsoring this week's episode! Sunset Lake CBD is created on a small farm outside of Burlington, Vermont that is a producer for Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. 

Sunset Lake CBD customers support regenerative agriculture that preserves the health of the land and creates meaningful employment in the community. Farmworkers are paid a living wage, and employees own the majority of the company.

Therapy Chat listeners, get 20% off your entire order of Sunset Lake CBD products using promo code CHAT at www.sunsetlakecbd.com. 

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio

Meet Laura Reagan, LCSW-C, psychotherapist, self care consultant and Certified Daring Way™ Facilitator. In this episode Laura introduces herself and talks about the Baltimore Annapolis Psychotherapy Podcast. The podcast will discuss information of interest to people who want to more about psychotherapy as well as fellow psychotherapists and healers. Podcast content will include interviews with psychotherapists and other professionals, with a focus on integrative and holistic methods. 

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! This week, in a replay episode, host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C shares two past episodes from earlier this year. Laura interviewed infant and child therapy specialist Dr. Janet Courtney, who shares why she uses play therapy and expressive arts in her work with traumatized children and families. In part two she speaks about infant mental health and how she works with traumatized infants and their families.

About this episode's guest:

Janet A. Courtney, PhD, RPT-S is Founder of FirstPlay® Therapy (an infant play therapy model) and founder of the FirstPlayCafe blog. Dr. Courtney is author of, “Healing Child and Family Trauma through Expressive and Play Therapies: Art, Nature, Storytelling, Body and Mindfulness,” and author and Editor of the groundbreaking books, “Infant Play Therapy: Foundations, Models, Programs and Practice, “ and “Touch in Child Counseling and Play Therapy: An Ethical and Clinical Guide.” 

She is a TEDx Speaker, a Registered Play Therapy Supervisor, and past chair of the Ethics and Practice committee for the Association of Play Therapy and past President of the Florida Association for Play Therapy. Since 1997 she was an Adjunct Professor in the School of Social Work at Barry University, Miami Shores, Florida. Her research into practitioner experiences of training in touch and Developmental Play Therapy is published in the American Journal of Art Therapy and the International Journal of Play Therapy. 

She offers a certification to practitioners in FirstPlay Therapy® and provides training to professionals in the Ethical and Clinical Competencies of Touch, Expressive Play Therapies, and nature-based Play Therapy. Dr. Courtney has created a unique form of therapeutic storytelling called, FirstPlay Kinesthetic Storytelling® that can be found in her children’s book, The Magic Rainbow. 

Resources

Website: www.FirstPlayTherapy.com and www.FirstPlaycafe.com

Thank you to this week's sponsors!

Sunset Lake CBD is created on a small farm outside of Burlington, Vermont that is a producer for Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. 

Sunset Lake CBD customers support regenerative agriculture that preserves the health of the land and creates meaningful employment in the community. Farm

workers are paid a living wage, and employees own the majority of the company.

Therapy Chat listeners, get 20% off your entire order of Sunset Lake CBD products using promo code CHAT at www.sunsetlakecbd.com. 

Help us make Trauma Therapist Network the best resource it can be!

Send a message about resources you think should be included in the Trauma Therapist Network Site using the form on this page.

Looking for a trauma therapist or are you a trauma therapist wanting to join the network? Check it out at: www.traumatherapistnetwork.com! Therapy Chat and Trauma Chat podcasts are also found on the site.

Follow Therapy Chat on Instagram

Follow Trauma Chat on Instagram

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio

Welcome to episode 76 of the Therapy Chat Podcast with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C. This week's episode features David Shannahoff-Khalsa.

David Shannahoff-Khalsa is the Director of The Research Group for Mind-Body Dynamics at UCSD’s BioCircuits Institute, and a member of the UCSD Center for Integrative Medicine. Prior to coming to UCSD in 1994 he spent 23 years at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, first working on the building blocks of the genetic code, and then pioneering novel studies in the neurosciences.

He has discovered a novel step in the evolution of the nervous system that gives new insights to mind-body (psychophysiological) states and how to control these states. He has published widely in scientific journals and conducted three clinical trials using Kundalini Yoga meditation techniques for treating obsessive compulsive disorders and OC spectrum disorders, and pioneered the use of whole-head magnetoencephalography brain imaging to study these and other yogic meditation techniques.

His 3 books published by W. W. Norton and Co. include: Kundalini Yoga Meditation: Techniques Specific for Psychiatric Disorders, Couples Therapy, and Personal Growth, 2006; Kundalini Yoga Meditation for Complex Psychiatric Disorders: Techniques Specific for Treating the Psychoses, Personality, and Pervasive Developmental Disorders, 2010; Sacred Therapies: The Kundalini Yoga Meditation Handbook for Mental Health, 2012. And Psychophysiological States: The Ultradian Dynamics of Mind-Body Interactions, Academic Press (Elsevier Scientific Publications), 2008.

In this episode, you will hear David speak about how he started as a biologist, his work with Kundalini Yoga Meditation and the scientific evidence behind his work.

Resources

http://sacredtherapies.com

http://theinternetyogi.com

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13707821-sacred-therapies

Visit Therapy Chat website at Http://therapychatpodcast.com and send host Laura Reagan a voice message letting her know what you think of Therapy Chat! Did you like this episode? Did you dislike it? Let her know!

Thank you for listening to Therapy Chat! Please be sure to go to iTunes and leave a rating and review, subscribe and download episodes.

Therapists - are you in a toxic business relationship? This week I'm covering why many therapy practices are struggling to stay afloat. Kelly Higdon, LMFT and Miranda Palmer, LMFT are two therapists and business coaches who co-own ZynnyMe and lead Business School for Therapists.

They've been keeping up with the factors affecting therapist wellbeing for years! In our conversation we discuss how therapists and clients are being misled and mistreated by companies that don't have our best interests in mind. If you've unwittingly entered into a toxic relationship with an abusive business entity, you'll want to listen to this episode and take back your power!

Some of the topics we covered in this episode:

• Tech companies offering mental health treatment that is misaligned with therapist ethics and best practices, with potential HIPAA (and other) liability passed on to the therapist;

• Insurance companies and the companies that negotiate their fees making huge profits while providers are paid less and consumers pay more for health insurance; 

• How our field conditions us into “learned helplessness” in the face of such issues; 

• Things therapists need to consider to protect our clients and ourselves; 

• What we can do to challenge the ways the tech industry is “disrupting” the mental health field; and much more.

Link to NY Times article

Read Kelly + Miranda's blog post here 

Kelly + Miranda's website: https://zynnyme.com

Watch this episode on Therapy Chat's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TherapyChatPodcast

The Institute for Creative Mindfulness is an EMDRIA-approved EMDR Therapy training institute created by Dr. Jamie Marich, a clinician and author who is on a mission to confront stigma around mental health, trauma, and dissociation.

They’re offering a special discount to Therapy Chat listeners! Save 15% on any of their courses or CE programs including EMDR basic training until the end of 2024. Go to http://www.instituteforcreativemindfulness.com and use promo code: 15OffForListeners. 

Thank you to TherapyNotes for sponsoring this week’s episode! TherapyNotes makes billing, scheduling, notetaking, and telehealth incredibly easy. And now, for all you prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly introducing E-prescribe! Try it today with no strings attached, and see why everyone is switching toTherapyNotes, now featuring E-prescribe! Use promo code “chat” at www.therapynotes.com to receive 2 FREE months of TherapyNotes!!

Join the TTN e-mail list to learn what's coming up in 2024 with Therapy Chat, Trauma Chat and Trauma Therapist Network and get my free PDF 5 Common Mistakes People Make When Searching For A Trauma Therapist here!

Find my most frequently recommended resources for learning about trauma here – includes recommended books and trainings.

Find a trauma therapist near you via https://traumatherapistnetwork.com ! We believe that trauma is real, healing is possible and help is available at Trauma Therapist Network. 

Love Therapy Chat? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, and subscribe where you listen to your podcasts! Thank you!

Podcast produced by Vaudeo Productions - https://vaudeoproductions.com

In Episode 20 of the Baltimore Annapolis Psychotherapy Podcast, host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C interviews Washington Post parenting expert Meghan Leahy, who is a parent coach in the Washington, DC area. 

She's a parent coach helping parents who are overwhelmed with their children's behavior. Yet she is the first to admit that she gets overwhelmed with her children's behavior too. Seem counterintuitive? Not if you talk to Meghan. 

Meghan states that her job is not to tell parents what to do. Her job is to teach parents what their children need She teaches that the problematic behavior is the child's developmentally appropriate way of telling the parent what he or she needs.

Listen in to this fascinating interview in which Meghan shares why she doesn't tell parents what to do, why self care is important - hint: it's NOT so we can take better care of our kids! - and tells us about the theory informing her work. 

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! This week, host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C brings back a replay of a Part 2 of the past interviews with a former hospice social worker and grief counselor who is living with a terminal illness, Isabel Stenzel Byrnes, LCSW, MPH. In this conversation, 

In this conversation, you'll a deeper discussion of grief, loss and end of life. While preparing this episode for replay, Laura learned that Isabel is currently living with cancer. You won't want to miss listening to this conversation with someone who has found meaning and purpose in her life despite being born with an illness that forced her to confront her own mortality as a young child. Isabel Stenzel Byrnes, LCSW, MPH shares her unique perspective on grief as someone who has survived a lifetime of living with a terminal chronic illness, and the loss of many important people in her life. This episode raises thought-provoking questions about acceptance, our cultural view of death in the West, and how we handle unpleasant emotions. 

Isabel is a licensed clinical social worker and bereavement counselor at Mission Hospice & Home Care, where she counsels children, teens and adults who have lost a loved one. She also leads writing through loss groups for those who are grieving, among other support groups. Isabel has experienced significant losses of her own and has lived with serious illness all of her life.  

As an author, documentarian, patient advocate and public speaker, Isabel has lectured around the country on topics such as living well with illness, grief and loss, end-of-life issues and organ donation, including a TEDx Stanford talk in 2014. 

Isabel’s website: http://www.thepoweroftwomovie.com/home/ 

Mission Hospice website: http://missionhospice.org 650-554-1000

Watch Isabel’s TEDx talk, “The Art of Saying Goodbye” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkffpibi-Dc  

Dr. Katherine Shear’s Center for Complicated Grief at Columbia University: https://complicatedgrief.columbia.edu/about-us/our-team/ 

Adec - https://www.adec.org 

Mission Hospice website: http://missionhospice.org 

Watch Isabel's TEDx talk, "The Art of Saying Goodbye" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkffpibi-Dc  

Therapists, Linda Thai, LMSW, from Episode 380, is offering 2 upcoming trainings. The first starts 5/23/23: Certificate In Somatic Embodiment & Regulation Strategies. Register here (I'll be there): https://www.linda-thai.com/programs/12weeksomatic-2023-may

And the second is a Workshop entitled: Healing the Legacy Of Historical & Transgenerational Trauma (All Day Workshop) on 6/17/23. Register here: https://www.linda-thai.com/events/healing-the-legacy-of-historical-and-transgenerational-trauma

In partnership with the Academy of Therapy Wisdom, I invite you to a FREE recorded webinar presented by my colleague, Akilah Riley-Richardson. In this webinar, she will examine how systemic trauma and relational privilege play out in couples therapy. And she’ll show how we can empower couples to develop healthy intimacy nonetheless. Register here for free (I'm attending the course) and learn about her course that she talked about on Therapy Chat episode 379 which you can hear at this link.

Janina Fisher has a new FREE webinar about healing the shame which is a common reaction to trauma. Register here to learn how to address this difficult emotion in therapy with trauma survivors!

In partnership with the Academy of Therapy Wisdom, I'm excited to invite you to a free webinar offered by my colleague and previous Therapy Chat guest, Juliane Taylor Shore. Jules is a gifted therapist who likes to geek out on neuroscience and then share it in ways that therapists can understand and apply. She’ll do just that in this webinar on Memory Reconsolidation for Anxiety. Register here for free! 

Therapists, join the waiting list for Trauma Therapist Network membership. We now have new membership levels and options for Group Practice Owners and Canadian therapists! Get the details and join the waiting list to receive first access when membership reopens in June 2023 here: https://go.traumatherapistnetwork.com/join ! What is TTN? Go here to check it out! Registration opens again this summer!

Therapists - Attend another free webinar presented by Dr. Janina Fisher. In this recorded webinar, Healing the Shame of our Fragmented Selves, Janina will address helping clients who struggle with shame and self-loathing. As a special gift, when you register for the free webinar, you’ll also get access to two one-hour trainings from Dr. Fisher so you can learn the foundation of her Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment model right away.

Therapists - get free trainings on Energy Work and Spirituality with trauma survivors from Dr. Frank Anderson and save on his training when you register here!

Find Laura's most frequently recommended resources for learning about trauma here - includes recommended books and trainings.

Love Therapy Chat? Leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts to help more people find the show!

Get our free PDF download to learn about the 5 mistakes most people make when searching for a trauma therapist here!

Thank you to TherapyNotes for sponsoring this week's episode! TherapyNotes makes billing, scheduling, notetaking, and telehealth incredibly easy. And now, for all you prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly introducing E-prescribe! Try it today with no strings attached, and see why everyone is switching to TherapyNotes, now featuring E-prescribe! Use promo code "chat" at www.therapynotes.com to receive 2 FREE months of TherapyNotes!

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio

Some points to ponder if you are struggling to let go.

What was it like for you to move out of your parents’ home and into adulthood? Did you go to college? Did you live with your parents past the age of 18? When were you ready to move out? Were your parents ready for you to go before you were ready? Or were you ready to go before your parents wanted you to leave?

Individuation is a developmental task every young adult must complete in order to become an independent and self sufficient adult. Some families discourage individuation by refusing to allow children and adolescents to express their own individuality. Conformity is highly valued and dissent is not tolerated. These parent/child relationships can be described as enmeshed, when the child and the parent are not felt to be independent people, but rather the children are seen by the parents as an extension of the parents. When you make a mistake, I feel ashamed that you have embarrassed the family. Some kids rebel and express themselves through their appearance. The parents may believe that everyone should wear khaki pants and navy blue shirts and have traditional hairstyles, but the child wants to dress in all black with long purple hair and a safety pin through his lip. Parents may see this as disrespectful and a power struggle escalates to the point where the child is kicked out of the house by the time they are 18, if not earlier. Do you know how to allow your child to leave home with grace and joy, rather than a big fight? If your parents were angry at you for wanting to be an independent adult, you might react the same way towards your kid without even realizing it.

Have you allowed your child opportunities to make mistakes? To experience failure? Or have you taken care of everything and made sure your child wouldn’t have the opportunity to screw up? If they did screw up (as most of us do at some point as teenagers) did you make it all better for them or did they have to experience the consequences of their actions? We can help them with how they feel about such experiences, being supportive and allowing them to express their emotions, but if we intervene to the point that they don’t feel the consequences at all, they miss out on the chance to learn from the mistake. Maybe you didn’t take care of everything so they wouldn’t have the opportunity to screw up, but rather you were careful to control every situation so the possibility of failure just didn’t come up. So what happens when they inevitably do face failure? It is painful, no doubt. We want to protect our children from experiencing pain. But can we trust that we have raised them well enough that they will be able to handle adversity and that they can live through painful experiences, even though they may hate every minute of it? Because there is literally no way we can protect our children from every painful experience. It just isn’t possible.

What was it like for you when you went out on your own? Did you struggle? Did bad things happen? What kind of healing work have you done to address the pain of those struggles? If you are terrified that what happened to you will happen to your child, it might be a good time to get some therapy. It’s normal to feel this way, but if it’s interfering with YOU being okay, therapy can help. 

I realized when my oldest child went to college (and it is coming up again as I am about to send my daughter off to school) that it pretty much drove me crazy not to know what my kid was doing all the time. Not seeing them daily and being able to look into their eyes and sense whether they are okay or not felt like a loss of control. I didn’t realize how much I needed to feel in control in that way until I lost the ability to see my oldest daily. So I worried, and worried, and worried, and monitored social media, and worried and worried and waited and waited for something bad to happen. My child would tell me he was okay but I didn’t know if he really was. I tried to hide my anxiety from him but I was a ball of nerves, as any of my friends can tell you, for the entire first semester he was at college. I think I finally calmed down at Thanksgiving and it felt great when he came home for winter break. How stressful it must have been for him to have his mother so anxious!!! He might have wondered if he would be okay since I seemed to be so worried about it. Or maybe he worried about taking care of my emotions. Or felt burdened by them. I had something I needed to take care of, because this was a lot harder for me than it needed to be. There were some 18 to 20 year old parts of me that needed attention. Instead of obsessing about my son, I turned my attention inward and got help to deal with my emotions. Most of us therapists go to therapy off and on throughout our adult lives, whenever something flares up that needs attention. This is how I have grown so much personally and professionally over the past 15 years or so (and I still have a long way to go!). It helped a lot. And it is helping now as I struggle with letting go of my daughter. New awarenesses are awakening for me. Just when I thought I had it all figured out!

You know, it’s funny, when you have been a parent for 20 years you get really used to the reality that you can’t just go and do what you want because there are people who are depending on you to come home, make sure they get fed, be there for them physically and emotionally, help them when they need it. If you had the thought that you wanted to go out to dinner with friends after work and maybe have some drinks, you would need to make arrangements for someone to take care of the kids, or, if they are old enough to stay home alone, you’d need to make sure they have something to eat for dinner, that they are on top of their homework, and that they know when you’ll be back. 

It’s a real shift in identity when you are not defined by being “Mom.” I know I am a mother, wife, therapist, friend, student learning to ride horses, a dog’s best friend…but the role of parent has been so big and important for the last 20 years that I will need some time to adjust to having that role take up less of my physical, mental and emotional energy.

So where I am right now is that I am experiencing being home with my husband this week, with no kids, and we can do what we want. We can go where we want, when we want, with no one to consider but each other and ourselves. This is because right now my youngest is off at the beach with friends all week and my oldest is away at college, and he isn’t coming home this summer. So I can do what I want. So what is that? Mostly we are going to work and back. I have always had hobbies and interests, but the easiest thing to do is to work. So I don’t want to overwork because while that may be my go-to, it’s not good for me. I don’t really watch that much TV…I can read, but not a work related book….what would I like to do? If I really check in with myself what I want to do, what feels right to do is wait. And worry. Until my kid comes home, hopefully all in one piece. Just wait, suspended animation. I’ll be right here so if something happens I can spring into action. Even though she is not close enough for me to do anything if she does have a problem, at least not immediately. That is what I want to do. I’ll be right over here, waiting and worrying. You may see me wringing my hands and pacing, just ignore it. However, that is really not what I should do either. So far my two choices seem to be overwork or obsessive worry. Okayyyyyyy….there’s got to be something else. Well it’s too late to go to the gym but I can do that tomorrow morning. That will help, I know this. Then tomorrow night after work, uhhhh….I had some good ideas about fun things to do when my daughter goes to college, but right now I can’t remember any of them. Just this worry.

What I don’t want to do is sit with the discomfort. One of my least favorite things, sitting with uncertainty, is something I try to avoid by distracting myself. I know we all do this. It’s uncomfortable so we avoid it. I am really good at doing this by filling all of my time up so there is no time in between to feel. I could keep myself from feeling almost all the time this week if I stay busy enough but I don’t want that. I do want to feel. I don’t know if my daughter will be okay at college. I don’t know if my son will be okay either. I don’t know anything that is going to happen, if I’m being honest. We don’t know. We don’t have any control. Fear of the unknown can drive our behavior if we aren’t paying attention.

