Embodied Self Therapy

TRIGGERS AND TRAUMA: How The Nervous System Responds 🫁

This week’s episode of Healing CPTSD will unpack what happens in the body as a result of trauma and how the nervous system responds to triggers.

Hopefully by the end of this episode, you will have the insight to start understanding how you experience your nervous system which, when you’re resourced with the right tools, will lead to embodiment and self mastery.

Topics explored:
• Polyvagal Theory & the three nervous system states (safe, fight/flight and freeze)
• The threat stress/arousal cycle
• Impacts of childhood trauma on the brain and perception
• The Window of Tolerance
• Reorienting to safety through somatic therapy

🎙️ Streaming on Spotify and Apple Podcasts now.

🎙️ EP05 HEALING CPTSD | DECOLONISING WELLBEING W/ SEED SPACE | INTERSECTIONALITY, CONTEXT AND THE COLLECTIVE

In this week’s episode, I invite my first guest, Chelsea, on to speak on the importance of considering context and intersectionality to facilitate positive change on not only a personal level but for the collective – themes that are so relevant to what we are experiencing in the current landscape. 

Chelsea is a deconditioning coach, host of the SEEDS OF SELF podcast and founder of — a community that prioritises intersectionality in its approach to breaking generational cycles. Her work supports black, indigenous and women of colour with breaking generational cycles influenced by patriarchal, capitalist and colonial conditioning. 

Chelsea also happens to be my very own, personal best friend. This conversation is one of many that we are having behind the scenes, so I am grateful to be bringing it to a wider audience.

If you are navigating your own healing journey, we share some tangible ways that you can integrate these themes to support your own wellness as well as uplift the community around you.

Now available to listen on Spotify & Apple Podcasts through the link in my description 🔗

I hope this episode can be a reminder of the interconnectedness of us all and why holistic healing is needed for humankind.

In response to the horror we are all experiencing, witnessing in real time the gen🅾️ cℹ️de in 🍉, you may notice your body going into what’s known as freeze, shutdown or collapse. This embodied somatic practice is intended to support you through those times you’re feeling overwhelmed, hopeless, helpless, guilty, ashamed, grief, numb or dissociated. 

Have a listen and pass it forward if you found it helpful 💛

Not all therapists are trauma informed, so if you’re living with CPTSD, it is crucial to be matched with a therapist who is aware and sensitive of your needs to avoid the horror stories of being retraumatised!

In episode three, we unpack:

🌱 THE SEVEN PILLARS OF TRAUMA INFORMED CARE
Safety, trust & transparency, choice, collaboration, empowerment, peer support, and cultural awareness.

🌱 THE THREE PHASED MODEL
A framework for the therapy process that ensures safety in practice.

Listen in and gain more clarity on what you need to be looking for in a therapist.

Healing CPTSD

Great Australian Pods Podcast Directory: https://www.greataustralianpods.com/healing-cptsd/



Embodied Self Therapy

In this episode of Healing CPTSD we will explore:
– What trauma is.
– Differences between the different categories of trauma (ie complex trauma and childhood trauma).
– What is CPTSD as a diagnosis.
– The impacts of trauma & moving forward as survivors.

LISTEN NOW | Spotify & Apple Podcasts
🔗 Follow the link.

Early on in my journey, I would seek out stories of others to feel less alone. I am now paying it forward by offering you mine.

In this first episode of Healing CPTSD, I take you through my personal story.

I touch on my complex childhood trauma history, my struggles with being disembodied and dissociated, what led me on my journey to recovery and resources that supported me on the way.

I will also share the evolution of my professional journey into private practice with Embodied Self Therapy alongside all of this.

Join me for episode one — listen now on Spotify or Apple Podcasts 💛

🎙️ HEALING CPTSD: A Podcast for Childhood Trauma Survivors.

A space unpacking all things complex childhood trauma and exploring pathways to healing, reconnection and recovery.

New episodes dropping weekly!

Head to the 🔗 to listen.

From DISSOCIATED to EMBODIED.

Finally get off that emotional roller coaster.

Feel safe in your body.

EMBODY will guide you there.

Work with a therapist who gets it.

Here’s your invitation to book in now. Follow the 🔗✨

ARMOURING 🪖

When the body feels like it’s constantly under threat, it will adapt in order to cope.

Trauma survivors, who never feel safe in their environment or bodies, will tend to live in a state of fight, flight or freeze.

