EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a structured therapy that encourages the patient to focus briefly on the trauma memory while simultaneously experiencing bilateral stimulation via eye movements, tapping, or buzzers. It focuses on the three ways that trauma affects people: their thoughts, emotions, and body sensations or body memories. EMDR therapy is an extensively researched, effective psychotherapy method proven to help people recover from trauma and PTSD symptoms, anxiety, depression, OCD, chronic pain, addictions, and other distressing life experiences.

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“The opposite of play is not work, it is depression”  - Play expert, Brian Sutton-Smith

When we think of therapy, talk therapy generally comes to mind. Experiential therapy on the other hand, as the name suggests, is a form of therapy that involves immersing yourself in a certain experience. It involves doing more than talking which often elicits information that clients were not aware of. There are many types of Experiential Therapy:

• Play therapy
• Drama therapy
• Music therapy
• Art therapy
• Movement therapy
• Sandtray therapy
• Outdoor/adventure therapy
• Animal-assisted therapy

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Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a non-pathologizing, evidence-based therapy that believes every human being has a system of protective and wounded inner parts that are led by one’s core Self. Just like members of a family, inner parts are forced from their authentic states into extreme roles within us. A key tenet of IFS is that Self is in everyone, cannot be damaged, and knows how to heal.

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Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an action-oriented approach to therapy that focuses on helping clients learn to stop avoiding, denying, and struggling with their inner emotions. Instead, clients learn to accept that these deeper feelings are appropriate responses to certain situations that should not prevent them from moving forward in their lives. It challenges the notion that our negative emotions need to be fixed.

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Trauma-informed yoga is a specialized form of yoga that helps those who are healing from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or complex trauma.. As emotions rise during the yoga experience, trauma-informed yoga helps people to feel safe enough to stay present and process their feelings. A common trauma response is to dissociate from the body. Trauma-informed yoga helps to regulate one’s nervous system, specifically the fight or flight response.

Trauma-informed yoga is uniquely tailored to the needs of the client, through careful adjustment to the sequence and pace of the session.

Trauma-informed yoga is different from traditional yoga in its specific attention to what the person feels or notices in their body while doing the yoga practice. Teachers are trained to understand the dissociative effects of trauma and work to help the person integrate having new experiences, the yoga poses, while breathing, feeling, and being alert at the person’s pace. It is an inward practice that focuses on body sensations over physical practice or body alignment, and above else emphasizes always allowing personal choice and self-empowerment. 

The Benefits of Trauma-Informed Yoga Include:

• Reduced Symptoms of PTSD or complex trauma
• Decreased Dissociation and increased mindfulness
• Facilitates Body and Emotional Awareness and Connection
• Learn to Tolerate Sensations and Uncomfortable Emotions
• Builds Emotional Resiliency
• Improved Sleep Quality
• Decreased Anxiety
• Decreased Depression

Citation: Zaccari B, Higgins M, Haywood TN, et al. Yoga vs Cognitive Processing Therapy for Military Sexual Trauma–Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Network Open. 2023;6(12):e2344862. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.44862

It is a research-based approach that focuses on principles and behaviors that help couples feel connected and satisfied, or those that are harmful and lead to a break-up. Gottman’s research stems from his “Love Lab,” a fabricated apartment where he and his team have couples come and stay for observation and data collection. Gottman can predict with 90% accuracy which couples will stay together and which ones will not. His predictors fall into two categories:

 The Seven Principles of Satisfied and Healthy Relationships

1. Enhance Your Love Maps
2. Nurture your fondness and admiration
3. Turn toward each other instead of away
4. Let your partner influence you
5. Solve your solvable problems
6. Overcome gridlock
7. Create shared meaning

The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse

1. Criticism
2. Contempt
3. Defensiveness
4. Stonewalling

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Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) is a form of short-term therapy that aims to improve couple relationships by rekindling the physical and emotional bond.

Drawing on research supporting attachment theory, the therapy regards the security of partner connection as the best lever for change in a dysfunctional relationship and a necessary source of both couple and individual growth. Love, in short, is transformative and the EFT motto is: “Hold me tight.”

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Auriculotherapy uses microspheres or seeds to stimulate reflex points in the ear that are directly related to the Central Nervous System. This helps balance the body’s energy and assists the healing process. The acupuncture seeds are gently placed in the ear at specific points. Acudetox is a five-point acupuncture protocol specifically designed for those struggling with high stress, panic attacks, substance use issues, anxiety, and depression.

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Click here for more information on ear seedling.

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