So now I remember what I need to do. First, take a deep breath in, then breathe out. Then do it again. Repeat a few more times. Everything automatically feels better when I do that. I have to remind myself because when anxiety is taking over I forget. I could reach out to a supportive friend. I have many – a perk of being a therapist. Therapists for friends. There is something else that I can remind myself. I ask myself, “what can I control?” The answer is, I can control me. I can’t control situations my daughter and son will encounter or how they feel. But I can control taking care of me and how I feel. If I attend to my emotions then I can remain calm and centered (or return to that state) in stressful situations. My kids will be able to trust me, and they will be able to come to me for help when things inevitably happen. They can trust that I will be able to handle my own emotions so they won’t have to put aside their own feelings to take care of mine. It’s always been important that my kids not feel like it is their responsibility to take care of my emotions.

There is no question that I am happy that my daughter graduated. I am so proud of her and she has an amazing future ahead of her. She needs to do this, it is what she should do, and what we have hoped for her. So I need to take care of me so I can be present for her. You can do the same with your young person transitioning to adulthood. Here’s an easy shortcut. Start out with your feet on the floor, close your eyes or look down and take a long deep inhale. Exhale slowly. Repeat the long inhale. Then exhale slowly. One more long deep inhale. Exhale slowly. Now, turn your attention inward. In your mind, ask yourself what you are feeling. Tune in to that emotion, even if you don’t like what it is. See if you can allow that feeling instead of trying to push it away. Breathe into it. Just be with that. Next, in your mind, ask yourself “what do I need right now?” and notice what comes up. It may be a word, a feeling, a person that comes to mind. Once you get an answer for what you need, consider if there is a way to give it to yourself. It can be so comforting to simply place a hand on your heart and feel the warmth of it resting there. Or to take your right hand and place it on your left arm, just below the shoulder and rub. Doing this does not change what is, but it allows some space to have a different perspective about what’s happening. In that space there is an opportunity for self compassion.

The point that I hope you are taking away from this is simple. Our feelings about our children growing up are normal, and they are not about the child. The difficulty I am having adjusting to my daughter leaving in a few months is not really about her, it’s about me. She is doing her normal developmental task. I am grieving the loss of childhood, the loss of daily in person connection, and anticipating pain that hasn’t happened yet. Maybe it won’t happen. Most likely it won’t happen in the exact way that I’m worrying it will happen. But I am really grieving my own experiences that maybe I didn’t deal with the first time around because I wasn’t ready in terms of my emotional development at the time. Now it is time to take care of that younger me.

And one thing I know is that this uncomfortable place I am in is part of the process of me coming to terms with what is. I don’t like feeling this way, but part of the path from where I was to where I will be is this part. I don’t like it, I want it to go away, but you can’t skip the middle part. Later this month I will post a bonus episode on the subject of rising up out of the muck, that messy middle part of life that we don’t enjoy but which makes it richer and helps us grow. As they say, everything you want in life happens outside of your comfort zone.

And if you are struggling with the change in identity as your kids grow older, consider getting some counseling! It really helps. If you’re in the Baltimore area visit my website laurareaganlcswc.com to find out about working with me or another therapist in my office.

Resources

http://www.therapychatpodcast.com

Daring Greatly by Brené Brown

Rising Strong by Brené Brown

Self Compassion by Kristin Neff

Visit Therapy Chat website at Http://therapychatpodcast.com and send host Laura Reagan a voice message letting her know what you think of Therapy Chat! Did you like this episode? Did you dislike it? Let her know!

Thank you for listening to Therapy Chat! Please be sure to go to iTunes and leave a rating and review, subscribe and download episodes.

Thank you to this episode's sponsor, TherapyNotes. Get a 2-month free trial of TherapyNotes by going to www.TherapyNotes.com and using the promo code TherapyChat. 

233: Tolerating Discomfort As A White Person Confronting Racism & White Supremacy

In this week's episode host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C discusses how the Window of Tolerance and Polyvagal Theory play a role in white people's reactions to confronting our roles in racism. Laura offers "Window of Tolerance 101" to explain hyperarousal and hypoarousal, and how our bodies and brains respond to threats. She describes Deb Dana's Polyvagal Ladder concept as well. Laura reflects upon her own complicity in upholding the systems of oppression that support white supremacy and what she has begun to understand while reading "White Fragility" by Dr. Robin DiAngelo. She reads from an article sharing thoughts of black therapists that are offered to white therapists. She offers resources for white people understanding more and getting started with making a difference.

"White Therapists, Here's What Your Black Colleagues Want You To Know," from Psychotherapy Networker: https://www.psychotherapynetworker.org/blog/details/1775/white-therapists-heres-what-your-black-colleagues-want?fbclid=IwAR0n2CHdh_8hP4619Vhe5Zisti266xnWlq-tfRjg48JMTYj5ePfmZgCTlcM

Rachel Cargle's The Loveland Foundation: https://thelovelandfoundation.org/

Contribute to Laura's fundraiser for The Loveland Foundation:  https://www.flipcause.com/secure/fundraiser/NzU4MzM=/45973?fbclid=IwAR26eg4y0anx9_AADh84brJ9zpZoY3ZeBm-I3z2v02zGXZXV6e4POladK0Q

Rachel Cargle's Public Address on Revolution from 5/3/20: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leBPMyQ60HM

Deepa Iyer's Map of Social Change Roles: https://medium.com/@dviyer/mapping-our-social-change-roles-in-times-of-crisis-8bbe71a8ab01

Eddie Moore, Jr's 21 Day Challenge: https://www.eddiemoorejr.com/21daychallenge

Dr. Robin DiAngelo's book White Fragility: https://robindiangelo.com/publications/

Laura's interview with Deb Dana on Polyvagal Theory: https://baltimoreannapolispsychotherapypodcast.libsyn.com/159-understanding-polyvagal-theory

Resources:

Leave me a message via Speakpipe by going to https://therapychatpodcast.com and clicking on the green Speakpipe button.

Thank you for listening to Therapy Chat! Please be sure to go to iTunes and leave a rating and review, subscribe and download episodes. You can also download the Therapy Chat app on iTunes by clicking here.

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio

Thank you to this episode's sponsor, TherapyNotes. Get a 2-month free trial of TherapyNotes by going to www.TherapyNotes.com and using the promo code TherapyChat. 

In this week's episode host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C interviews eating disorders specialist Jennifer Rollin, LCSW-C about how the current pandemic can bring up issues from those who are in recovery from eating disorders. Our guest also describes how people who don't identify as having eating disorders can begin having issues during this time, and offers resources for anyone who is struggling. Guest's bio:

Jennifer Rollin is a therapist and founder of The Eating Disorder Center in Rockville, Maryland, who specializes in working with adolescents and adults with eating disorders and body image issues.

Jennifer serves as the chairwoman of Project Heal's national network of eating disorder treatment providers. Jennifer has been named as one of the top eating disorder experts in the world by Balance Eating Disorder Treatment Center in NYC.

Jennifer has a certificate in Enhanced Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Eating Disorders. She also has a certificate in Dialectical Behavior Therapy. She is a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor. She is on The Junior Board of Directors for The National Eating Disorders Association. She was invited to serve on the conference committee for The National Eating Disorders Association's 2018 Conference.

Jennifer has been interviewed speaking about eating disorders on television including on Fox, ABC, PBS, and NBC. She gives talks about eating disorders at national eating disorder conferences, therapy centers, retreats, and colleges.

She is an expert writer for The Huffington Post and Psychology Today. Her professional blog was named one of the top eating disorder blogs in the world. She is the author of an upcoming book on eating disorder recovery.

Resources

https://www.theeatingdisordercenter.com/jennifer-rollin-msw-lcsw-c.html

Leave me a message via Speakpipe by going to https://therapychatpodcast.com and clicking on the green Speakpipe button.

Thank you for listening to Therapy Chat! Please be sure to go to iTunes and leave a rating and review, subscribe and download episodes. You can also download the Therapy Chat app on iTunes by clicking here.

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.ne

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! In today’s episode, Laura speaks with Sharon Martin, LCSW.

Sharon is a licensed therapist, counselor, and mental health and wellness writer based in San Jose, CA. She has spent 20 years providing counseling, therapy, and clinical supervision.

Sharon has built a specialized private practice that reflects her belief that you matter, and you can love yourself, heal, be empowered, speak your truth, and create a life you love. Listen for Sharon’s incredible insights on life, well-being and much more!

Resources

https://livewellwithsharonmartin.com

Register now for the next Daring Way™ and Relational Equine Assisted Learning retreat: https://laurareaganlcswc.com/retreat

Leave me a message via Speakpipe by going to https://therapychatpodcast.com and clicking on the green Speakpipe button.

Thank you for listening to Therapy Chat! Please be sure to go to iTunes and leave a rating and review, subscribe and download episodes. You can also download the Therapy Chat app on iTunes by clicking here.

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! This week's episode is part two of the conversation where I'm reflecting on where I'm at in my life right now. My guest is Amber Trejo, LMFT an integrative trauma therapist in Indiana.

Like myself, Amber is also a trauma survivor and speaks openly about living and parenting with complex trauma (also known as developmental trauma or CPTSD) on her Instagram channel, @integrativetraumatherapist. Amber and I talked about our shared experience of losing one of our parents in the last year or so, and discussed our personal experiences of navigating the grieving process, with all of the opportunities for healing that it brings.

Learn more about Amber Trejo via her Instagram channel: https://instagram.com/integrativetraumatherapist and her website, https://www.theintegrativetraumatherapist.com/ 

Are you going to Psychotherapy Networker? Come say hi to me! I'm hosting an exhibit booth for Trauma Therapist Network and Therapy Chat. 

By the way, therapists can get the lowest prices on selected PESI trainings featuring past and future Therapy Chat guests by going to this link: https://pesi.com/therapychat 

Thank you to TherapyNotes for sponsoring this week’s episode! TherapyNotes makes billing, scheduling, notetaking, and telehealth incredibly easy. And now, for all you prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly introducing E-prescribe! Try it today with no strings attached, and see why everyone is switching toTherapyNotes, now featuring E-prescribe! Use promo code “chat” at www.therapynotes.com to receive 2 FREE months of TherapyNotes!!

Join the TTN e-mail list to learn what's coming up in 2025 with Therapy Chat, Trauma Chat and Trauma Therapist Network and get my free PDF 5 Common Mistakes People Make When Searching For A Trauma Therapist here!

Find my most frequently recommended resources for learning about trauma here – includes recommended books and trainings.

Find a trauma therapist near you via findtraumatherapy.com! We believe that trauma is real, healing is possible and help is available at Trauma Therapist Network. 

Love Therapy Chat? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, and subscribe where you listen to your podcasts! Thank you!

Podcast produced by Vaudeo Productions - https://vaudeoproductions.com

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! This week we're talking about the communication dynamics and boundaries of families that could be described as unhealthy, toxic, dysfunctional, abusive, or emotionally immature.

My guest for this replay episode from 2021 is Dr. Sharon Martin. Sharon has been working with adults whose parents were emotionally immature, emotionally neglectful, emotionally unavailable, substance abusing, or otherwise unable to meet their children's attachment needs for 20 years, and she has written several books about healing from difficult childhoods.

Her latest book, "Cutting Ties With Your Parents: A workbook to help adults make peace with their decision, heal emotional wounds, and move forward with their lives," comes out in mid-October, 2024. Next week I'll share a new interview with Sharon about this book, so this week I wanted to give some context about these relational patterns. 

Pre-order Sharon's new book now and find other great resources via her website: https://livewellwithsharonmartin.com !

🌟Trauma Therapists🌟 my membership community, Trauma Therapist Network, is opening to new members this week! Add your name to the waiting list here for first access and a special discount!

I'm excited to share that I'll be exhibiting at the Integrative Medicine for Mental Health (IMMH) Conference, October 10-13, 2024 in Washington, DC! Experience four days of learning about the latest scientific evidence and best clinical practices in integrative mental health and functional medicine psychiatry. My friends Linda Thai, Benjamin Fry and Dr. Leslie Korn will both be presenting along with Seth Porges, Dr. Robert Lustig, Dr. Daniel Amen, Dr. Chris Palmer, Dr. Dale Bredesen, Dr. Georgia Ede, Dr. James Greenblatt, Dr. Kat Toups, and many others, including the newly announced Dr. Aseem Malhotra! Earn up to 24.0 CE/CMEs*! You can save $100 using code TRAUMATH100 at https://immh.org! Both in-person and virtual tickets are available. I hope to see you there!

Thank you to TherapyNotes for sponsoring this week’s episode! TherapyNotes makes billing, scheduling, notetaking, and telehealth incredibly easy. 

And now, for all you prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly introducing E-prescribe! Try it today with no strings attached, and see why everyone is switching toTherapyNotes, now featuring E-prescribe! Use promo code “chat” at www.therapynotes.com to receive 2 FREE months of TherapyNotes!!

Join the TTN e-mail list to learn what's coming up with Therapy Chat, Trauma Chat and Trauma Therapist Network and get my free PDF 5 Common Mistakes People Make When Searching For A Trauma Therapist here!

Find my most frequently recommended resources for learning about trauma here – includes recommended books and trainings.

Find a trauma therapist near you via findtraumatherapy.com! We believe that trauma is real, healing is possible and help is available at Trauma Therapist Network. 

Love Therapy Chat? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, and subscribe where you listen to your podcasts! Thank you!

Podcast produced by Vaudeo Productions - https://vaudeoproductions.com

Thank you to this episode's sponsor, TherapyNotes. Get a 2 month free trial of TherapyNotes by going to www.TherapyNotes.com and using the promo code TherapyChat.

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! Today host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C speaks to Gretchen Schmelzer, PhD about her new book Journey Through Trauma: A Trail Guide to the 5-Phase Cycle of Healing Repeated Trauma.

Gretchen Schmelzer, PhD is a licensed psychologist, trained as a Harvard Medical School Fellow. She is a trauma survivor, who has worked for twenty-five years with the complex issues of trauma, integration and behavior change across every level of system from individuals, to groups, to large systems and countries, including her role as the expert consultant Frontline for their documentary on Alaskan survivors of priest sexual abuse (aired April 19, 2011).

She leads programs using leadership development and trauma-informed emotional intelligence to help communities worldwide engage in the difficult public health issues confronting them such as AIDS and Domestic Violence. She is working on a book on long-term trauma and you can read more from Gretchen at her website, Emotional Geographic.

Resources

http://gretchenschmelzer.com

Want a cool Therapy Chat t-shirt, sticker or mug? Find them here: https://www.teepublic.com/user/therapychat

Please consider supporting Therapy Chat by becoming a member on Patreon! Just $1 a month would make a huge impact to keep Therapy Chat going strong! To learn more head to - https://patreon.com/TherapyChat where members get special perks and swag too!

Leave me a message via Speakpipe by going to https://therapychatpodcast.com and clicking on the green Speakpipe button.

Thank you for listening to Therapy Chat! Please be sure to go to iTunes and leave a rating and review, subscribe and download episodes. You can also download the Therapy Chat app on iTunes by clicking here.

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! This week, just in time for the Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, my guest is Paula Scatoloni, LCSW. Paula Scatoloni is a Licensed Social Worker and a Healing Arts Practitioner in NC blending transpersonal psychology, somatics, and sound with the principles of traditional wisdom and earth-based spirituality. Paula created Transformative Harmonics as a bridge to help individuals shift their frequency into safety, connection, and empowerment so they can begin live a more purpose-driven life. We talked about how psychoacoustics can help with nervous system regulation and other transformative experiences, and my time in her Transformative Harmonics group earlier this year. It was amazing! 

Find Paula's website with all of her offerings at: www.paulascatoloni.com

Here are the resources Paula mentioned in this week's episode:

Somatic Experiencing International, https://traumahealing.org/

Unyte-ILS, Safe and Sound, https://integratedlistening.com/products/ssp-safe-sound-protocol/

Biofield Tuning, https://www.biofieldtuning.com/

Therapists - want to feel more competent in trauma work? Check out some of the trainings my recent guests are offering related to trauma and attachment via the PESI/Psychotherapy Networker partner page and get special discounts! 

The Institute for Creative Mindfulness is an EMDRIA-approved EMDR Therapy training institute created by Dr. Jamie Marich, a clinician and author who is on a mission to confront stigma around mental health, trauma, and dissociation.

They’re offering a special discount to Therapy Chat listeners! Save 15% on any of their courses or CE programs including EMDR basic training until the end of 2024. Go to instituteforcreativemindfulness.com and use promo code: 15OffForListeners. 

Thank you to TherapyNotes for sponsoring this week’s episode! TherapyNotes makes billing, scheduling, notetaking, and telehealth incredibly easy. And now, for all you prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly introducing E-prescribe! Try it today with no strings attached, and see why everyone is switching toTherapyNotes, now featuring E-prescribe! Use promo code “chat” at www.therapynotes.com to receive 2 FREE months of TherapyNotes!!

Join the TTN e-mail list to learn what's coming up in 2024 with Therapy Chat, Trauma Chat and Trauma Therapist Network and get my free PDF 5 Common Mistakes People Make When Searching For A Trauma Therapist here!

Find my most frequently recommended resources for learning about trauma here – includes recommended books and trainings.

Find a trauma therapist near you via findtraumatherapy.com! We believe that trauma is real, healing is possible and help is available at Trauma Therapist Network. 

Love Therapy Chat? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, and subscribe where you listen to your podcasts! Thank you!

Podcast produced by Vaudeo Productions - https://vaudeoproductions.com

In Part Two of this discussion with Dr. Gail Gazelle, a physiclan burnout expert, we discuss Gail's experience with burnout. She shares examples from her own experience and those she's helped with to illustrate what burnout feels like and how it mirrors trauma reactions. She shares what helped her come back from burnout and what others can do to help with recovery. Burnout doesn't have to be a career-ending experience, it can be a transformational opportunity. Listen to this compassionate and down to earth conversation to understand why physicians are burning out, and how they can learn resiliency skills to help them stay in their careers, in this replay episode. This information will be relevant to anyone in a leadership position, even those who don't work in healthcare. 

Dr. Gazelle is a former hospice physician, part-time Harvard Medical School Assistant Professor, and a Master Certified Coach for physicians. After working in the field of end-of-life care for most of her professional career, Dr. Gazelle shifted her focus to another vulnerable population: physicians in the modern American healthcare system.

Visit Gail's website: https://gailgazelle.com/

Gail's book, Everyday Resilience, can be found on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/44q10Ct

Get 16 meals for FREE when you try HelloFresh using our coupon code! Go to https://hellofresh.com/chat16 and use code chat16 for 16 FREE meals PLUS free shipping!

Thank you to TherapyNotes for sponsoring this week's episode! TherapyNotes makes billing, scheduling, notetaking, and telehealth incredibly easy. And now, for all you prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly introducing E-prescribe! Try it today with no strings attached, and see why everyone is switching to TherapyNotes, now featuring E-prescribe! Use promo code "chat" at www.therapynotes.com to receive 2 FREE months of TherapyNotes!!