🪖 Their bodies will constantly be bracing as a way to protect itself – protection to both external triggers in the environment and internal triggers such as overwhelming emotions.

This is an adaptive mechanism but can be problematic if the body is stuck here, leading to tension and even disease in the body.

The process of dearmouring is a steady and gentle one, but can be done. Working with a somatic therapist can support you in identifying your holding patterns, processing emotion and reclaiming safety.

🔗 Connect with me if you’re ready to start your journey. Book in sessions through the website.

I see you, and you deserve a break too.

We may never get closure from the people that hurt us. What we can do is start to cultivate safe, meaningful and authentic connections now 🌱

Not all therapists are trauma informed – and actually, a lot of my clients come to be after having bad experiences with therapists who unfortunately left them feeling retraumatised.

What makes me different is that my work with clients is guided by the pillars of trauma informed care:

🛟 SAFETY
Your physical, emotional and spiritual safety is paramount – in session but also how you experience EST as a whole. Ofc, only you can discern whether a space is safe for you – but I endeavour to ensure sensitivity & accountability in how I facilitate this space.

🤲🏽 TRUST & TRANSPARENCY
My conduct is consistent and respectful with the appropriate professional boundaries, making sure that you have all of the info you need to about the therapy process.

✅ CHOICE
Empowering you to exercise your agency at every moment. Also recognising that each person will have different needs, goals & preferences.

🔀 COLLABORATION
I always make sure clients understand that what we experience in therapy is a co-creation – it’s a dynamic between both of our embodied experiences. We’re working alongside each other shoulder to shoulder.

💪🏾 EMPOWERMENT
Creating a space where you can build your capacity, access your inner wisdom, use your voice, take up space and finally start making decisions that are aligned with you.

🫂 PEER SUPPORT
This recognises the power of healing in community. I am not here to gatekeep healing – I am here connecting with you from a place of genuine care & authenticity.

🫱🏽‍🫲🏿 CULTURAL SENSITIVITY
This extends from culture, to gender and historical awareness, to how societal structures such as patriarchy, capitalism and colonisation has its influence on your context.

+ there is also a framework trauma informed therapists will use when approaching the therapy process – more on that in a separate post.

Recognise that you need to work with a trauma informed therapist? Head to the 🔗 to work with me.

DISSOCIATION.

It’s going through the motions, getting through the hard moments and continuing to show up in the face of adversity even though everything is telling you not to.

How do I start being in my body? 💭

I hear this question a lot.

A lot of our work together, especially in the early stages, is developing your sense of embodiment.

We do this through building your body awareness and emotional regulation skills.

Without this, you can’t begin to truly heal from trauma.

Ready to work 1:1 with me? Follow the 🔗 in bio to book your initial session.

More awareness, insights and understanding will not heal your emotional pain. 💭

So many of my clients come to me because they struggle with overintellectualising — they are often very competent, high achieving individuals who take initiative and have no trouble conceptualising their experience.

🌀 They’ve also often already been in therapy before and have found themselves just going in circles or worse — retraumatised.

🫁 Somatic therapy targets where our trauma lives — in the body.

You can’t think your way into healing from trauma and it’s usually your thinking, although so valuable, that gets in the way.

Are you ready to make lasting change and try something new? Book in your 1:1 sessions with me.

SOMATIC THERAPY IS A PARADIGM SHIFT.

Top-Down approaches to healing only get you so far, because you can’t analyse your way out of healing.

Almost ALL of my clients come to me having had some experience with therapy before, some even seeing their therapist for YEARS.

The secret? It’s that our story follows state.

The story we tell ourselves – the meaning we make, the way we see ourselves and the world – is dictated by the state of our nervous system.

Our nervous systems kick into action before our cognition comes online. See how this limits us when it comes to cognitive modalities?

If you’re ready to experience a real shift – DM me or book your chemistry call for EMBODY.

Challenges on the healing journey.

Healing isn’t just about getting more info and becoming an expert in all things psychology.

If you’re interested in translating your knowledge into lived experience — EMBODY is your invitation.

Schedule a chemistry call with me now. 🔗

EMBODY is now open for intakes.

If you are ready for your next phase of healing, to embody and truly FEEL on an experiential level, all of the wisdom and knowledge you’ve collected along your journey so far – this program is for you ✨✨

We commence the last week of March and will meet weekly over the course of ten weeks, deep diving into somatic and embodiment themes.