Find Laura's most frequently recommended resources for learning about trauma here - includes recommended books and trainings.

Love Therapy Chat? Leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts to help more people find the show!

Find a Trauma Therapist on the Trauma Therapist Network: www.traumatherapistnetwork.com 

Therapists, Trauma Therapist Network includes a searchable directory as well as a membership community meeting weekly for support, consultation, training and self care. Learn more here!

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio

Welcome! My guest today is Sharon Martin, LCSW, a psychotherapist in San Jose, CA. Sharon writes the blog “Happily Imperfect” for Psych Central. Our topic today is Perfectionism—something so many of us struggle to overcome.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

• Sharon’s private practice focuses on perfectionism, co-dependency, people-pleasing, and anxiety—she tells us how they are all intertwined.
• Sharon works as a clinical supervisor, both independently and for a non-profit; she enjoys working with new social workers.
• In her 20+ years in this field, Sharon has had to learn to focus on self-care, knowing when to say “yes” and when to say “no.”
• “It can’t just be about making everybody else happy.”
• Sharon says that some total failures can be re-labeled as “partial succeses.”
• Change requires that you experience some amount of anxiety.
• Co-dependency is a relationship dynamic where two people are dependent on each other in different ways. One takes on the role of caretaker, rescuer, or fixer in this lopsided relationship.
• In co-dependency, anger and resentment build up over time and the relationship becomes out of control.
• Perfectionism and co-dependency have some common characteristics, like not wanting to upset or displease and wanting to be “in control.”
• Perfectionists have a strong need to be liked and accepted; they need constant validation that they are “enough.”
• “There is no possible way to succeed at being perfect.”
• Perfectionists tend to be very self-critical and critical of others.
• Perfectionism is often mistaken for a quest for excellence and high standards.
• Many high school students feel this pressure, which can lead to depression and suicide.
• The solution lies in our ability to accept ourselves for who we are.
• “My purpose is to be ME, and not be a clone of everyone else.”
• In her therapy practice, Sharon uses the following techniques with her clients:
• Get in touch and be more aware of the negative self-talk in their lives.
• Reframe ideas about making mistakes.
• Find out how to let ourselves off the hook and forgive ourselves.
• Move past negative thoughts toward acceptance and positives.
• Ask, “What’s good about me and my life?”
• For perfectionists, there can be 99 positives, but a perfectionist focuses on the ONE negative thing.
• Sharon shares gratitude practice tips and how to make them work for you!
• The mindfulness approach can help us learn to enjoy the small things and the basic experiences in life.

Resources:

www.sharonmartin.com

www.sharonmartin.com/therapychat (Sharon is writing a workbook on Overcoming Perfectionism. She is offering a free sample chapter to download for TC listeners!)

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! This week, host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C interviews Dr. Elizabeth Guthrie, author of "The Trauma Informed Herbalist," about how we can use herbs and nature to improve self connection and self care. Elizabeth Guthrie is a board certified wellness practitioner who holds a PhD in Natural Medicine with a focus in Naturopathic Psychology and a Master's of Public Health in Functional Nutrition. She has helped create research for University of Alabama Birmingham’s Integrative Medicine clinic, teaches practitioners online, and works as a wellness practitioner and yoga instructor in Birmingham, Alabama.

 

Visit Elizabeth's website.

 

Purchase Elizabeth's book, The Trauma Informed Herbalist, on Amazon here.

Thank you to Kelly + Miranda for sponsoring this week's episode! Therapists - Make More Profits & Work Less in Private Practice from Kelly + Miranda of ZynnyMe begins 2/6/23!

Therapists - Attend a free webinar presented by Dr. Janina Fisher. In this recorded webinar, Healing the Shame of our Fragmented Selves, Janina will address helping clients who struggle with shame and self-loathing. 

As a special gift, when you register for the free webinar, you’ll also get access to two one-hour trainings from Dr. Fisher so you can learn the foundation of her Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment model right away.

Therapists - get free trainings on Energy Work and Spirituality with trauma survivors from Dr. Frank Anderson and save on his training when you register here!

Have you heard about Psychotherapy Networker Symposium? This annual conference is held in Washington DC and features all of the well known and most loved names in the psychotherapy world, including several previous Therapy Chat guests. You can attend virtually or online and hear from recent guests Dr. Stacey Freedenthal, Dr. Mona Delahooke, Dr. Janina Fisher, Lori Gottleib, Dr. Dick Schwartz, Dr. Leslie Korn, Dr. Jamie Marich, Lisa Ferentz, Deb Dana....along with many other teachers I deeply admire and hope to interview in the future! Register here and get a discount!

Find Laura's most frequently recommended resources for learning about trauma here - includes recommended books and trainings.

 

Love Therapy Chat? Leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts to help more people find the show!

Get our free PDF download to learn about the 5 mistakes most people make when searching for a trauma therapist here!

 

This episode is sponsored by Trauma Therapist Network. Learn about trauma, connect with resources and find a trauma therapist near you at www.traumatherapistnetwork.com ! We believe that trauma is real, healing is possible and help is available.

 

Therapists, registration opens in March 2023 for Trauma Therapist Network membership. We now have new membership levels and options for Group Practice Owners and Canadian therapists! Get the details and join the waiting list for early access and a special offer when registration goes live at: https://go.traumatherapistnetwork.com/join !

 

Thank you to TherapyNotes for sponsoring this week's episode! TherapyNotes makes billing, scheduling, notetaking, and telehealth incredibly easy. And now, for all you prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly introducing E-prescribe! Try it today with no strings attached, and see why everyone is switching to TherapyNotes. Now featuring E-prescribe. Use promo code "chat" at www.therapynotes.com to receive 2 FREE months of TherapyNotes!

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio

Welcome to episode 147 of the Therapy Chat Podcast with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C. This week Laura re-visits her interview with Buddhist Psychologist and student of Thich Nhat Hahn Tim Ambrose Desmond, LMFT. 

Tim Desmond is a mindfulness teacher, therapist in private practice, and co-founder of Morning Sun Mindfulness Center in Alstead, NH. He is the author of Self-Compassion in Psychotherapy (W.W. Norton, 2015) and offers training and consultation to therapists around the world, helping them to integrate positive psychology and mindfulness practices into their work.

Tim has presented at Yale University, the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy Colloquium, Greater Oregon Behavioral Health Conference, and the International Society for Ethics in Psychology and Psychiatry, as well as to mental health audiences around the country. His writings on mindfulness and positive psychology have appeared in the Psychotherapy Networker and the Mindfulness Bell magazine. Tim was interviewed about self-compassion by the Huffington Post, and writes for major mental health websites such as Madinamerica.com.

He developed and teaches “dialogue-based mindfulness training,” a technique for teaching mindfulness and self-compassion in which the client is guided through a meditation while giving the clinician feedback about their experience in real-time. The clinician uses this feedback to adjust and custom tailor the meditation instructions in order to ensure the client learns the technique effectively.

In 2005, Tim was ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh into the Order of Interbeing after many years of practicing in that tradition. He leads meditation retreats around the US and teaches regularly at Morning Sun Mindfulness Center in NH. In addition to the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, Tim teaches Nonviolent Communication and positive psychology.

Resources

https://www.timdesmond.net

Please consider supporting Therapy Chat by becoming a member on Patreon! Just $1 a month would make a huge impact to keep Therapy Chat going strong! To learn more: https://patreon.com/TherapyChat - members get special perks and swag too!

Register now for the next Daring Way™ and Relational Equine Assisted Learning retreat: https://laurareaganlcswc.com/retreat

Leave me a message via Speakpipe by going to https://therapychatpodcast.com and clicking on the green Speakpipe button.

Thank you for listening to Therapy Chat! Please be sure to go to iTunes and leave a rating and review, subscribe and download episodes. You can also download the Therapy Chat app on iTunes by clicking here.

This week's episode of Therapy Chat features Trauma Therapist Network member Dr. Julia Knach. Julia has worked for years with survivors of child abuse and is now the owner of a group practice North of Baltimore, Maryland as well as a training institute. In our conversation, Julia shares how she uses Brainspotting with sand tray therapy and play to help her clients work through their trauma. Listen to our conversation and be inspired to use some new ways of working with clients! 

Julia Knach is the owner and founder of My Crossing Paths Counseling Center and My Crossing Paths Training Center. Julia was previously the Manager of Clinical Services at Baltimore Child Abuse Center (BCAC) and before that she was the Clinical Supervisor with Family and Children’s Services (FCS), supervising both Baltimore City and County. She works with all populations dealing with trauma and abuse. She is currently an adjunct professor at the Community College of Baltimore County, teaching in the human service counseling department. She published her first book called Crossing Paths: The Intersection between Trauma and Addictions. She recently received her PsyD at California Southern University, with her dissertation focusing on sand tray therapy, entitled "Using sand tray therapy to encourage healing from adverse childhood experiences."

Find Julia on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. Find Julia's practice website here.

*Trauma Therapists*, my membership community, Trauma Therapist Network, opens for new members in September! Add your name to the waiting list here for first access and a special discount!

Watch this episode in video format on YouTube!

The Institute for Creative Mindfulness is an EMDRIA-approved EMDR Therapy training institute created by Dr. Jamie Marich, a clinician and author who is on a mission to confront stigma around mental health, trauma, and dissociation.

They’re offering a special discount to Therapy Chat listeners! Save 15% on any of their courses or CE programs including EMDR basic training until the end of 2024. Go to instituteforcreativemindfulness.com and use promo code: 15OffForListeners. 

Thank you to TherapyNotes for sponsoring this week’s episode! TherapyNotes makes billing, scheduling, notetaking, and telehealth incredibly easy. And now, for all you prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly introducing E-prescribe! Try it today with no strings attached, and see why everyone is switching toTherapyNotes, now featuring E-prescribe! Use promo code “chat” at www.therapynotes.com to receive 2 FREE months of TherapyNotes!!

Join the TTN e-mail list to learn what's coming up in 2024 with Therapy Chat, Trauma Chat and Trauma Therapist Network and get my free PDF 5 Common Mistakes People Make When Searching For A Trauma Therapist here!

Find my most frequently recommended resources for learning about trauma here – includes recommended books and trainings.

Find a trauma therapist near you via findtraumatherapy.com! We believe that trauma is real, healing is possible and help is available at Trauma Therapist Network. 

Love Therapy Chat? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, and subscribe where you listen to your podcasts! Thank you!

Podcast produced by Vaudeo Productions - https://vaudeoproductions.com

Welcome! My guest today is Lisa Ferentz, LCSW-C, who is in private practice in Baltimore, specializing in treating child and adult survivors of trauma, abuse, and neglect. She’s a nationally known author, speaker, trainer, and consultant.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

• After 32 years in private practice, Lisa knows that trauma survivors use coping strategies such as eating disorders, addictions, self-mutilation, depression, anxiety, and relationship problems. 
• Lisa does consulting work for clinicians in the US and Canada; she has written two books and has two more in process.
• Early in her practice, Lisa realized how important it is to approach her work from the viewpoint of being a good student and learning from your clients.
• In the exciting world of therapy today, incredible connections are being made between trauma and the impact on the brain.
• Lisa advises that clinicians be more aware and mindful in working with the body in trauma work.
• Lisa explains “dual awareness,” meaning being aware of what’s happening in both the client’s and clinician’s body during therapy.
• Lisa explains the “vasovagal zone” of the body and tracking sensations in the area that houses 80% of emotions.
• Trauma is stored visually and viscerally, and can present with actual physical pain, such as:
• Limb pain
• Fibromyalgia
• Chronic migraines
• Stomach/GI upset
• Fatigue 
• One technique is to start with the body and work your way into words to deal with trauma.
• Movement and expressive arts can also be used in trauma therapy.
• Simplistic art therapy strategies can open the door to visually-based modality when a client is unable to communicate with words.
• Lisa uses drawing, collaging, and sand tray art so a client can SHOW their narrative, share a memory, or process an emotion.
• Clinicians have to refrain from interpreting the client’s art for themselves.
• Lisa explains the stigma associated with borderline personality disorder as opposed to identifying the same client as a “trauma survivor.”
• Lisa introduces her books: Treating Self-Destructive Behavior in Trauma Survivors: A Clinician’s Guide and Letting Go of Self-Destructive Behaviors: A Workbook of Hope and Healing. One is for clinicians and one is for laypeople.
• In treating trauma survivors, you have to give them new tools to replace self-destructive behavior—other ways to self-soothe and regulate their pain.
• Lisa explains why she doesn’t like standard safety contracts because they introduce a power struggle between client and therapist.
• “The goal is that trauma therapy doesn’t re-traumatize.”
• Lisa gives details about her Institute in Baltimore, in its 9^th year of offering certification programs in Advanced Trauma Treatment, working with expressive modalities and traditional talk therapy. The Institute offers ethics training, from which 700 clinicians have already graduated. Her website includes a calendar of CEU training and the details about the Trauma Certificate Levels 1 & 2.
• Find out more about Lisa and her work: www.lisaferentz.com. 

Welcome to episode 92 of the Therapy Chat Podcast with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C. My guest this week is Jasmin Lee Cori, who speaks to me about emotionally absent mothers and the affects of childhood emotional neglect.

Jasmin became a therapist at the tender age of 24 and didn’t last long, as might be expected for someone who had yet to do her own healing work. When she reached 40, she uncovered childhood trauma, which began her journey of descent. She was a student of The Diamond Approach at that time, a spiritual school conversant with the intertwining of psychological and spiritual work. She was discovering her deeper essence at the same time she was dropping into dark places she hadn’t known were there; so during that time heaven and hell were unfolding simultaneously.

This continued, with yet deeper dips into both. She lost her voice, job and suffered significant health challenges and financial struggle. Yet in the midst of being flattened, sick in bed, she midwifed a book of mystical poetry in a matter of months.

Since she is a writer whose personal experience deeply informs her work, the result of this descent was authoring two books that changed her life: Healing from Trauma and The Emotionally Absent Mother. These books were healing not only for her but for tens of thousands who have read them.

Resources

http://www.jasmincori.com

Thank you to our sponsor, TherapyNotes! You can save 10% for 12 months using this link: https://www.therapynotes.com/r/therapy%20chat%20podcast Get your discount on TherapyNotes today! You can also visit TherapyNotes.com and use the coupon code: CHAT17. 

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! This week host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C interviews author Jennifer Louden on creativity, imposter syndrome and the inner critic. 

JENNIFER LOUDEN is a personal growth pioneer who helped launch the concept of self-care with her first bestseller, The Woman’s Comfort Book. Since then, she’s written six additional books on wellbeing and whole living, including The Woman’s Retreat Book and The Life Organizer, with close to a million copies of her books in print in nine languages. Jennifer has spoken around the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and has written a national magazine column for a Martha Stewart magazine. 

Plus, she’s been profiled or quoted in dozens of major magazines; two of Brené Brown’s books, Daring Greatly and Dare to Lead; and has appeared on hundreds of TVprograms, radio shows, and podcasts—even on Oprah. 

Jennifer has been teaching women’s retreats since 1992 and creating vibrant online communities and innovative learning experiences since 1999. She writes weekly to her email list of 20,000 and hosts an online paid community of over 600 members. She lives in Boulder County, Colorado.

Learn more and purchase Jennifer's books at:  www.jenniferlouden.com

To be in the know about Laura's new podcast, Trauma Chat, which is launching in June 2021,  go to www.traumachatpod.com and sign up for the email list! You'll receive a free gift for signing up!

New website coming soon: www.traumatherapistnetwork.com - a community for finding information, resources and help for trauma. Sign up for the email list to be notified when the website goes live and receive a free gift!

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio

Thank you to this episode's sponsor, TherapyNotes. Get a 2-month free trial of TherapyNotes by going to www.TherapyNotes.com and using the promo code TherapyChat. 

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! Today host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C speaks to Dr. Rachel Altvater about what parents need to know about play therapy.  

Dr. Rachel Altvater is a Licensed Psychologist in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia, Registered Play Therapist–Supervisor, and Certified Clinical Trauma Professional. She is the owner of Creative Psychological Health Services, a psychologist at Gil Institute for Trauma Recovery and Education, an affiliate faculty member at Loyola University Maryland, the Continuing Education Director of Starbright Training Institute, and a board member of The MD/DC Association for Play Therapy.  

Dr. Altvater published two articles in the International Journal of Play Therapy on her research of technology use in play therapy and is a contributing author in Integrating Expressive Arts into Counseling Practice: Theory-Based Interventions (2nd ed.) and Integrating Technology in Modern Therapies: A Clinician’s Guide to Developments and Interventions. She is the recipient of the 2018 Distinguished Alumna of the Year from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Washington, D.C. Campus, and the 2018 Outstanding Play Therapy Research Award from the Maryland/DC Association for Play Therapy. 

Resources 

https://www.facebook.com/dr.rachelaltvater  

https://www.a4pt.org  

Dr.rachelaltvater@gmail.com  

Please let us know what you'd like to learn more about from Laura by completing this short survey! 

Are you a therapist needing support to sharpen your clinical skills in working with trauma survivors? Want to work with Laura for clinical consultation? Get in touch via laura@bahealing.com. Or if you're interested in joining an upcoming online or in person clinical consultation group, go here to sign up on the interest list! 

Want a cool Therapy Chat t-shirt, sticker or mug? Find them here: https://www.teepublic.com/user/therapychat 

Please consider supporting Therapy Chat by becoming a member on Patreon! Just $1 a month would make a huge impact to keep Therapy Chat going strong! To learn more head to - https://patreon.com/TherapyChat where members get special perks and swag too! 

Leave me a message via Speakpipe by going to https://therapychatpodcast.com and clicking on the green Speakpipe button. 

Thank you for listening to Therapy Chat! Please be sure to go to iTunes and leave a rating and review, subscribe and download episodes. You can also download the Therapy Chat app on iTunes by clicking here. 

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio 

Welcome to episode 130 of the Therapy Chat Podcast with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C. This week’s guest features Lanie Smith who talks about spirituality as burnout prevention using eco-art therapy.

Lanie Smith, MPS, ATR, a registered art therapist, has worked in a variety of settings for several years. Her work began with the Nat'l Institute of Health, researching the efficacy of art therapy with war-affected youth in N. Uganda, followed by two publications. Lanie developed environmental art therapy for sustainable practice at numerous sites in the Phoenix area.

She provides art therapy to others to support the prevention of burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma. Lanie also supervises and trains on the ethical considerations regarding the use of art in therapy.

Resources

https://www.laniesmithcoaching.com

Register now for the next Daring Way™ and Relational Equine Assisted Learning retreat: https://laurareaganlcswc.com/retreat

Therapists! Would you like to get a free month of service with Brighter Vision, the worldwide leaders in custom website design for therapists? Go to this link to sign up and get a free month: https://try.brightervision.com/therapychatpodcast

Leave me a message via Speakpipe by going to https://therapychatpodcast.com and clicking on the green Speakpipe button.

Thank you for listening to Therapy Chat! Please be sure to go to iTunes and leave a rating and review, subscribe and download episodes. You can also download the Therapy Chat app on iTunes by clicking here.

Visit Therapy Chat website at Http://therapychatpodcast.com and send host Laura Reagan a voice message letting her know what you think of Therapy Chat! Did you like this episode? Did you dislike it? Let her know!

Welcome to episode 75 of the Therapy Chat Podcast with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C. This week's episode features David Emerson.

David is the Founder and Director of Yoga Services for the Trauma Center at the Justice Resource Institute in Brookline Massachusetts, where he coined the term “trauma-sensitive yoga”. He was responsible for curriculum development, supervision and oversight of the yoga intervention component of the first of its kind, NIH funded study, conducted by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk to assess the utility and feasibility of yoga for adults with treatment-resistant PTSD.

Mr. Emerson has developed, conducted, and supervised TSY groups for rape crisis centers, domestic violence programs, residential programs for youth, military bases, survivors of terrorism, and Veterans Administration centers and clinics. In addition to co-authoring several articles on the subject of yoga and trauma, Mr. Emerson is the co-author of Overcoming Trauma through Yoga, released in 2011 by North Atlantic Books and Author of the forthcoming, Trauma-Sensitive Yoga in Therapy (Norton, 2015).

He leads trainings for yoga teachers and mental health clinicians in North America, Europe, and Asia. David trains in the U.S. and abroad and is a supervisor in the certification program

In this episode, you will hear David speak about how he began his work with trauma sensitive Yoga, the neuroscience behind the work he does and the shared authentic experience and attachment theory. 

Resources

http://www.traumasensitiveyoga.com

https://www.amazon.com/Overcoming-Trauma-through-Yoga-Reclaiming/dp/1556439695/ref=sr_1_1_twi_pap_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1490148282&sr=8-1&keywords=overcoming+trauma+through+yoga

http://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/id/5090996 (EP72 - Yoga for Depression & Anxiety)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1774552256196397

https://www.laurareaganlcswc.com/join

Thank you to Lesley University for sponsoring this episode, find them online here - http://www.lesley.edu/mental-health-programs

Visit Therapy Chat website at Http://therapychatpodcast.com and send host Laura Reagan a voice message letting her know what you think of Therapy Chat! Did you like this episode? Did you dislike it? Let her know!

Thank you for listening to Therapy Chat! Please be sure to go to iTunes and leave a rating and review, subscribe and download episodes.

Thank you to this episode's sponsor, TherapyNotes. Get a 2-month free trial of TherapyNotes by going to www.TherapyNotes.com and using the promo code TherapyChat. 

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! In today's podcast host Laura Reagan speaks to Mari Lee about showing up vs. showing off.

Mari A. Lee is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist and Supervisor, and the founder of Growth Counseling Services, a private recovery practice located in Glendora, California. Mari is recognized for her clinical work with sex addicts, traumatically betrayed spouses, and couples healing from infidelity.

Additionally, Mari is a trusted coach and respected entrepreneur with 30 years of business experience. She is the founder of, "The Counselor’s Coach" and provides effective coaching, clinical materials, and dedicated support to therapists across the U.S. and around the world. Mari's specialized coaching is focused on helping therapists create and launch multiple income streams beyond the one-on-one clinical hour.

Mari is also the co-author of the bestselling book, “Facing Heartbreak: Steps to Recovery for Partners of Sex Addicts”, and she is the author of, “Healing Betrayal”, and “The Creative Clinician." Her next book, “The Gift in the Wound: Stories of Resiliency and Hope” will be out in 2020.

Finally, Mari is a popular speaker and presents across the country on the topic of sex and love addiction, partner’s betrayal trauma, and is the co-founder of, “The Shine Retreat for Women”, which is an inspiring, rejuvenating and inclusive self care weekend retreat where all women are warmly welcomed. Shine 2019 is happening September 27-29th in beautiful Laguna Beach, California.

Resources 

To learn more about Mari’s clinical work visit: www.GrowthCounselingServices.com 

To schedule coaching session with Mari visit: www.TheCounselorsCoach.com 

To attend The Shine Women’s Retreat visit: www.ShineRetreatforWomen.com 

Are you a therapist needing support to sharpen your clinical skills in working with trauma survivors? Want to work with Laura for clinical consultation? Get in touch via laura@bahealing.com. Or if you're interested in joining an upcoming online or in person clinical consultation group, go here to sign up on the interest list! 

Please let us know what you'd like to learn more from Laura by completing this short survey! 

Want a cool Therapy Chat t-shirt, sticker or mug? Find them here: https://www.teepublic.com/user/therapychat 

Please consider supporting Therapy Chat by becoming a member on Patreon! Just $1 a month would make a huge impact to keep Therapy Chat going strong! To learn more head to - https://patreon.com/TherapyChat where members get special perks and swag too! 

Leave me a message via Speakpipe by going to https://therapychatpodcast.com and clicking on the green Speakpipe button. 

Thank you for listening to Therapy Chat! Please be sure to go to iTunes and leave a rating and review, subscribe and download episodes. You can also download the Therapy Chat app on iTunes by clicking here. 

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio 

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! This week, host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C interviews Dr. Rachel Altvater, a therapist, author and human, on the complexities of grieving, being human and how understanding perspective relates to being our most authentic selves. Laura and Rachel came together while both are grieving recent losses as well. Additionally, Rachel explains the concept of perspective, which is the focus of her new book, "Perspective: Contemplating the Complexities of Our Realities."

Dr. Rachel Altvater (Psy.D., RPT-S™) is an award-winning, pioneering expert, leader, researcher, international trainer, author, and supervisor in the field of play therapy. She is a Licensed Psychologist in Maryland, Washington, DC, and Virginia, and she holds national certifications as a Registered Play Therapist–Supervisor™ and Certified Clinical Trauma Professional. 

She is the owner of Creative Psychological Health Services, co-owner of North Star Creations, past president of the Maryland/DC Association for Play Therapy, editorial advisory board member for the International Journal of Play Therapy®, advisory board member for Digital Play Therapy™ and AscendantVR, clinical consultant and content creator for Cognitive Leap, and instructor for Hopscotch. Dr. Altvater authored the book Perspective: Contemplating the Complexities of Our Realities, published her research in the International Journal of Play Therapy on technology use in play therapy, and is a contributing author in numerous scholarly texts on implementing digital technologies in play therapy practice.

Find everything Rachel is doing via her Beacon page here: https://beacons.ai/docvater

Purchase Rachel's book, Perspective: Contemplating the Complexities of Our Realities, on Amazon here .

Additional resources: 

Get 16 meals for FREE when you try HelloFresh using our coupon code! Go to https://hellofresh.com/chat16 and use code chat16 for 16 FREE meals PLUS free shipping!

Follow Laura on TikTok (@therapychatpod) where video clips from Therapy Chat episodes are being posted, along with other short form video content.

In partnership with the Academy of Therapy Wisdom, I invite you to a FREE live webinar presented by my colleague, Akilah Riley-Richardson. In this webinar, she will examine how systemic trauma and relational privilege play out in couples therapy. And she’ll show how we can empower couples to develop healthy intimacy nonetheless. Register here for free and learn about her upcoming course that she talked about on last week's Therapy Chat episode which you can hear at this link. I'm in this course now and I think it's excellent!

Janina Fisher has a new FREE webinar about healing the shame which is a common reaction to trauma. Register here to learn how to address this difficult emotion in therapy with trauma survivors!

Therapists, join the waiting list for Trauma Therapist Network membership. We now have new membership levels and options for Group Practice Owners and Canadian therapists! Get the details and join the waiting list to receive first access when membership reopens here: https://go.traumatherapistnetwork.com/join ! What is TTN? Go here to check it out! Registration opens again in June 2023!

Find Laura's most frequently recommended resources for learning about trauma here - includes recommended books and trainings.

Love Therapy Chat? Leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts to help more people find the show!

Thank you to TherapyNotes for sponsoring this week's episode! TherapyNotes makes billing, scheduling, notetaking, and telehealth incredibly easy. And now, for all you prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly introducing E-prescribe! Try it today with no strings attached, and see why everyone is switching to TherapyNotes, now featuring E-prescribe! Use promo code "chat" at www.therapynotes.com to receive 2 FREE months of TherapyNotes!!

Find a trauma therapist near you at Trauma Therapist Network's trauma therapist directory. www.traumatherapistnetwork.com Trauma is real, healing is possible and help is available. 

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! In this week's episode, recorded prior to the start of the pandemic, host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C interviews therapist Sharon Martin, LCSW, author of the recent book "The CBT Workbook for Perfectionism" and blogger for Psych Central.

Though the interview took place pre-pandemic, the subject of the discussion is just as timely now, if not more so, with so many people impacted by the mental health effects of the events of 2020. Sharon and Laura discussed perfectionism and the process of personal growth and change.

Sharon Martin, LCSW is a licensed psychotherapist, mental health writer, and media contributor on emotional health and relationships. Her psychotherapy practice, in San Jose, CA, specializes in helping individuals struggling with perfectionism, codependency, and people-pleasing. Her own struggle to feel “good enough”, inspired her passion for helping others learn to accept and love themselves. Sharon writes the popular blog Happily Imperfect for PsychCentral.com and is the author of The CBT Workbook for Perfectionism.

Thank you to this episode's sponsor, TherapyNotes. Get a 2 month free trial of TherapyNotes by going to www.TherapyNotes.com and using the promo code TherapyChat.

Resources

Sharon's website is: https://livewellwithsharonmartin.com 

Purchase her book at - https://amzn.to/3kWVaBK 

Learn more about Sonya Renee Taylor - the Body is Not An Apology here: https://thebodyisnotanapology.com/about-tbinaa/history-mission-and-vision/

This is Part 2 of a series about Sexual Assault Awareness, and today’s focus is on Childhood Sexual Abuse. Let’s jump right into our topic!

What you’ll hear in this episode:

• Childhood Sexual Abuse is “a form of child abuse including sexual activity with a minor who is not capable of consenting.” Remember that a child CANNOT give consent to sexual activity!
• Childhood Sexual Abuse is not always physical contact, but can include digital/online interaction, fondling, exhibitionism, child pornography, sex trafficking, and much more.
• In 93% of cases, the sexual abuser of a child is someone known to the child or the family.
• Most statistics under-represent the frequency of occurrence, but 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 20 boys will be sexually abused during childhood.
• Up to 20% of adult females and 5-10% of adult males have been sexually abused during childhood.
• Being abused makes it more likely to be sexually assaulted later in life.
• Most offenders are male, with about 33% being juveniles.
• There is a “grooming process” used by the abuser to draw the child into a sexual relationship, and usually, the abuser will fill roles of trust and value in the victim’s family.
• The effects of childhood sexual abuse are emotional problems, mental health issues, behavioral problems, and academic problems.
• The effects can also include PTSD, depression, anxiety, suicide, and eating disorders.
• Many times these behaviors are not recognized as signs of sexual abuse.
• Protect children by showing interest in their lives, knowing the people in their lives, and knowing caregivers especially well.
• Background checks and the sex offender registry are NOT foolproof!
• Know the warning signs, both physical and behavioral.
• Know how to ask questions to the child and how to respond without judgment and blame.
• Report abuse to the police or to Child Protective Services.
• Call the Child Help National Abuse Hotline: 1-800-422-4453
• Help is available at sexual abuse crisis centers. Visit centers.rainn.org and search by zip code.
• Be sure to find a therapist with specific training in the field of sexual abuse. Not all therapists are qualified to help in all areas.
• Other resources include: victimsofcrime.org and www.rainn.org.

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! This week's episode is one that many of us will find enlightening during this holiday season. We're revisiting two previous interviews with Dr. Jonice Webb, who identified the concept of Childhood Emotional Neglect.

What is it? Listen to these 2 back to back episodes to understand! Here's what you'll hear: so many adults suffer with trauma symptoms but don't understand why. Listening to this week's episode may be helpful for anyone who grew up before the 2010's, when parents began to be more aware of attachment needs. Before that time most parents were not very well aware of children's emotional needs or how to meet them. This leaves us feeling empty and struggling in relationships as adults, or feeling there is something wrong with us. Even if your parents did know about attachment needs, it doesn't mean they were always able to meet them, despite their best intentions. As always, thanks for listening to Therapy Chat!

Visit Dr. Jonice Webb's website here: 

🌟TRAUMA THERAPISTS🌟 We are needed more than ever. I'm committed to supporting you and created a community for you to be part of. From now through December 31, 2024 you can join my membership community, Trauma Therapist Network, and receive a special discount on your first month. Apply here: https://go.traumatherapistnetwork.com/join !

Watch this episode in video format on YouTube!

Therapists - get special savings on trainings through our partnership with Psychotherapy Networker/PESI. Trainings with many previous Therapy Chat guests are discounted at this link. 

Thank you to TherapyNotes for sponsoring this week’s episode! TherapyNotes makes billing, scheduling, notetaking, and telehealth incredibly easy. 

And now, for all you prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly introducing E-prescribe! Try it today with no strings attached, and see why everyone is switching to TherapyNotes, now featuring E-prescribe! Use promo code “chat” at www.therapynotes.com to receive 2 FREE months of TherapyNotes!!

Join the TTN e-mail list to learn what's coming up with Therapy Chat, Trauma Chat and Trauma Therapist Network and get my free PDF 5 Common Mistakes People Make When Searching For A Trauma Therapist here!

Find my most frequently recommended resources for learning about trauma here – includes recommended books and trainings.

Find a trauma therapist near you via findtraumatherapy.com! We believe that trauma is real, healing is possible and help is available at Trauma Therapist Network. 

Love Therapy Chat? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and subscribe where you listen to your podcasts! Thank you!

Podcast produced by Vaudeo Productions - https://vaudeoproductions.com

Welcome back! In Episode 35, the first episode of the Practice Building Series, host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C speaks with counselor, coach and podcaster Colleen Mullen, PsyD, LMFT. Colleen is a psychologist and coach practicing in San Diego, CA and hosts a popular podcast called Coaching Through Chaos. She is also the co-host of a new podcast she will talk about in this episode. With so much going on, Colleen understands that burnout is an occupational hazard for entrepreneurs. She offers some ways to identify when you are at risk for burnout, and some strategies to avoid entrepreneur burnout. You can find out more about what Colleen is doing by visiting her website, www.coachingthroughchaos.com. Listen in on this conversation for some key points therapists need to think about when considering going into private practice. Enjoy! And please visit iTunes to leave a rating and review for Therapy Chat, as well as subscribing and downloading episodes! You can also listen and download episodes at www.therapychatpodcast.com. 

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! As a follow up to last week's episode in which guest Dr. Sharon Martin described the communication dynamics and boundaries of families that could be described as unhealthy, toxic, dysfunctional, abusive, emotionally immature, Sharon is back with a new discussion.

We talked about the challenges of accepting one's family of origin as it really is - and what that means. Sharon explained that a tremendous amount of grief can arise when we see that our family is not open to changing, and how those who decide to cut ties with their families can come out on the other side and move forward with their lives. 

My guest for this replay episode from 2021 is Dr. Sharon Martin. Sharon has been working with adults whose parents were emotionally immature, emotionally neglectful, emotionally unavailable, substance abusing, or otherwise unable to meet their children's attachment needs for 20 years, and she has written several books about healing from difficult childhoods. Her latest book, "Cutting Ties With Your Parents: A workbook to help adults make peace with their decision, heal emotional wounds, and move forward with their lives," comes out in mid-October, 2024. 

Pre-order Sharon's new book now and find other great resources via her website: https://livewellwithsharonmartin.com 

🌟Trauma Therapists🌟 doors are closing this week for new members joining my membership community, Trauma Therapist Networ Add your name to the waiting list here for first access and a special discount! 

Watch this episode in video format on YouTube!

I'm excited to share that I'll be exhibiting at the Integrative Medicine for Mental Health (IMMH) Conference, October 10-13, 2024 in Washington, DC! Experience four days of learning about the latest scientific evidence and best clinical practices in integrative mental health and functional medicine psychiatry. My friends Linda Thai, Benjamin Fry and Dr. Leslie Korn will both be presenting along with Seth Porges, Dr. Robert Lustig, Dr. Daniel Amen, Dr. Chris Palmer, Dr. Dale Bredesen, Dr. Georgia Ede, Dr. James Greenblatt, Dr. Kat Toups, and many others, including the newly announced Dr. Aseem Malhotra! Earn up to 24.0 CE/CMEs*! You can save $100 using code TRAUMATH100 at https://immh.org! Both in-person and virtual tickets are available. I hope to see you there!

Thank you to TherapyNotes for sponsoring this week’s episode! TherapyNotes makes billing, scheduling, notetaking, and telehealth incredibly easy. 

And now, for all you prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly introducing E-prescribe! Try it today with no strings attached, and see why everyone is switching toTherapyNotes, now featuring E-prescribe! Use promo code “chat” at www.therapynotes.com to receive 2 FREE months of TherapyNotes!!

Join the TTN e-mail list to learn what's coming up with Therapy Chat, Trauma Chat and Trauma Therapist Network and get my free PDF 5 Common Mistakes People Make When Searching For A Trauma Therapist here!

Find my most frequently recommended resources for learning about trauma here – includes recommended books and trainings.

Find a trauma therapist near you via findtraumatherapy.com! We believe that trauma is real, healing is possible and help is available at Trauma Therapist Network. 

Love Therapy Chat? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, and subscribe where you listen to your podcasts! Thank you!

Podcast produced by Vaudeo Productions - https://vaudeoproductions.com

Welcome to episode 124 of the Therapy Chat Podcast with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C. Today Laura welcomes back Dr. Leslie Korn. 

Dr. Leslie Korn has had a bi-lingual (Eng/Span) clinical practice since 1977 and providing over 50,000 hours of integrative health care to people with a diverse range of health problems in both urban and rural settings.

She is the author of 4 books; Nutritional Essentials for Mental Health, (Norton, 2015), Cultural Competency Workbook, (Premiere Publishing , 2015) Rhythms of Recovery Trauma Nature and the Body (Routledge, 2013), and Preventing and Treating Diabetes Naturally, The Native Way, (DayKeeper Press, 2009) and her latest book The Good Mood Kitchen will be out in 2017.

Dr. Korn consults to clinicians and advises clients who want to people to reduce or eliminate pharmaceutical use and in particular psychotropic medications. She works with people who want to integrate natural approaches to their health care and she has a specialty practice in mental health nutrition and body oriented psychotherapy. She also consults to community mental health, hospital based programs and on tribal reservations supporting the integration of traditional healing and integrative medicine for mental and physical health.

Dr. Korn received her PhD in Behavioral Medicine from the Union Institute, a MA degree in cross cultural health psychology from Lesley University, and a MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Resources:

https://drlesliekorn.com

Leave me a message via Speakpipe by going to https://therapychatpodcast.com and clicking on the green Speakpipe button.

Thank you for listening to Therapy Chat! Please be sure to go to iTunes and leave a rating and review, subscribe and download episodes. You can also download the Therapy Chat app on iTunes by clicking here.

Visit Therapy Chat website at Http://therapychatpodcast.com and send host Laura Reagan a voice message letting her know what you think of Therapy Chat! Did you like this episode? Did you dislike it? Let her know!

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! This week I'm joined by a fellow trauma therapist who is also a colleague and friend, Dr. Jenny Hughes.

In our conversation we explore themes of building trust through allowing vulnerability, the power of connection and co-regulation in healing, the process of metabolizing emotions, integration and healing, the transformative power of difficult times, grief, vicarious trauma and vicarious resilience, hope, finding supportive spaces, the beauty and joy of trauma work, what happens in Jenny's Brave Trauma Therapist Collective, and so much more.