There are only four spots available.

🔗 Follow the link in bio to sign up, schedule a chemistry call or find out more.

Looking forward to connecting with you 💛

Get out of your head & into your body.

Sign up to EMBODY 🔗 A 1:1 program commencing late March.

Peer support in trauma informed care.

Trauma isolates and disconnects us from others and the world around us.

Trauma informed care recognises the importance of connection with community of resonance and affinity.

I am walking this path to recovery because I have journeyed it myself.

I am not here to gatekeep healing or tell you what you’re experiencing – I’m here to be present and witness you in your wholeness.

Ready to work 1:1 together? Connect with me now.

WHO I SUPPORT

I support adult survivors of childhood trauma.

People who have grown up living with abuse and/or experiencing neglect.

People who have learnt that is unsafe to inhabit their bodies and live dissociated and in their heads – often overintellectualising, overanalysing and overachieving.

People just like you. 💛

You’re in the right place – connect with me to work 1:1.

Why it’s so important to do your own work to heal 💛

Embodiment starts with fundamentally knowing who you are – having a sense of self, in a holistic way.

This can be a challenge for childhood trauma survivors, as we didn’t get the opportunity to develop a healthy concept of Self with inattentive, neglectful or abusive caregivers.

Our work together in therapy is to slowly undo all of this, so that you can know who you are and feel empowered to make decisions aligned with you.

Sign up to the waitlist for EMBODY — a 10 week program that journeys a path to embodiment. 🌱

CLIENT FEEDBACK

You don’t have to do it alone 💛

🔗 Book your 1:1 sessions now.

📍START HERE | Explore FREE RESOURCES to begin your healing journey.

🧰 Emergency Trigger Toolkit eBook
Your comprehensive guide to navigating triggers.

🫁 Guided Practices
Explore guided meditations, visualisations, breathwork and somatic practices.

🎙️ Interviews
Listen to conversations with value-aligned collaborators.

💭 Education
Bite-sized psychoeducation about all things trauma and healing.

🫱🏽‍🫲🏿 Community
Sign up to the newsletter to join a community of 1000+ others healing from complex trauma.

🔗 To explore this all, head to my link in bio. Thank you for being here!

Traditional therapeutic modalities often leave trauma survivors feeling frustrated and ashamed, as if you’re so broken nothing can fix you.

But guess what? It’s not you (and you don’t need to be fixed).

Trauma survivors need a different approach to therapy – one that is embodied and relational.

Why? Because:
💔 Complex trauma teaches us that being in our bodies is unsafe, leaving the memory of trauma locked in our bodies and disconnecting us from ourselves.
💔 Complex trauma usually happens within relationships, leaving us not knowing how to be in relationship.

❤️‍🩹 Healing comes from reestablishing that safety – having corrective experiences both to complete somatic impulses that were disrupted by trauma and to feel safe within relationships.

Trauma informed therapy is sensitive to this and guides you, through a bottom up approach, back to yourself and back into connection with the world around you.

If you’re ready to try something new – connect with me for 1:1 sessions or sign up to the waitlist for EMBODY, a focused program starting in late March.

🔗 Head to my profile to start your journey.

EMBODY | A ten week 1:1 program that will give you the skills to make lasting change.

ONLY FOUR SPOTS AVAILABLE.

Join the waitlist now 🔗

WHY WORK WITH ME?

Because I “get” trauma.

Over the last ten years, I’ve worked with diverse populations in the community – from refugees seeking asylum to drug and alcohol rehab.

Since getting my degree in 2016, I have further qualifications and training, plus I am registered with the ACA and practice according to a code of ethics.

That’s all great AND I will be the first to tell you that work experience and pieces of paper actually don’t mean s**t.

I have my own personal trauma history – as a recovering dissociative, I know what it’s like to live with toxic shame, uncontrollable triggers and to live outside of myself. I also know what it’s like to be on the other side of recovery.

For my BIPOC community – I’m on this journey of decolonising my soul, advocating against oppression, embracing my heritage, cyclical living & collective healing alongside you.

Above all, I genuinely want to see you thrive, because a rising tide lifts all boats, and we owe it to humanity and the Earth to do the work.

I believe in my work because I know it has impact – all of my clients report a positive shift after only a few sessions with me.

Find out for yourself and connect with me to start your next chapter of healing 🌱