Dr. Jenny Hughes is a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in the treatment of trauma

and PTSD. As a clinician, she practices EMDR, Cognitive Processing Therapy, and Prolonged Exposure therapy. Jenny has published a workbook designed for clients to use on their own or with their therapist called the PTSD Recovery Workbook.

Jenny's practice website: www.jenniferhughesphd.com

Learn about the Brave Providers Community at: www.braveproviders.com

Join my e-mail list to learn what's coming up in 2024 with Therapy Chat and Trauma Therapist Network and get my free PDF 5 Common Mistakes People Make When Searching For A Trauma Therapist here!

We are accepting new clients in my therapy practice (for those located in Maryland). Learn more via our website: https://bahealing.com 

Find a trauma therapist near you via https://traumatherapistnetwork.com ! We believe that trauma is real, healing is possible and help is available at Trauma Therapist Network. 

Check out these great learning opportunities through our friends at the Academy of Therapy Wisdom:

Working With Complex Trauma: Innovative Approaches for Restoring Mind-Body Integration with Dr. Bessel van der Kolk and Linda Thai, LMSW. 

The Neurobiology of Feeling Safe - Working With Boundaries Inside and Out with Jules Taylor Shore, LPC, LMFT, SEP

Neurobiology with Heart - Partnering With Your Client's Brain to Make Sessions Easier and Deeper - with Jules Taylor Shore, LPC, LMFT, SEP  

Living With the Legacy Of Loss - A Somatic Approach for Working With Grief with Dr. Janina Fisher 

Thank you to TherapyNotes for sponsoring this week’s episode! TherapyNotes makes billing, scheduling,notetaking, and telehealth incredibly easy. And now, for all you prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly introducing E-prescribe! Try it today with no strings attached, and see why everyone is switching toTherapyNotes, now featuring E-prescribe! Use promo code “chat” at www.therapynotes.com to receive 2 FREE months of TherapyNotes!!

Find my most frequently recommended resources for learning about trauma here – includes recommended books and trainings.

Love Therapy Chat? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, and subscribe where you listen to your podcasts! Thank you!

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey – https://petebailey.net/audio

Today, I did something hard. Have you heard Glennon Doyle Melton say "We can do hard things"? Well, we can. I can. I think. It's not always something huge - for me, today, it was trying something new and very challenging.

Fulfilling a promise I made to myself and to listeners of Therapy Chat (talk about accountability!), I took my 45 year old body which has not been on the back of a horse for 32 years - and even then, at age 13, my experience was limited to two or three times I rode a horse while someone held on and walked it - and had my first horseback riding lesson. My first lesson, ever. It was clear that the people at the barn and at the shop where I bought my helmet today expected I had SOME kind of experience on a horse when they were talking to me. They kept saying "so you're coming back to riding?" I was like, "no, I'm an absolute beginner. I've never done it at all."

I like knowing.

I'll be honest, I hated how it felt to admit that I didn't know ANYTHING about horsemanship. I am realizing more and more - I LIKE KNOWING! Not knowing is totally uncomfortable! At this stage of my life I feel like I KNOW in most situations. Maybe it's because I'm a parent and I've become comfortable in that "bossy know it all" role. Maybe I don't push myself out of my comfort zone often enough. Yet I do challenge myself fairly often! In fact, when discussing this with my husband he noted that it seems easy for me to do new things. Not really! Recent experiences of stepping into unfamiliar territory have reminded me (i.e. I've reluctantly accepted) that it's okay to be a beginner. But I am not going to lie, I strongly dislike that feeling.

It seems like a metaphor for what it must be like for my clients to come to therapy. And what it has been like for me to go to therapy. It's vulnerable!!! Vulnerable is an understatement. Vulnerability makes my skin crawl.

In fact, the more I know as a therapist, the harder it is to be the one on the couch. Yet I also know that I will be my best self as a therapist when I continue exploring the parts of myself that I don't really enjoy looking into. For all of us, those parts are there and they are either in the shadows, where we don't see them as they are calling all the shots, or they are in our conscious awareness and we can manage them more effectively. [Listen to previous Therapy Chat episodes on the Shadow here, here, here and here].

So today I was struggling with not knowing, being a beginner. Pretending I don't feel that way - or avoiding noticing this overwhelming sense of wanting to know - might seem easier. I certainly don't need to write about it here! I'd rather play it cool. I could just have this private experience and not say anything about it publicly. I am sharing it here because I hope it will help you sit with that discomfort when it comes up in your life. You can turn toward the discomfort - feel it - or turn away from it - avoidance.

It's much more fun and interesting, from my perspective, for me to sit back and tell you how much I know about what you might want to try doing differently so you can feel better in your life. But what I really know all comes from my own experiences of struggling and figuring stuff out the hard way. Yes, I have a lot of training and experience but if I couldn't apply these lessons to my own life something would be missing. So showing you that I struggle too is a way I hope to help.

How did I get here?

How did I end up on the back of a very large horse today? I've been talking about wanting to learn horsemanship. I've been talking about it for more than 10 years. I talked about it in a previous blog and Therapy Chat episode. I've told myself that all I need to do is sign up and get started. True. So this year I signed up. I got started today. And this is what happened:

Spoiler: it wasn't all rainbows and butterflies.

I was scared. I was nervous. I struggled with not knowing. I found myself using self-deprecation while purchasing a helmet at the Saddlery and while learning how to groom and tack at the Equestrian Center. I probably won't remember how to groom and tack and will have to re-learn next time. I judged myself - fairly harshly. I told myself my body isn't able to do this - even while knowing that my body is strong. I kept telling myself I am too big for this - too tall, not slim enough. Maybe the people who ride are slim because it's great exercise. Maybe I will become slimmer too. Maybe I won't. Maybe they aren't all slim. Maybe it doesn't matter.

A horse weighs over 1,000 pounds. The horse did not seem troubled or disturbed to have me sitting on his back. He wasn't groaning at holding me up. I watched myself in the mirror, thinking, "ugh, do I look like that?" even while knowing my body is strong. Knowing I've never done this. I don't have muscle memory for this. I will learn this. I am strong! But I was judging myself. Judging my appearance. Judging myself for judging myself. Yes, I'm serious.

Getting up on that horse was HARD. It was SCARY. It was really high up! I was afraid I wouldn't be able to mount the horse. I literally felt like I felt when I went skiing at age 13 and I fell, and I didn't think I would be able to get up. It is not easy to follow verbal directions in that kind of situation when the animal you are trying to climb onto is moving and you can't really see where to place yourself. By the way, getting down was even harder and I almost fell. But I didn't. And even if I did. so what? Even if I got hurt?! I will be okay.

There is an element of trust to this. I'm working on it. Do I need to trust the horse or trust myself? Maybe - probably - both. As my daughter said to me today when I was telling her how hard it was, "Not everything is a therapeutic experience, Mom." Well, true. But I am convinced that this can be. And I am struggling - so apparently it already is.

When my hourlong lesson was over today, I wanted to be like "this was so amazing!" But I didn't feel like it was amazing. I had about 5 seconds during the whole experience when I was like "Wow, I'm doing this!" I also thought "Does this horse like me? I'm grateful he hasn't tried to throw me off of his back. Am I doing this correctly?" That last thought occurred at least 20 times. I said it maybe 5 times to the instructor. I wanted to say it like 100 times, at least. I judged myself for feeling scared and unsure. I wondered how the horse and the instructor were judging me.

Judging, judging, judging

When I got in my car, I felt like maybe I wanted to quit. Maybe I can't do it. And I was judging myself for feeling that way. Are you confused yet? Me too! I hated feeling like this vulnerable kid who doesn't know how to do things and doesn't believe in herself. But I allowed myself to feel that way instead of pretending it was different. I was telling anyone who would listen - my friend Anne, who I talked to after the lesson; my husband; my daughter; the saleswoman at the Saddlery; the riding instructor - how hard it was, and how discouraged I feel. As I was telling them my feelings I was judging myself for feeling that way. At home I felt exhausted. Bone tired. Emotionally worn out and physically worn out. An Epsom salt bath is in my future.

Has this ever happened to you in any situation? How often do you push yourself outside of your comfort zone? Do you like it? Hint: NO.

So why don't I just quit this silly horsemanship idea? Well, I actually believe that I will get better at this. I believe that I will have the experience of learning how to do something new, overcoming my doubts, and it will result in not only a sense of mastery - eventually - but also it will remind me that I can do hard things. I am strong. I'm stronger than I think I am. Emotionally and physically. Cognitively, in my logical brain, I know this. The part of me that is a scared little girl is just one of my parts. There are also other parts of me that are confident. Somewhere in there a part of me knows that this will be FUN! One day! If I keep at it. I am giggling to myself as I write that. Somewhere inside I know that's true.

No Mud No Lotus Thich Nhat Hahn

Again, it's like therapy. You go through the hard parts because you know something better is on the other side. Or you believe it is. You hope it is. And it is. Something good will come from it. I realize therapy isn't all fun and games. But it's better than staying where you are and what comes from the hard work is so beautiful, indescribably so. And you're permanently changed - you can never go back to who you were. As Thich Nhat Hahn says, "No mud, no lotus." That is true of large and small experiences of discomfort over our lifetimes. And what's the alternative?

Embracing what is (?)

So I'm going to treasure this experience of being so new at horsemanship. I'm going to try to enjoy this feeling of being a beginner. I'll remember that once I didn't know how to do this at all. One day I'll be on the back of a horse, galloping through a field, maybe even jumping. Who knows? The sky's the limit. I have a long life ahead of me and I am going to do hard things, even when I'm scared. I mean, I don't actually know how long my life will be. Of course, no one does. But in this moment, I did this hard thing. And I am embracing that feeling, in all of its glory. The good and the bad.

I hope this will inspire you to push yourself outside of your comfort zone, too. That is where the magic happens. That is where we grow. And that is really what life is all about - a journey toward self-actualization, whatever that means for each of us. It's going to be okay.

My next lesson is on Thursday of this week. Wish me luck.

If you want to read more of what I write, follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. You can also visit iTunes to subscribe to Therapy Chat. There you'll hear me talking about what I talk about and interviewing other people about what I'm interested to discuss. Or you can listen to Therapy Chat on my website, or on iHeartRadio, Stitcher or Google Play.

If you're in Maryland, and you want therapy to explore the vulnerable parts of yourself that are in need of healing, check out my website. You can also call me at 443-510-1048 or e-mail me at laura@laurareaganlcswc.com. I look forward to connecting! In the meantime, take care!

Warmly,

Laura Reagan, LCSW-C

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! In today’s episode, Laura speaks with Susan Pease Banitt, LCSW about wisdom, attachment + Love in trauma therapy.

Susan Pease Banitt, LCSW is a social worker, psychotherapist and author who specializes in the treatment of severe trauma and PTSD. She has worked in the field of mental health for more than four decades in diverse settings: inpatient, outpatient, and medical with adults and children, and trained in the Harvard medical teaching hospitals in Boston, MA. She is a Karuna Reiki® Master, Kripalu trained yoga teacher (RYT 200), and shamanic healer in the Celtic tradition.In addition Susan studied Past Life Regression Therapy with Dr. Brian Weiss.

Susan’s book The Trauma Tool Kit: Healing PTSD From the Inside Out won several awards including; the Alumni Media Award for Written Work by Simmons College School of Social Work, the Silver Nautilus Award for Health and Healing and was runner-up at the London Book Fair in the category of Spiritual Books. Susan speaks internationally on the psychological and holistic treatment of PTSD. Her second book: Wisdom, Attachment and Love in Trauma Therapy: Beyond Evidence-Based Practice has just been released!

Susan is passionate about helping people heal fully from even the worst traumatic histories. She believes in the power of attachment and caring in the helping relationship, and likes to carry a big metaphorical tool kit. She has done decades of her own healing work, practices meditation daily, and strives to live mindfully and with a compassionate heart in her professional and personal life. Susan is a continuous learner and is excited to bring many modalities to her healing work. She has worked on several boards of directors to support her local healing and artistic communities. She loves to laugh and in her spare time enjoys performing improvisational comedy. Susan lives and works in Portland, Oregon. She is grateful for her supportive friends, family and wise animal companions.

Susan is available for individual therapy with all ages, PTSD coaching, classes, workshops, licensure supervision for social workers, Reiki, PLRT and runs a monthly PTSD support group.

Resources

http://www.suepeasebanitt.com

Please consider supporting Therapy Chat by becoming a member on Patreon! Just $1 a month would make a huge impact to keep Therapy Chat going strong! To learn more: https://patreon.com/TherapyChat - members get special perks and swag too!

Leave me a message via Speakpipe by going to https://therapychatpodcast.com and clicking on the green Speakpipe button.

Thank you for listening to Therapy Chat! Please be sure to go to iTunes and leave a rating and review, subscribe and download episodes. You can also download the Therapy Chat app on iTunes by clicking here.

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! Have you ever considered trying Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy (PAP)? If you're a therapist, is this something that you've been wondering about adding to your practice? Maybe you're just curious. Whether you're a therapist or someone who is interested in learning about psychedelics and trauma, you'll find something in this conversation that will inspire curiosity! This week I'm grateful to bring you my recent conversation with friend and colleague (and TTN member) Lauren Going, LCSW-C, RYT, a trauma-focused, psychedelic assisted psychotherapist, consultant and speaker who co-founded Baltimore's Inner Path Wellness with Eleanor Bramwell, SEP, BSC. 

In this conversation you'll hear me asking Lauren every possible question I can think of about what it's really like to do psychedelic assisted psychotherapy for trauma, as a therapist and a client. She describes the various medicines she works with at Inner Path, how and why they help, and how to choose a practitioner for psychedelic assisted psychotherapy. She offers some resources for therapists who are interested in learning to use these medicines, talks about the research, and much more. Join us for a fascinating conversation!

Learn more about Inner Path Wellness and Lauren at: https://innerpathbaltimore.com/

The Institute for Creative Mindfulness is the brainchild of my friend Dr. Jamie+ Marich, an EMDR Certified Consultant & Trainer. You can save 15% on any of their trainings for the remainder of 2023 using coupon code THERAPYCHAT at this link: https://bit.ly/ICMTherapychat

Therapists - take note - doors are open now for new members to join Trauma Therapist Network! Membership includes a therapist directory profile listing as well as weekly live calls for support, consultation, training and self care. Learn more here! Doors close 10/7 for regular access. When doors close you can join the waiting list for next time registration opens in 2024!

My friend (and prior podcast guest) Deirdre Fay, MSW, has a new course on one of the most challenging aspects of healing after trauma: shame. Shame is that deep sense of being broken, unlovable, worthless that "just talking" can't relieve. Learn about Deirdre's new course and register through Academy of Therapy Wisdom here!

My friend Dr. Jamie+ Marich's free webinar recording and link to learn about their course are found here: Not Faking: Dispelling the Myths & Misunderstandings Of Dissociation

Jamie+ also has a new course on Trauma & the 12 Steps. Click the link to learn more and register!

Thank you to TherapyNotes for sponsoring this week's episode! TherapyNotes makes billing, scheduling, notetaking, and telehealth incredibly easy. And now, for all you prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly introducing E-prescribe! Try it today with no strings attached, and see why everyone is switching to TherapyNotes, now featuring E-prescribe! Use promo code "chat" at www.therapynotes.com to receive 2 FREE months of TherapyNotes!!

Find my most frequently recommended resources for learning about trauma here - includes recommended books and trainings.

Get my free PDF 5 Common Mistakes People Make When Searching For A Trauma Therapist here!

Love Therapy Chat? Leave a rating and review, and subscribe where you listen to your podcasts! Thank you!

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio

Thank you to this episode's sponsor, TherapyNotes. Get a 2-month free trial of TherapyNotes by going to www.TherapyNotes.com and using the promo code TherapyChat. 

Welcome to episode 231 of the Therapy Chat Podcast. In this week's solo episode, host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C shares her observations of the reactions many of us are having to the pandemic.

She touches on the following topics:

Isolation
Fear
Anger
Loss of Control/Powerlessness
Some of the positive things that are coming from this
What we can do about the feelings that are coming up

And Laura wants to know whether this content is what you want to hear, or if you are itching for some of the usual content that you would normally hear on Therapy Chat. Please take a moment to complete this very short, anonymous survey!

Please take a moment to let Laura know how you feel the content. Are you sick of hearing about the pandemic or do you want Laura to keep talking about it?

https://forms.gle/1faMssk8FFAe1N4u9 

Resources:

Leave me a message via Speakpipe by going to https://therapychatpodcast.com and clicking on the green Speakpipe button.

Thank you for listening to Therapy Chat! Please be sure to go to iTunes and leave a rating and review, subscribe and download episodes. You can also download the Therapy Chat app on iTunes by clicking here.

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio

Welcome to episode 126 of the Therapy Chat Podcast with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C. Today Laura speaks to Dr. Maelisa Hall about how much is too much for a therapist to share in a session?

Dr. Maelisa Hall is a licensed clinical psychologist and her passion is to help therapists create rock-solid documentation so they can spend more time with their clients and less time worrying about paperwork. After eight years working in mental health agencies, she started her own company to help therapists learn how to make documentation flow naturally, decrease their workload and be confident in all their paperwork. She shows clinicians that paperwork is a valuable part of therapy and that it doesn’t have to be slow and painful! You’ll have more time to work with clients because you’ll know you can take on the paperwork no problem.

Maelisa consults with psychotherapists in private practice, agencies and group practices to teach them things like how to write great notes, what to consider if insurance is involved, how to document high-risk issues and what forms they actually need for their clientele.

Training is her passion so she has created online programs that help connect therapists so they can learn from any place at any time. Her goal is make everything she does serve a real need so she makes sure to include plenty of real-life examples and interactive exercises in every workshop she creates.

Resources:

https://www.mybizbestie.com

https://www.qaprep.com

Therapists! Would you like to get a free month of service with Brighter Vision, the worldwide leaders in custom website design for therapists? Go to this link to sign up and get a free month: https://try.brightervision.com/therapychatpodcast

Go to https://global.oup.com/academic/product/healing-justice-9780190663087?q=healing%20justice&lang=en&cc=us and use code “ASFLYQ6” to save 30% on Loretta’s book!

Leave me a message via Speakpipe by going to https://therapychatpodcast.com and clicking on the green Speakpipe button.

Thank you for listening to Therapy Chat! Please be sure to go to iTunes and leave a rating and review, subscribe and download episodes. You can also download the Therapy Chat app on iTunes by clicking here.

Visit Therapy Chat website at Http://therapychatpodcast.com and send host Laura Reagan a voice message letting her know what you think of Therapy Chat! Did you like this episode? Did you dislike it? Let her know!

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! This week host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C interviews Annie Schuessler of The Rebel Therapist ®. First, Laura mentioned the high incidence of helping professionals leaving their fields due to stress and burnout, and how this conversation inspires hope for helpers who feel stuck and are considering changing careers. Annie and Laura talked about how helpers and healers can pivot when the day to day is leading them to exhaustion and overwhelm. Annie's program that helps private practice therapists pivot is opening and she has a special offer, detailed in the show notes!

Annie Schuessler is a business coach and the host of the podcast Rebel Therapist® where she shares stories of people creating unique and innovative businesses. She was a therapist in private practice for 20 years, and a business coach for over 10 years. Her mission is to help people trained as therapists create and launch exceptional programs beyond the therapy room. She lives in San Francisco with her spouse and two children. When she’s not recording a podcast or working with her clients, you can find her trying to convince her family to play Catan with her or watering one of 75 house plants. 

Annie Schuessler of Rebel Therapist is opening early registration for Create Your Program, her process to help you create and sell your own signature program beyond private practice. Folks who sign up between June 19th and June 26th, 2023, will get 3 extra months of access before live calls begin. Register here: https://rebeltherapist.me/create

Find all of the resources on Annie's website here: https://rebeltherapist.me/

Listen to Rebel Therapist® here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rebel-therapist/id1229921995 

Find Annie on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/annieschuessler 

Trauma Therapist Network is a wonderful place for therapists to find the antidote to isolation: connection! Registration is currently open to the waiting list. Join the waitlist now and you'll receive an e-mail offer for early access and a special discount! Doors close 6/30 and Early Access ends 6/20!

Get 16 meals for FREE when you try HelloFresh using our coupon code! Go to https://hellofresh.com/chat16 and use code chat16 for 16 FREE meals PLUS free shipping!

Therapists: bilateralstimulation.io is a free and simple tool used by more than 10,000 EMDR therapists worldwide to provide bilateral stimulation to their clients, during both telehealth and in-person EMDR sessions. With their software, you can provide visual and auditory BLS, and with their groundbreaking remote tactile buzzers you can even provide tactile BLS over the internet!

The basic version of their BLS tool is free, and for Therapy Chat listeners, they offer an extended two-month trial of their paid version as well as a special discount on their remote tactile BLS buzzers. Visit bls.software to learn more and claim your special offer! 

Follow Laura on TikTok (/@therapychatpod) where video clips from Therapy Chat episodes are being posted, along with other short form video content.

Find Laura's most frequently recommended resources for learning about trauma here - includes recommended books and trainings.

Love Therapy Chat? Leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts to help more people find the show!

Thank you to TherapyNotes for sponsoring this week's episode! TherapyNotes makes billing, scheduling, notetaking, and telehealth incredibly easy. And now, for all you prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly introducing E-prescribe! Try it today with no strings attached, and see why everyone is switching to TherapyNotes, now featuring E-prescribe! Use promo code "chat" at www.therapynotes.com to receive 2 FREE months of TherapyNotes!!

Find a trauma therapist near you at Trauma Therapist Network's trauma therapist directory. www.traumatherapistnetwork.com Trauma is real, healing is possible and help is available. 

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio

Today's Therapy Chat guest is Dr. Peter Levine, the developer of Somatic Experiencing, who speaks about his journey as a wounded healer. He shares that by being open about our experiences healing, our authenticity allows others to know they're not alone. None of us in the helping professions have been immune to suffering, it's a part of the universal experience of being human; and there's no shame in having experienced trauma, no matter who you are. In our conversation, Dr. Levine shares about how he developed Somatic Experiencing, and the surprising muse he found during that process. He discusses his violent childhood growing up in a family which was under threat by the mafia, and how Somatic Experiencing approaches healing from trauma "stuck" in the body.

Learn more about Somatic Experiencing here. The Ergos Institute is here.

Find Peter Levine's new book, Autobiography of Trauma: A Healing Journey on Amazon here.

Register for: Resilience Informed Therapy - An Integrative Somatic Approach to Trauma Recovery and get 12 CE's while learning from one of my favorite teachers, Dr. Arielle Schwartz! 

Another of my favorite teachers, Dr. Janina Fisher, is opening enrollment to her next cohort of TIST trainees. The next cohort starts April 18th, you won't want to miss this opportunity to learn this helpful model. Receive 22.5 CE's while de-mystifying therapy when complex trauma and dissociation arise! Get all the details and register here! 

The Ultimate Refresh is a 6-day, all-inclusive retreat in Costa Rica for entrepreneurs and leaders who know that burning out is not an option, hosted by my friend Melissa Wesner! Join us this April 14-19, 2024 for an opportunity to rest, relax, and build community while having the most amazing wellness experiences in the jungle. Register here: https://lifespringcounseling.net/small-business-owners-retreat-in-costa-rica and save $200 using coupon code: GUILTFREE !

Thank you to TherapyNotes for sponsoring this week’s episode! TherapyNotes makes billing, scheduling, notetaking, and telehealth incredibly easy. And now, for all you prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly introducing E-prescribe! Try it today with no strings attached, and see why everyone is switching toTherapyNotes, now featuring E-prescribe! Use promo code “chat” at www.therapynotes.com to receive 2 FREE months of TherapyNotes!!

Join the TTN e-mail list to learn what's coming up in 2024 with Therapy Chat, Trauma Chat and Trauma Therapist Network and get my free PDF 5 Common Mistakes People Make When Searching For A Trauma Therapist here!

Find my most frequently recommended resources for learning about trauma here – includes recommended books and trainings.

Find a trauma therapist near you via https://traumatherapistnetwork.com ! We believe that trauma is real, healing is possible and help is available at Trauma Therapist Network. 

Love Therapy Chat? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, and subscribe where you listen to your podcasts! Thank you!

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey – https://petebailey.net/audio

In this episode, host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C, CDWF shares the secret to raising well adjusted children. We all want our children to grow up as happy people who thrive in relationship with themselves and others, and in their work and school lives. Laura shares three rules which will lead to children growing up to be well adjusted adults, and why they are important. 

In this week's episode my guests are Dr. Ann Kelley and Sue Marriott, LCSW, hosts of Therapist Uncensored podcast and authors of the upcoming book, Secure Relating: Holding Your Own In An Insecure World. They discuss the importance of spreading secure relating and changing society through understanding attachment. They describe how their book challenges traditional views of attachment and proposes a spectrum of attachment patterns. We had a great conversation that I know you'll find interesting! Ann Kelley, PhD, (she/her) is a licensed psychologist in private practice, specializing in couples therapy from an integrative, attachment-based, relational framework. Sue Marriott , LCSW, CGP (she/her) has been running a private practice for over 25 years, seeing individuals and couples and leading multiple long-term psychotherapy groups.

Find Secure Relating: Holding Your Own in An Insecure World on Amazon here. 

Listen to Therapist Uncensored here. Learn about Ann & Sue's conference here.

Register for: Resilience Informed Therapy - An Integrative Somatic Approach to Trauma Recovery and get 12 CE's while learning from one of my favorite teachers, Dr. Arielle Schwartz! 

Another of my favorite teachers, Dr. Janina Fisher, is opening enrollment to her next cohort of TIST trainees. The next cohort starts April 18th, you won't want to miss this opportunity to learn this helpful model. Receive 22.5 CE's while de-mystifying therapy when complex trauma and dissociation arise! Get all the details and register here! 

The Ultimate Refresh is a 6-day, all-inclusive retreat in Costa Rica for entrepreneurs and leaders who know that burning out is not an option, hosted by my friend Melissa Wesner! Join us this April 14-19, 2024 for an opportunity to rest, relax, and build community while having the most amazing wellness experiences in the jungle. Register here: https://lifespringcounseling.net/small-business-owners-retreat-in-costa-rica and save $200 using coupon code: GUILTFREE !

Thank you to TherapyNotes for sponsoring this week’s episode! TherapyNotes makes billing, scheduling, notetaking, and telehealth incredibly easy. And now, for all you prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly introducing E-prescribe! Try it today with no strings attached, and see why everyone is switching toTherapyNotes, now featuring E-prescribe! Use promo code “chat” at www.therapynotes.com to receive 2 FREE months of TherapyNotes!!

Join the TTN e-mail list to learn what's coming up in 2024 with Therapy Chat, Trauma Chat and Trauma Therapist Network and get my free PDF 5 Common Mistakes People Make When Searching For A Trauma Therapist here!

Find my most frequently recommended resources for learning about trauma here – includes recommended books and trainings.

Find a trauma therapist near you via https://traumatherapistnetwork.com ! We believe that trauma is real, healing is possible and help is available at Trauma Therapist Network. 

Love Therapy Chat? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, and subscribe where you listen to your podcasts! Thank you!

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey – https://petebailey.net/audio

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! Today I'm bringing you a replay episode with Keria Nola

Keri Nola is a psychotherapist and coach for healers and the creator of the Messages From Shadow deck. Keri discusses the Shadow in more depth and discusses how she became acquainted with this concept and how we can learn to welcome all parts of ourselves.

Resources:

https://www.kerinola.com

Considering training in the Safe & Sound Protocol (SSP)? Visit unyte.com to learn more about the SSP and use my code LREAGAN1 at checkout for $100 off an annual SSP subscription bundle or training course. 

Thank you PESI and Psychotherapy Networker for sponsoring this week's episode! 

Therapists, heck out Janina Fisher's trainings and other offerings related to trauma, attachment and shame via the PESI/Psychotherapy Networker partner page and get special discounts! 

Thank you to TherapyNotes for sponsoring this week's episode! TherapyNotes makes billing, scheduling, notetaking, and telehealth incredibly easy. And now, for all you prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly introducing E-prescribe! Find out what more than 100,000 mental health professionals already know, and try TherapyNotes for 2 months, absolutely free. Try it today with no strings attached, and see why everyone is switching to TherapyNotes. Now featuring E-prescribe. Use promo code "chat" at www.therapynotes.com to receive 2 FREE months of TherapyNotes!

Learn about trauma, connect with resources and find a trauma therapist near you at www.traumatherapistnetwork.com. We believe that trauma is real, healing is possible and help is available. Find a trauma therapist in the US or Europe via www.findtraumatherapy.com!

Therapists, registration opens in summer 2025 for Trauma Therapist Network membership. Join a compassionate and skilled group of trauma therapists for weekly calls focused on Self Care, Case Consultation, Q&A and Training. Get on the waiting list now to be the first to know when registration opens! Sign up here https://go.traumatherapistnetwork.com/join 

Podcast produced by Vaudeo Productions - https:/vaudeoproductions.com

Welcome to this special Sexual Assault Awareness Month Episode! I'm sharing two episodes from early in Therapy Chat's life on the issue of sexual assault. After the #MeToo movement, founded by Tarana Burke, ignited on social media over the past year, the general public began to understand what most women and many men already knew: sexual violence can affect anyone, and its effects are deep and longlasting. This is a problem in our culture which can be ended, but not without everyone gaining awareness. Statistics indicate that one in four women and one in six men will be sexually assaulted during their lifetime. April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, a great time to learn more about this important issue. Here's an article from the New York Times about why Tarana Burke started this movement: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/us/me-too-movement-tarana-burke.html

What you’ll hear in this episode:

• Two types of sexual assault are Childhood Sexual Abuse (to be covered in a later episode) and Sexual Assault/Rape not involving a child. This is our focus today.
• If you are assaulted, you have several options to consider:
• Call a Sexual Assault Crisis Hotline. Visit the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network at www.rainn.org.
• Most hospitals provide a forensic evidence exam at no cost to you, within 120 hours of the assault. Your state's sexual assault coalition can give you a list of hospitals with forensic programs.
• It is your personal decision whether or not to report the assault to the police and you can usually receive an evidence collection exam without reporting to police.
• The victim should tell someone who will be supportive. Visit www.evawintl.org (End Violence Against Women International.) Check out their “Start by Believing” campaign.
• The US military and most colleges/universities have separate options for reporting sexual assault.
• Keep in mind that the civil legal process is another option outside the criminal investigation; a settlement can be obtained without bringing criminal charges.
• The Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Abuse (MCASA) is an outstanding resource for survivors. http://www.mcasa.org/
• Find a Sexual Assault Crisis Center Directory at www.centers.rainn.org.
• There are some common reactions of victims following sexual abuse. Find a comprehensive list at www.musc.edu. 
• There are many community events across the country in April to bring awareness to sexual assault. Some events include The Clothesline Project, The Monument Quilt, Performances of The Vagina Monologues (find info at: www.vday.org), Take Back the Night, and Walk a Mile in Her Shoes. 

This is Part 2 of a series about Sexual Assault Awareness, and today’s focus is on Childhood Sexual Abuse. Let’s jump right into our topic!

What you’ll hear in this episode:

• Childhood Sexual Abuse is “a form of child abuse including sexual activity with a minor who is not capable of consenting.” Remember that a child CANNOT give consent to sexual activity!
• Childhood Sexual Abuse is not always physical contact, but can include digital/online interaction, fondling, exhibitionism, child pornography, sex trafficking, and much more.
• In 93% of cases, the sexual abuser of a child is someone known to the child or the family.
• Most statistics under-represent the frequency of occurrence, but data indicates 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 20 boys will be sexually abused during childhood.
• Up to 20% of adult females and 5-10% of adult males have been sexually abused during childhood.
• There is an increased risk of sexual assault later in life when a child has had their boundaries violated in this way.
• Most offenders are male, with about 33% being juveniles.
• There is often a “grooming process” used by the abuser to draw the child into a sexual relationship, and usually, the abuser will fill roles of trust and value in the victim’s family. This makes it harder for children to come forward and makes them more likely to believe they are responsible for the abuse
• The effects of childhood sexual abuse can include emotional problems, mental health issues, behavioral problems, and academic problems.
• The effects can also include PTSD, depression, anxiety, suicide, and eating disorders.
• Many times these behaviors are not recognized as signs of sexual abuse.
• Protect children by showing interest in their lives, knowing the people in their lives, and knowing caregivers especially well.
• Background checks and the sex offender registry are NOT foolproof.
• Know how to ask questions to the child and how to respond without judgment and blame.
• Report abuse to the police and, if applicable, to Child Protective Services.
• Call the Child Help National Abuse Hotline: 1-800-422-4453
• Help is available at sexual abuse crisis centers. Visit centers.rainn.org and search by zip code.
• When seeking a therapist look for one with specific training in the field of sexual abuse. Not all therapists are qualified to help in all areas. The therapist should have knowledge and experience in developmental trauma.
• Other resources include: victimsofcrime.org and www.rainn.org.
• Call the National Sexual Assault Hotline 24/7 to speak to someone who can help you if you need someone to talk to after listening to this episode. The phone number (US Only) is: 1-800-656-4673

The RAINN chat hotline is available at: https://hotline.rainn.org/online/terms-of-service.jsp

Other Notes: 

Register for the Authentic Self Two Day Retreat with Charlotte Hiler Easley, LCSW and Laura Reagan, LCSW-C at: https://laurareaganlcswc.com/retreat

Thank you to this episode's sponsor, TherapyNotes. Get a 2-month free trial of TherapyNotes by going to www.TherapyNotes.com and using the promo code TherapyChat. 

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! Today host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C speaks to Dr. Daniel P. Brown about attachment needs in children and adults.  

Dr. Brown received his undergraduate degree at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst MA in molecular biology and his Ph.D. in Religion & Psychological Studies at the University of Chicago. He received a Danforth Fellowship given for promise in teaching excellence, and as part of that fellowship received specialized training in how to teach. While in graduate school he was particularly interested in interdisciplinary studies. At the University of Chicago he worked in religion & psychological studies, the history of religions, anthropology, human development and clinical psychology. Erika Fromm, Ph.D. a noted hypnoanalyst, served as his primary clinical mentor–a relationship that spanned 35 years.  

Dr. Brown has taught hypnotherapy for 38 years. His books on hypnosis include a standard textbook on clinical hypnosis, Hypnotherapy and Hypnoanalysis (with E. Fromm), Hypnosis and Behavioral Medicine (with E. Fromm), and Creative Mastery in Hypnosis and Hypnoanalysis, on the permissive style of hypnotherapy. While in graduate school in Chicago he commuted to the University of Wisconsin, Madison for part time studies in the Buddhist studies program, where he learned Tibetan, Buddhist Sanskrit, and Pali. 

Resources 

Thank you to This Jungian Life Podcast for sponsoring today's episode! Listen at: http://www.thisjungianlife.com

For a limited time, until March 30, 2019, receive 10% off of Dan's course using promo code: THERAPYCHAT in the section when talking about Dan Brown.

https://www.attachmentproject.com 

https://www.drdanielpbrown.com  

Please let us know what you'd like to learn more from Laura by completing this short survey! 

Are you a therapist needing support to sharpen your clinical skills in working with trauma survivors? Want to work with Laura for clinical consultation? Get in touch via laura@bahealing.com. Or if you're interested in joining an upcoming online or in person clinical consultation group, go here to sign up on the interest list! 

Want a cool Therapy Chat t-shirt, sticker or mug? Find them here: https://www.teepublic.com/user/therapychat 

Please consider supporting Therapy Chat by becoming a member on Patreon! Just $1 a month would make a huge impact to keep Therapy Chat going strong! To learn more head to - https://patreon.com/TherapyChat where members get special perks and swag too! 

Leave me a message via Speakpipe by going to https://therapychatpodcast.com and clicking on the green Speakpipe button. 

Thank you for listening to Therapy Chat! Please be sure to go to iTunes and leave a rating and review, subscribe and download episodes. You can also download the Therapy Chat app on iTunes by clicking here. 

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio 

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! This week host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C interviews returning guest Sarah Peyton, the author of Your Resonant Self. Sarah explains the neuroscience of belonging and exclusion. She describes why people gather around a charismatic leader who rails against "others" and what we can do differently. This episode is very timely, as it was recorded before the 2021 US Capitol insurrection that caused so much harm. If you have been trying to understand the polarization of political views in the US, Sarah's explanation will be of interest to you.

Sarah Peyton, Certified Trainer of Nonviolent Communication, constellation facilitator and neuroscience educator, integrates brain science and the use of resonant language to heal trauma and nourish self-warmth with exquisite gentleness. She teaches and lectures internationally, and is the author of the book “Your Resonant Self: Guided Meditations and Exercises to Engage Your Brain’s Capacity for Healing." Her second book from W.W. Norton, The Your Resonant Self Workbook, is available for preorder on Amazon and will be published May 25, 2021.

Resources

Sarah Peyton's Website: www.sarahpeyton.com

Preorder Sarah Peyton's Resonant Self Workbook here

Thanks to everyone who registered for the Trauma Therapist Community clinical consultation groups! Groups are full and registration is now closed. If you'd like to be the first to know when I reopen TTC groups for new members (likely late summer 2021), Sign up at this link!

Leave me a message via Speakpipe by going to https://therapychatpodcast.com and clicking on the green Speakpipe button.

Thank you for listening to Therapy Chat! Please be sure to go to iTunes and leave a rating and review, subscribe and download episodes. You can also download the Therapy Chat app on iTunes by clicking here.

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! Today's episode, the second in the Integrative Mental Health Series, includes a fascinating interview with author Dr. Leslie Korn, who is a Harvard-trained body-oriented psychotherapist who has worked for four decades to help people understand the connection between physical and emotional health. Leslie spoke with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C all the way from Mexico, where she lives and works.

Leslie talks about how she got started doing body-oriented psychotherapy, what she learned in the jungle, and how nutrition can help our mental health. She discusses the connection between trauma and physical and mental health; self care; and her book "Nutrition Essentials for Mental Health". She talks about the "right diet" for everyone, explaining that fat is actually our friend! She explains that she prefers to take the ideology out of nutrition, stating that clinicians can use the science and the art of nutrition to help clients. Leslie discusses the idea of the gut as the second brain.

Leslie answers the question Laura has been wondering about for years. What is the connection between childhood trauma and ACES and long term physical health problems? She clearly explains this for clinicians to understand and explain to clients. And any survivor of childhood trauma who is listening will surely feel empowered to understand this connection from listening to Leslie's very clear explanation.

Finally, Leslie discusses pharmaceuticals "du jour" and diagnoses "du jour" and how the food-mood connection can be in direct conflict with traditional Western ideas about medicine and health. And she explains how the gall bladder plays a role in mental health, and how social justice fits in. In her work with indigenous groups and in the US she has observed the effects of the loss of traditional diets and culture on physical and mental health. And she points out that blood sugar can play a very significant role in mental health, and explains how clinicians can help clients look at this differently.

Dr. Leslie Korn teaches therapists nationally in the US through PESI on multicultural as well as offering supervision and working with clients in Mexico. Her most recent book is Nutrition Essentials for Mental Health, published by Norton; and Rhythms of Recovery: Trauma, Nature and the Body. Her new book will be published in early 2017. Here's where you can find more of what Dr. Leslie Korn is doing:

www.drlesliekorn.com

Thank you for listening to Therapy Chat! Please visit iTunes to subscribe and leave a rating and review! 

Welcome to episode 122 of the Therapy Chat Podcast with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C. Today Laura has a deeper discussion about intimate partner violence.

Resources:

1-800-799-7233 (SAFE) National Domestic Violence Hotline

https://nnedv.org/

https://www.techsafety.org/resources/

www.ncadv.org

I talked about the HBO series “Big Little Lies”

https://cops.usdoj.gov/Default.asp?Item=2881

Leave me a message via Speakpipe by going to https://therapychatpodcast.com and clicking on the green Speakpipe button.

Thank you for listening to Therapy Chat! Please be sure to go to iTunes and leave a rating and review, subscribe and download episodes. You can also download the Therapy Chat app on iTunes by clicking here.

Visit Therapy Chat website at Http://therapychatpodcast.com and send host Laura Reagan a voice message letting her know what you think of Therapy Chat! Did you like this episode? Did you dislike it? Let her know!

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! This week, our conversation about trauma and health continues as host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C interviews Dr. Aimie Apigian, a functional medicine doctor, about the biology of trauma and how this piece is often omitted from trauma treatment.

She explains why healing is incomplete without the physiology of trauma being addressed, describes what is happening in the body when someone is in a chronic state of freeze, and shares information about her upcoming Annual Biology of Trauma Summit featuring Dr. Gabor Maté (featured in last week's episode) and many other experts in the field of functional medicine and the physiology of trauma.

Dr. Aimie is a Double Board-Certified Medical Physician in both Preventive and Addiction Medicine and holds Double Masters Degrees in Biochemistry and in Public Health. She is the leading medical expert on addressing stored trauma in the body through her signature model and methodology, The Biology of Trauma™: a new lens that courageously uplevels the old methods of trauma work and medicine by reverse-engineering trauma's effects on the nervous system and body on a cellular level.

Dr. Aimie specializes in trauma, attachment and addictions after having personal experience in foster parenting, adopting and then having her own health issues that were a result of childhood and life experiences. In addition to her medical studies that have included Functional Medicine Certification, she has sought out trauma therapy training since 2015.

Dr. Aimie founded a Nonprofit called Family Challenge Camps, and developed and ran weekend intensives for families with children who have experienced attachment trauma. She is currently the founder and CEO of Trauma Healing Accelerated, where she bridges the two worlds of Functional Medicine and Trauma Therapy with a mission to help adults accelerate the healing journey by addressing The Biology of Trauma™ that keeps stored trauma stuck in the body, mind and spirit. Her Providers’ Certification Course teaches providers to do the same for their clients.

Resources: 

Dr. Aimie's website: www.traumahealingaccelerated.com

Thank you to TherapyNotes for sponsoring this week's episode! TherapyNotes makes billing, scheduling, notetaking, and telehealth incredibly easy. And now, for all you prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly introducing E-prescribe!

Find out what more than 100,000 mental health professionals already know, and try TherapyNotes for 2 months, absolutely free.

Try it today with no strings attached, and see why everyone is switching to TherapyNotes. Now featuring E-prescribe. Use promo code "chat" at www.therapynotes.com to receive 2 FREE months of TherapyNotes!

This episode is also sponsored by Trauma Therapist Network. Learn about trauma, connect with resources and find a trauma therapist near you at www.traumatherapistnetwork.com. We believe that trauma is real, healing is possible and help is available.

Therapists, registration opens in July for Trauma Therapist Network membership. Join a compassionate and skilled group of trauma therapists for weekly calls focused on Self Care, Case Consultation, Q&A and Training. 

Get on the waiting list now to be the first to know when registration opens! Sign up here: https://traumatherapistnetwork.com/wait-list/ 

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio 

Welcome to Therapy Chat! In today’s episode host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C discusses the AMC drama “Mad Men.” If you are a fan of the show, you’ll want to listen and if you haven’t watched it before, maybe you will be intrigued to check it out. Just a warning, though, this episode contains some spoilers so if you don’t want to know some of the important plot points, maybe you should watch the show first and come back to this episode later. Laura is a trauma therapist, and she talks about how the main character of Mad Men, Don Draper, exhibits characteristics common in survivors of childhood abuse trauma. Actor Jon Hamm and show creator Matthew Weiner masterfully characterize a man who is tormented by his inner demons. Laura describes how the traumatic experiences of Don Draper’s childhood could have led to him becoming the adult we meet in the first episode of the series, and what someone who has these symptoms now can do to get help. Laura explains some of the symptoms commonly experienced by survivors of childhood abuse and neglect and lists some of the therapeutic techniques which can be effective in healing childhood trauma. Laura also references past episode of Therapy Chat with more information on the subjects of childhood abuse and the long term emotional and physical effects of childhood trauma.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Therapy Chat Episode 19 on the Epidemic of Childhood Trauma

Therapy Chat Episode 30 on Childhood Sexual Abuse

Therapy Chat Episode 26 on Using the Body to Heal Trauma with Lisa Ferentz, LCSW-C, DAPA

Find out more about Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and Find a Practitioner

Find out more about EMDR and Find a Practitioner

We want to hear from you! Go to Therapy Chat Podcast website and share what you like or don’t like about the podcast. www.therapychatpodcast.com - click on the green button and let host Laura Reagan know if it’s okay to share your feedback on the podcast! You may be included in a future episode!

Thanks for listening to Therapy Chat! Please be sure to go to iTunes and leave a rating and review, subscribe and download episodes!

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! This week host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C expresses gratitude to Melvin Varghese, PhD, who recently interviewed her on his podcast, Selling the Couch. That interview goes live in September, 2021.

Be prepared to hear Laura getting all choked up while sharing about the process of creating the new website Trauma Therapist Network. Laura also thanked Katie Vernoy, LMFT and Curt Widhalm, LMFT for interviewing her on their podcast, The Modern Therapist's Survival Guide. Laura talked about how her frustration with the lack of awareness about trauma and trauma therapy, despite the data that is out there on its long term impact, led her to create the Trauma Therapist Network. Laura also celebrated the first 5000 downloads of Trauma Chat Podcast and welcomed the newest member of the Trauma Therapist Network family, Mary Sue McCarthy, LCPC of Hunt Valley, MD. Mary Sue is Certified in EMDR and also uses Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and Equine Therapies in her practice, where she specializes in trauma and substance abuse. 

Also, in today's episode, Laura interviews Risa Ganel, LCMFT, a relationship expert and public speaker who owns a private couples therapy practice in Maryland. Risa speaks about the importance of conflict in relationships, how our early relationships can teach us unhealthy conflict styles and describes the elements of healthy conflict and what she calls "the intimacy circuit". Risa has trained with Esther Perel and Terry Real and is a Certified Relational Life therapist. 

Risa's website:

https://togethercouplescounseling.com

Thank you to this week's sponsors!

Sunset Lake CBD is created on a small farm outside of Burlington, Vermont that is a producer for Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. 

Sunset Lake CBD customers support regenerative agriculture that preserves the health of the land and creates meaningful employment in the community. Farm workers are paid a living wage, and employees own the majority of the company.

Therapy Chat listeners, get 20% off your entire order of Sunset Lake CBD products using promo code CHAT at www.sunsetlakecbd.com. 

Thank you also to Therapy Reimagined Conference! Therapy Reimagined is more than a conference - it’s an experience! Join the community of Modern Therapists for the 4th annual, 2nd virtual, 1st HYBRID(!!) Therapy Reimagined Conference from September 23-25, 2021! We will be in Los Angeles and online with our super fancy virtual conference App. We bring fresh diverse voices to our virtual and physical stages talking about cutting edge topics that most other conferences avoid. Learn more at therapyreimaginedconference.com AND - Grab your virtual or hybrid ticket for 15% off with a special promo code for Therapy Chat Listeners: THERAPYCHAT15. 

Help us make Trauma Therapist Network the best resource it can be!

Send a message about resources you think should be included in the Trauma Therapist Network Site using the form on this page.

Looking for a trauma therapist or are you a trauma therapist wanting to join the network? Check it out at: www.traumatherapistnetwork.com! Therapy Chat and Trauma Chat podcasts are also found on the site.

Follow Therapy Chat on Instagram

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Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! If you're an EMDR therapist, or a therapist who is interested in learning about psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, this episode is for you! And if you're someone who is interested in learning about how EMDR and psychedelic assisted therapy can be combined, you're in the right place! This week's guest, Rotem Brayer, was a guest on Therapy Chat earlier this year and he came back to discuss how he uses psychedelic assisted psychotherapy with EMDR. I learned a lot from our conversation and can't wait for you to hear it! I'm very curious about the potential for psychedelic assisted psychotherapy to help trauma survivors heal, as I'm hearing more and more positive experiences that people have shared with me. Look for more episodes on the topic of trauma and psychedelic assisted psychotherapy in the coming months! 

Rotem Brayer, M.Ed., LPC, is a certified EMDR therapist, EMDR consultant, and advanced EMDR trainer. He's the founder of the EMDR Learning Community, a community that brings EMDR therapists together and provides education on EMDR therapy and the integration of this modality with other treatment approaches.

Listen to Rotem's previous Therapy Chat interview here: Episode 376

Find Rotem's book, The Art & Science of EMDR, on Amazon here.

Join Rotem's free learning community for EMDR therapists here: EMDR Learning Community.

Rotem's website is here: https://emdartnscience.com/

My friend Dr. Elizabeth Guthrie's free webinar recording and link to learn about her course are found here: Explore Your Healing Garden of Unique Plant Allies. 

My friend Dr. Jamie+ Marich's free webinar recording and link to learn about their course are found here: Not Faking: Dispelling the Myths & Misunderstandings Of Dissociation

Get 50% off when you try HelloFresh using our coupon code! Go to https://hellofresh.com/chat50 and use code chat50 for 50% off PLUS free shipping!

Thank you to TherapyNotes for sponsoring this week's episode! TherapyNotes makes billing, scheduling, notetaking, and telehealth incredibly easy. And now, for all you prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly introducing E-prescribe! Try it today with no strings attached, and see why everyone is switching to TherapyNotes, now featuring E-prescribe! Use promo code "chat" at www.therapynotes.com to receive 2 FREE months of TherapyNotes!!

Find my most frequently recommended resources for learning about trauma here - includes recommended books and trainings.

Get my free PDF 5 Common Mistakes People Make When Searching For A Trauma Therapist here!

Love Therapy Chat? Leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts to help more people find the show!

Find a Trauma Therapist on the Trauma Therapist Network:www.traumatherapistnetwork.com

Therapists, Trauma Therapist Network includes a searchable directory as well as a membership community meeting weekly for support, consultation, training and self care. Learn more here! Registration reopens in September, 2023 and therapists can join the waiting list now!

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! Today I'm bringing you a replay episode with Dr. Peter Levine.

Dr. Peter Levine is the developer of Somatic Experiencing, who speaks about his journey as a wounded healer. He shares that by being open about our experiences healing, our authenticity allows others to know they're not alone. None of us in the helping professions have been immune to suffering, it's a part of the universal experience of being human; and there's no shame in having experienced trauma, no matter who you are. In our conversation, Dr. Levine shares about how he developed Somatic Experiencing, and the surprising muse he found during that process. He discusses his violent childhood growing up in a family which was under threat by the mafia, and how Somatic Experiencing approaches healing from trauma "stuck" in the body.

Resources

Learn more about Somatic Experiencing here. The Ergos Institute is here.

Find Peter Levine's new book, Autobiography of Trauma: A Healing Journey on Amazon here.

Considering training in the Safe & Sound Protocol (SSP)? Visit unyte.com to learn more about the SSP and use my code LREAGAN1 at checkout for $100 off an annual SSP subscription bundle or training course. 

Thank you PESI and Psychotherapy Networker for sponsoring this week's episode! 

Therapists, heck out Janina Fisher's trainings and other offerings related to trauma, attachment and shame via the PESI/Psychotherapy Networker partner page and get special discounts! 

Thank you to TherapyNotes for sponsoring this week's episode! TherapyNotes makes billing, scheduling, notetaking, and telehealth incredibly easy. And now, for all you prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly introducing E-prescribe! Find out what more than 100,000 mental health professionals already know, and try TherapyNotes for 2 months, absolutely free. Try it today with no strings attached, and see why everyone is switching to TherapyNotes. Now featuring E-prescribe. Use promo code "chat" at www.therapynotes.com to receive 2 FREE months of TherapyNotes!

Learn about trauma, connect with resources and find a trauma therapist near you at www.traumatherapistnetwork.com. We believe that trauma is real, healing is possible and help is available. Find a trauma therapist in the US or Europe via www.findtraumatherapy.com!

Therapists, registration opens in summer 2025 for Trauma Therapist Network membership. Join a compassionate and skilled group of trauma therapists for weekly calls focused on Self Care, Case Consultation, Q&A and Training. Get on the waiting list now to be the first to know when registration opens! Sign up here https://go.traumatherapistnetwork.com/join 

Podcast produced by Vaudeo Productions - https:/vaudeoproductions.com

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! Episode 58 is the first in the series on Trauma and Attachment. In today’s episode host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C interviews Amy Sugeno, LCSW. Amy is a clinical social worker in private practice who specializes in working with survivors of trauma related to attachment, particularly related to adoption.

Amy explains how attachment trauma can affect children who were adopted, even if the adoption went as smoothly as it possibly could. She describes how children who have been adopted may act out behaviorally to tell their parents how they feel. Amy also talks about a surprising way adoptive parents (and others parenting traumatized children) may experience trauma themselves and how to recognize the symptoms. She and Laura discuss how prior difficulty with conceiving a child can contribute to the experience for parents, how the parent’s own attachment style and trauma history is “churned up” through the process of adoption. She describes how adoption can change relationships within a family and between the family and their community. She explains some of the non-verbal ways of processing trauma that she uses with her clients. Amy describes Nature as her “co-therapist.” She tells listeners how to get on her mailing list and offers opportunities to hear her speak around the country.

This is the first of the series on trauma and attachment, which will continue on alternating weeks through the next few months. And on the opposite weeks you will hear the series on integrative mental health! Thanks for listening to Therapy Chat. Please get in touch and let host Laura Reagan know what you thought of this episode!

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Amy Sugeno’s website: http://www.amysugenocounseling.com/

Welcome to episode 161 of the Therapy Chat Podcast. This week is my conversation in person with Kyle Davies about mind, body and spirit when living with chronic illness.

Kyle Davies is a wellbeing and mindset coach, author and trainer. He specializes in helping individuals and groups to optimise their energy and wellbeing, combat stress and stress related symptoms, improve mental clarity and performance, and develop inner resilience and flow.

Kyle originally qualified as a Chartered Occupational Psychologist and is the creator of Energy-Flow Coaching™. He spent a chunk of his career pioneering a new approach for treating chronic fatigue and pain, anxiety, depression and other stress related symptoms – which is reflected in the recently published book, The Intelligent Body.

Kyle’s work is about developing people from the inside out. He doesn’t try to get people to learn loads of mental techniques that they quickly forget, or to try and fix their environment because situations and environments often can’t be changed. Rather he helps people to gain a better and deeper understanding of themselves so they can tap into their own resilience, flow and potentials, helping them be more effective at work, at home, and in life.

Kyle facilitates transformations for those who are stuck, overwhelmed, lost or stressed and empowers them to experience greater personal freedom and higher consciousness. His work offers a new understanding of the relationship between hidden stress in the body, emotional energy, and chronic health challenges.

Resources:

http://www.energyflowcoaching.com

http://kyledavies.net

Leave me a message via Speakpipe by going to https://therapychatpodcast.com and clicking on the green Speakpipe button.

Please consider supporting Therapy Chat by becoming a member on Patreon! Just $1 a month would make a huge impact to keep Therapy Chat going strong! To learn more: https://patreon.com/TherapyChat - members get special perks and swag too!

Thank you for listening to Therapy Chat! Please be sure to go to iTunes and leave a rating and review, subscribe and download episodes. You can also download the Therapy Chat app on iTunes by clicking here.

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio

In this episode host, psychotherapist Laura Reagan, LCSW-C, discusses the scary news about violence, terrorism and climate change raising the question, "How can I feel safe when I don't know if everything is going to be okay?" Laura discusses how current events can trigger trauma symptoms and offers ideas to help you identify whether you've switched into autopilot in response. She explains grounding techniques to help you get centered and provides guided meditations for helping listeners breathe through anxiety and become more mindfully present in these scary times.If you're interested in trauma, world news, anxiety, psychotherapy, mindfulness, meditation, somatic resourcing, healing, self care, and safety you'll love this episode! 

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! This week host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C revisits a previous interview with Sharon Martin, LCSW on surviving and thriving during the holidays, especially if your family relationships are "complicated." 

Sharon Martin, LCSW is a licensed psychotherapist specializing in codependency recovery with an online practice serving California residents. For the past 20 years, she’s been helping perfectionists and people-pleasers overcome self-doubt and shame, embrace their imperfections, learn to set boundaries, and reclaim their self-worth. Sharon writes the blog Conquering Codependency for Psychology Today and is the author of The CBT Workbook for Perfectionism and The Better Boundaries Workbook.

Resources

Sharon's website: https://www.livewellwithsharonmartin.com/

If you're a therapist specializing in trauma, join the Trauma Therapist Network while Founding Member pricing is still available and lock in the lowest price! 

Clients with trauma are looking for the specialized services you offer. Sign up at: https://traumatherapistnetwork.com/therapist-submission-form/

Thank you to this week's sponsors!

Thank you to Sunset Lake CBD for sponsoring this week's episode! Sunset Lake CBD is created on a small farm outside of Burlington, Vermont that is a producer for Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. 

Sunset Lake CBD customers support regenerative agriculture that preserves the health of the land and creates meaningful employment in the community. Farmworkers are paid a living wage, and employees own the majority of the company.

Therapy Chat listeners, get 20% off your entire order of Sunset Lake CBD products using promo code CHAT at www.sunsetlakecbd.com. 

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio

Welcome to Episode 49 of Therapy Chat! Today’s episode is #8 in the therapist practice building series. Host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C interviews the amazing Melvin Varghese, PhD, who is a psychologist and host of Selling the Couch podcast. Melvin, whose podcast is one of the top 100 business podcasts according to the iTunes rankings, discusses how podcasting can help therapists grown their practices and help them scale their businesses away from simply trading time for money. Melvin shares statistics about how podcasting is growing, and gives concrete examples of the skills most therapists already have that make us naturals at podcasting. He describes specific ways that podcasting can be used to grow a therapist’s business. He shares some of his free resources and invites listeners to check out his Healthcasters course for health, wellness and fitness podcasters, whether their podcasts have already begun or they are just in the ideas phase. He shares the changes podcasting has made to his business and his income.

Resources Melvin mentioned in this episode:

Jackie Flynn’s Parenting In the Rain podcast: http://jackieflynnconsulting.com/home/parenting-in-the-rain/

Robert Cox’s Mindful Recovery podcast: http://liferecoveryconsulting.com/podcast/

Check out Melvin’s podcast, Selling the Couch: http://sellingthecouch.com/podcast/

Melvin’s free podcasting tutorial: http://sellingthecouch.com/podcastingtutorial - check out the discount on Healthcasters found in this tutorial!

Get the info on Melvin’s podcasting course/community, Healthcasters: http://sellingthecouch.com/the-healthcasters/

Canva: http://canva.com

As always, you can find Therapy Chat at http://therapychatpodcast.com

Please remember to visit iTunes to leave a rating and review, download episodes and subscribe to receive all the latest episodes as soon as they are released!

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! In the last of the interviews from Psychotherapy Networker Symposium in March 2024, I was fortunate to have a deep conversation with my friend and colleague Dr. Leslie Korn. Leslie has been a guest on Therapy Chat previously and I've learned so much from her about integrative nutrition and trauma.

This time we talked about the intersection between childhood trauma, "dis-ease," "dis-orders," autoimmune responses, integrative nutrition and overall health and wellbeing. I talked about my own journey with a health crisis between 2015 and 2019 and what I've learned since then. We touched on attachment, developmental trauma, hormones, autoimmune responses, integrative nutrition and mental health, among many other things, in this fascinating conversation!

Work with Leslie via her website here. 

Check out Dr. Leslie Korn's trainings and other offerings related to trauma and integrative nutrition via the PESI/Psychotherapy Networker partner page and get special discounts! 

Watch this episode in video format on YouTube!

TIME SENSITIVE INFO FOR TRAUMA THERAPISTS: 

*Trauma Therapists*, my membership community, TTN is NOW OPEN until June 7th, 2024 ! If you haven't already, Add your name to the waiting list here for first access and a special discount! Those who are already on the waiting list, check your email for the registration link and a discount code to save 25% on your first month!

The Institute for Creative Mindfulness is an EMDRIA-approved EMDR Therapy training institute created by Dr. Jamie Marich, a clinician and author who is on a mission to confront stigma around mental health, trauma, and dissociation.

They’re offering a special discount to Therapy Chat listeners! Save 15% on any of their courses or CE programs including EMDR basic training until the end of 2024. Go to instituteforcreativemindfulness.com and use promo code: 15OffForListeners. 

Thank you to TherapyNotes for sponsoring this week’s episode! TherapyNotes makes billing, scheduling, notetaking, and telehealth incredibly easy. And now, for all you prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly introducing E-prescribe! Try it today with no strings attached, and see why everyone is switching toTherapyNotes, now featuring E-prescribe! Use promo code “chat” at www.therapynotes.com to receive 2 FREE months of TherapyNotes!!

Join the TTN e-mail list to learn what's coming up in 2024 with Therapy Chat, Trauma Chat and Trauma Therapist Network and get my free PDF 5 Common Mistakes People Make When Searching For A Trauma Therapist here!

Find my most frequently recommended resources for learning about trauma here – includes recommended books and trainings.

Find a trauma therapist near you via findtraumatherapy.com! We believe that trauma is real, healing is possible and help is available at Trauma Therapist Network. 

Love Therapy Chat? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, and subscribe where you listen to your podcasts! Thank you!

Podcast produced by Vaudeo Productions - https://vaudeoproductions.com

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! In this week's episode, host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C announces that her new project, Trauma Therapist Network is now live and shares details and gratitude. Next, listen in on a fascinating interview with Kristen D. Boice, LMFT, an EMDR and Brainspotting therapist who is the owner of a trauma-focused group practice called Pathways to Healing in Noblesville, Indiana.

In response to listener requests, Laura invited Kristen to Therapy Chat to discuss EMDR - what it is and how it helps; and Brainspotting - what it is and how it helps -- and how they are similar and different. This was a fascinating discussion which will be followed up next week with an interview with Curt Widhalm, LMFT about using EMDR with adolescents.

Guest's Bio:

Kristen D. Boice is a licensed marriage and family therapist with over 20 years experience and owner of a group private counseling practice, Pathways to Healing Counseling. She’s also the host of the Close the Chapter Podcast and a sought-after international speaker. Kristen is an EMDR-trained psychotherapist, which, as she mentions in the interview, is one of the most effective, researched-based trauma treatment modalities along with Brainspotting.

She specializes in improving self-worth, helping couples and families resolve conflicts and develop powerful communication skills, effective parenting strategies, making life transitions, grief and loss, reducing anxiety and working through trauma. Most importantly, she instills hope, helps people create possibilities and develop a sense of inner peace.

Prior to entering the counseling field, Kristen was an executive at a Fortune 500 company. She is passionate about helping her clients reach their goals along with speaking and presenting workshops on a variety of topics.

Resources for this Episode:

Listen to Kristen's podcast, Close the Chapter, here and find out about everything she is doing! 

Kristen''s counseling group, Pathways to Healing

Gratitude/Appreciation - Shout Outs:

Kat Love

Cultivate WP

Keri Nola

Link to Keri's first and second interview on Therapy Chat:

Melvin Varghese of Selling the Couch 

Welcome to the Trauma Therapist Network Family:

Roberta Wasserman, LCSW-C

January Roberts, LCPC

Gretchen Seefried, LSW

Help us make Trauma Therapist Network the best resource it can be!

Send a message about resources you think should be included in the Trauma Therapist Network Site using the form on this page.

Thank you to this week's sponsors!

Sunset Lake CBD is created on a small farm outside of Burlington, Vermont that is a producer for Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. 

Sunset Lake CBD customers support regenerative agriculture that preserves the health of the land and creates meaningful employment in the community. Farm

workers are paid a living wage, and employees own the majority of the company.

Therapy Chat listeners, get 20% off your entire order of Sunset Lake CBD products using promo code CHAT at www.sunsetlakecbd.com. 

Thank you also to Therapy Reimagined Conference! Therapy Reimagined is more than a conference - it’s an experience! Join the community of Modern Therapists for the 4th annual, 2nd virtual, 1st HYBRID(!!) Therapy Reimagined Conference from September 23-25, 2021! We will be in Los Angeles and online with our super fancy virtual conference App. We bring fresh diverse voices to our virtual and physical stages talking about cutting edge topics that most other conferences avoid. Learn more at therapyreimaginedconference.com AND - Grab your virtual or hybrid ticket for 15% off with a special promo code for Therapy Chat Listeners: THERAPYCHAT15. 

The Therapy Reimagined Conference is going HYBRID this year, meaning you can join us virtually or in-person in Los Angeles for 3 days of learning and connection. With headliners like Dr. Bandy X Lee and Dr. Jamie Marich, you know that we’re exploring topics that don’t find their way onto typical conference stages. Grab a virtual conference ticket OR join our small (but mighty!) group of modern therapists in Los Angeles September 23-25 at the Sheraton Universal. We’re keeping the live audience small, so don’t wait if you want to be in the room! Learn more about what we’ve planned for this year at therapyreimaginedconference.com. And make sure to use THERAPYCHAT15 at checkout for 15% off your virtual or hybrid conference ticket. No matter how you participate in Therapy Reimagined, it is going to be an event to remember! *And if you attend say hi! I'm presenting at the conference!

The new website I (Laura) have been telling you about is NOW LIVE! Go check out  www.traumatherapistnetwork.com - a community for finding information, resources and help for trauma and please tell anyone you think would benefit! We also have a trauma therapist directory listing so if you're a trauma therapist, join now and help clients with trauma find you! Trauma is real, healing is possible and help is available. Finding a trauma therapist should be easy. Trauma Therapist Network is here to connect you!

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! We've all heard the term "self regulation," and many of us are familiar with the concept of "co-regulation," but what is it, really? How do we do it? How do we know when we are in a ventral vagal nervous system state? If you heard my conversation with Dr. Stephen Porges a couple of weeks ago you may be curious what this would feel like and look like, for yourself and for therapy. Today's guest, Alyce Wellons, LCSW, has studied mind/body practices and used them in therapy for years. In our conversation you'll hear Alyce speak about the importance of connection and community for nervous system regulation and co-regulation. She will demonstrate (using me as the example) how easily we can bring ourselves into a ventral vagal state using somatic practices and mindfulness, and why she uses these practices in her work with clients who are in recovery and healing from trauma. 

The Institute for Creative Mindfulness is the brainchild of my friend Dr. Jamie+ Marich, an EMDR Certified Consultant & Trainer. You can save 15% on any of their trainings for the remainder of 2023 using coupon code THERAPYCHAT at this link: https://bit.ly/ICMTherapychat

Dr. Janina Fisher has a new course coming up through the Academy of Therapy Wisdom. This time she's focusing on addiction and trauma. Learn more and register for a free webinar here!

My friend (and prior podcast guest) Deirdre Fay, MSW, has a new course on one of the most challenging aspects of healing after trauma: shame. Shame is that deep sense of being broken, unlovable, worthless that "just talking" can't relieve. Learn about Deirdre's new course and register through Academy of Therapy Wisdom here!

My friend Dr. Jamie+ Marich's free webinar recording and link to learn about their course are found here: Not Faking: Dispelling the Myths & Misunderstandings Of Dissociation

Jamie+ also has a new course on Trauma & the 12 Steps. Click the link to learn more and register!

Thank you to TherapyNotes for sponsoring this week's episode! TherapyNotes makes billing, scheduling, notetaking, and telehealth incredibly easy. And now, for all you prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly introducing E-prescribe! Try it today with no strings attached, and see why everyone is switching to TherapyNotes, now featuring E-prescribe! Use promo code "chat" at www.therapynotes.com to receive 2 FREE months of TherapyNotes!!

Find my most frequently recommended resources for learning about trauma here - includes recommended books and trainings.

Get my free PDF 5 Common Mistakes People Make When Searching For A Trauma Therapist here!

Love Therapy Chat? Leave a rating and review, and subscribe where you listen to your podcasts! Thank you!

Podcast produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio

Welcome to episode 103 of the Therapy Chat Podcast with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C. My guest this week is Valerie Martin (LCSW, RYT, CSAT Candidate) who is a psychotherapist and yoga instructor in Nashville, TN.

Valerie focuses on a holistic treatment approach of mind + body integration and trauma resolution, using EMDR, ego state therapy, yoga (including trauma-sensitive yoga), Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT), and somatic (body-based) and experiential techniques. She is also a Certified Sexual Addiction Therapist (CSAT) Candidate. Valerie has spoken at numerous behavioral health conferences, primarily in the area of eating disorder treatment. She received a BS in Communications and MSSW in Clinical Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin.

In addition to her private practice, Valerie is a trauma specialist at The Ranch residential treatment center, where she formerly worked as a primary therapist in the eating disorders program.

Resources

Valerie Martin’s website: wonderwelltherapy.com

Emily Sandoz ACT book https://www.amazon.com/Acceptance-Commitment-Therapy-Eating-Disorders/dp/162625396X

Emily Sandoz book: Living With Your Body And Other Things You Hate  https://www.amazon.com/Living-Your-Body-Other-Things/dp/1608821048/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=R7627YQ0JK908W4Y8862

Support Therapy Chat and get a free month of Audible AND a free book by visiting: http://audibletrial.com/therapychat

Click here to visit the iTunes store to download the Therapy Chat app and leave a rating and review!

Click here to make a donation to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in support of Team Nick, the group I’m walking with.

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! In today’s episode, Laura speaks in person with Charlotte Hiler Easley.

Charlotte is a psychotherapist in private practice who specializes in working with survivors of trauma using equine-assisted psychotherapy (EAP). Charlotte discusses her work using Equine Assisted Survivors of Trauma Therapy, a method she developed in collaboration with a rape crisis center when she was in grad school.

When you work with Charlotte, you will be encouraged, coached, and heard with compassion and understanding. You can also expect to be gently challenged to understand who you really are and why you’re here.

You will work together with Charlotte to understand your patterns of behavior and thought and develop skills that will enable you to get unstuck and to move ahead in your story.

Resources

Charlotte’s website: https://charlotteeasley.com/

Charlotte’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/charlottehilereasleyLCSW

Central Kentucky Riding for Hope’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CKyRH/

Please consider supporting Therapy Chat by becoming a member on Patreon! Just $1 a month would make a huge impact to keep Therapy Chat going strong! To learn more: https://patreon.com/TherapyChat - members get special perks and swag too!

Register here for the upcoming Authentic Self Equine/Daring Way™ Retreat: https://www.laurareaganlcswc.com/retreat 

Leave me a message via Speakpipe by going to https://therapychatpodcast.com and clicking on the green Speakpipe button.

Thank you for listening to Therapy Chat! Please be sure to go to iTunes and leave a rating and review, subscribe and download episodes. You can also download the Therapy Chat app on iTunes by clicking here.

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! If you’re a therapist, my guest today is someone who needs no introduction. Dr. Dan Siegel is my guest, and he explains the concept of interpersonal neurobiology, the nature of the mind, integration and “Mwe”.

He shares his story of becoming interested in the brain and the mind beginning in college, and continuing through his medical school training. He explains his disappointment at discovering in medical school in the late 1980’s that there did not seem to be a science of the mind that psychiatry was using to inform mental health work. He wanted to understand both how the body functions and how our mental lives play a part in keeping us alive.

He explains that interpersonal neurobiology is not a branch of neurobiology, but a framework combining many disciplines including the mental health fields of psychology, psychiatry, counseling, social work, as well as sociology, philosophy, quantum physics, math and others to answer the question “what is the mind?” He explains that he has interviewed over 100,000 people and none of them had ever had any training in what the mind is, which is a real gap in knowledge considering that we in the mental health field are working in the mind. That is what our work is.

He tells us that if the mind is where the self comes from, then the who, what, why, when and where can be deepened by asking the question about what the mind is, why it exists, where is it, what’s its function. Dan argues we need to understand the mind to understand all of these questions. He discusses this in depth in his new book, Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human, which is coming out in Fall of 2016.

He notes that the field called Philosophy of mind discourages asking what is the mind. Psychiatry doesn’t have a definition of the mind. Psychology doesn’t have a definition and says it’s a useful placeholder. What is a healthy mind? What’s a healthy thought? Some topics Dan discusses in this episode:

• Mind is not emotions in this definition. It includes emotions, feelings, anything you can be subjectively aware of.
• In Dan’s definition, consciousness, subjective experience and information processing are the 3 parts of the mind.
• He talks about how he noticed that what we call mental health disorders fit into a pattern of chaos and rigidity. In probability theory of math there was an area of study which related to this which states that a complex system has three characteristics: It’s open to influences from outside of self; capable of being chaotic and it’s non-linear.
• It’s a self organizing, embodied and relational process. This answer comes from math. He explains that in mental health, integration defines health.
• He states that the best definition of mental health is that the system is Flexible, Adaptive, Coherent, Energized and Stable (FACES).
• Where attention goes, neural firing flows, neural connection grows

Dan talks about how therapists can use these concepts to help clients live happier and more fulfilling lives, not just lives of being free from mental health symptoms. We had a very thought-provoking discussion and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Links to resources mentioned in this episode:

Wheel of Awareness practice

Mindsight

The Mindful Therapist

Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology

The Developing Mind

Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human

Dan Siegel’s website

I hope you enjoyed Episode 34 of Therapy Chat. I was so honored to interview Dr. Dan Siegel. As always, please visit iTunes to leave a rating and review, and subscribe to receive the latest episodes of Therapy Chat as soon as they are released!

You can also listen on Stitcher and Google Play (available now!). And for more of what I'm doing, please  sign up for my newsletter. You can also sign up for information on my Daring Way™ offerings and other groups and workshops; sign up to receive the latest episodes of Therapy Chat when they're released; sign up to receive my latest blog posts when they are posted, and follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram & Google+. If you're a trauma therapist you may be interested in my new Trauma Therapist Community, forming now. Click here for the info. I look forward to connecting! 

Wholeheartedly,

Laura Reagan, LCSW-C

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! In today’s episode, as a follow up to Episode 55 about falling in love in a barn, host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C interviews Charlotte Hiler Easley, LCSW. Charlotte is a psychotherapist in private practice who specializes in working with survivors of trauma using equine-assisted psychotherapy (EAP). Charlotte discusses her work using Equine Assisted Survivors of Trauma Therapy, a method she developed in collaboration with a rape crisis center when she was in grad school.

Charlotte talks about how horses are able to read our body language and react to our emotional experience. She explains what equine assisted psychotherapy is – hint: you don’t have to touch a saddle. She describes how survivors of trauma working with horses are able to learn and practice new ways of being in relationship; setting boundaries; making a mind-body connection; feeling what safety feels like – because the work is all experiential. Finally, Charlotte shares about her work helping therapists create practices using equine assisted psychotherapy, and describes an upcoming retreat she is offering for trauma therapists.

This episode is a must for therapists and anyone who has experienced trauma. Charlotte shares so much knowledge! Thanks for listening to Therapy Chat. Please get in touch and let host Laura Reagan know what you thought of this episode!

Resources mentioned in this episode:

EAGALA: http://www.eagala.org/about

PATH: http://www.pathintl.org/

Charlotte’s website: https://charlotteeasley.com/

Charlotte’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/charlottehilereasleyLCSW/?fref=ts

Central Kentucky Riding for Hope’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CKyRH/

Visit Therapy Chat website at Http://therapychatpodcast.com and send host Laura Reagan a voice message letting her know what you think of Therapy Chat! Did you like this episode? Did you dislike it? Let her know!

Thank you for listening!

Welcome to Therapy Chat! In today’s episode, we’re delighted to welcome Dr. Robert T. Muller, author of the new book, "Trauma & the Struggle to Open Up".

Dr. Robert T. Muller trained at Harvard University, was on faculty at the University of Massachusetts, and is currently at York University in Toronto. Dr. Muller was recently honored as a Fellow of the International Society for the Study of Trauma & Dissociation (ISSTD) for his work on trauma treatment.

And his psychotherapy bestseller, Trauma and the Avoidant Client, in its third printing, has been translated and won the 2011 ISSTD award for the year's best written work on trauma. As lead investigator on several multi-site programs to treat interpersonal trauma, Dr. Muller has lectured internationally and has been the keynote speaker at mental health conferences in New Zealand and Canada.

He founded an online magazine, The Trauma & Mental Health Report, that is now visited by over 100,000 readers a year. With over 20 years in the field, Dr. Muller has a therapy practice in Toronto.

Resources

https://www.amazon.com/Robert-T.-Muller/e/B0033AFO5A 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trauma-Struggle-Open-Up-Avoidance-ebook/dp/B0784V8WJB

http://www.yorku.ca/rmuller/ 

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Podcast Produced by Pete Bailey - https://petebailey.net/audio