The Resourced Therapist
Courses, classes, support, and inspiration to help therapists and allied healers cultivate and susta
01/12/2022
Have you explored our library of FREE meditations?
This is one of our favorite resources that we are passionate about offering, from our hearts to yours.
Our meditation library contains twenty unique meditations written by us with healers in mind. There are tracks for every point of the day, of all lengths, and to fit a wide variety of healers' needs.
Check in our today and let us know what you think! https://www.resourcedtherapist.com/meditations
23/11/2022
We'll be taking the rest of the week off for the holiday, and hope you get to take some time for yourself too, healer.
This time of year can invite gratitude and connection; it can also be challenging for many of us in different ways.
Whatever is unfolding in your life and heart, we wish you a moment to pause and to recharge.
Rest is crucial to the good work you do in the world. We are grateful for you, for your work, and for this community.
15/11/2022
Sharon's beloved Friday Release class will take place next on Friday, 11/18!
This class offers gentle movement and stretching to let go of tension in your body, breathwork to settle your nervous system, and guided meditation to resource your spirit.
This is a unique opportunity to connect with a community of healers and to be held in the space Sharon creates. Join us to release anything that is still with you from the week and to set yourself up for grounding and relaxation as you head into the weekend.
Rrgister here; registration gets access to the recording for a week after class. : https://www.eventbrite.com/e/423788371427
09/11/2022
Dear Healers...what helps you to feel alive and vibrant, regardless of the challenges you are facing?
As therapists or other kinds of healers, our focus often is to soften suffering. Yet, equally importantly, we are tasked to cultivate joy, hope, and vitality—both for ourselves and for our clients who face stress, trauma, or loss.
Detroit-based activist, doula, and author of “Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good,” asserts that claiming, embodying, and being present with the experience of pleasure is an essential step in overcoming trauma and oppression. Rooted in the black feminist tradition, brown argues that reclaiming pleasure is not an act of luxury but one of liberation.
Oppression disproportionately harms people of color, disabled people, s*x workers, trans and non-binary people–among others–and can deny access to happiness and joy. Claiming the human right to pleasure, while harnessing passion, fuels resistance and empowerment.
Similarly psychotherapist, educator, and daughter of Holocaust survivors, reminds us of the necessary role of eroticism in our lives. She, like brown, encourages not only s*xual pleasure and freedom, but all aspects of celebrating aliveness.
Dancing or making love with abandon, fighting ferociously for justice, singing unselfconsciously in the rain, belly laughing with exuberance, or savoring scrumptious food with gusto all affirm we are more than what we have survived. Beyond promoting healing within ourselves, they also can energize us to demand and create a better world for all.
What are your favorite ways to connect to joy and aliveness?
PS - For more wisdom and lovingkindness for therapists, by therapists delivered to your inbox each Monday, sign up for Dear Healer: https://www.resourcedtherapist.com/dear-healer
27/10/2022
There is always something neutral to pay attention to.
This mindfulness tenet can help shift attention in a difficult moment, finding something - simply - more neutral; not necessarily expecting ease or pleasantry in every situation.
This can, importantly, encourage us away from needing to “fix” or “solve” an emotion or moment or tension, rather just expanding our awareness to include something else.
It can also help us be aware, and beware, of the subtle striving that can be an undercurrent in well-intentioned self-care or self-improvement. Neutral is okay. It doesn't - and we don't - always need to be better.
Here are just a few ideas of how to apply this tenet to life, or work, this week.
⬜️ When the body is overwhelmed with sensation or pain, perhaps there is an ankle, or a forearm, that is not feeling that way. Take note of it. This can be anchoring.
⬜️ If you find yourself wishing for more or better (which we all do from time to time - our capitalistic economy thrives on us believing we are just one purchase/change away from the happiness we seek) – perhaps finding something neutral in the moment to help remind us that it is contentment from what already exists - rather than elation or joy - that is freeing and sustainable.
⬜️ When events in your life or our world overwhelm, take note of something familiar and neutral - like the steady hum of neighbors in their daily routines. Neutral, and comforting.
Most of all, trust that this idea will land exactly as it needs to for you.
PS - for more wisdom and lovingkindness for therapists, by therapists delivered to your inbox each Monday, sign up for Dear Healer: https://www.resourcedtherapist.com/dear-healer
25/10/2022
One of the challenges we name often is how we, as healers, meet stressors and pressures that are happening on a societal and global level many times over.
While we live through difficult times as humans ourselves, we then also hear our clients bring that to the therapy hour over and over again.
This repeated exposure to stress, combined with systems that don’t offer adequate support, is what leads to burnout.
And we’re passionate about helping you with that!
This is why we have compiled our best guidance on buffering burnout into a handy two-page guide: The ABCs of Buffering Burnout.
We want you to care for yourself, and in a way that won’t take more of your precious time or finite energy.
We believe self-care is best when it’s quick, easy, and tailored to what you actually need.
So we are excited to offer you this beautiful and affirming handout that provides a summary of the pathways we’ve identified to support wellbeing and resilience without adding more burden.
Our acronym can help you remember supportive strategies in moments of overload:
A - acknowledge and affirm what is here
B - boundary setting can protect you from stress exposure
C - compassion--both tender and fierce--softens the impact of burnout
S - small shifts in mindset, body, and communal support help
Grab the download here! https://www.resourcedtherapist.com/free-downloads
Thank you for your good work in the world and for allowing us this opportunity to resource you.
21/10/2022
As I (Carryn) walk through my neighborhood and soak in the golden yellow leaves–my favorite autumnal color!–I am reminded of a sweet children's book called The Little Yellow Leaf, by Carin Berger.
The book is about a leaf that doesn't feel quite ready to drop despite seeing all the leaves drop around it; it is eventually able to let go when it feels connected to another leaf who has also been waiting.
The story is also about the inevitability of change, pausing in uncertainty, and the necessity of relationship to help us be ready to take a step; it reminds me so much of the therapeutic relationship.
So often, our work really is about understanding this uncertain, or ambivalent, pause. Change doesn't happen at a pre-prescribed pace or time. Rather, change is organic. It occurs if, and when, it will.
Offering our therapeutic presence can help a person feel safe, held, connected...
🍂And then, high up on an icy branch, a scarlet flash.
One more leaf holding tight.
"You're here?" called the Little Yellow Leaf.
"I am," said the Little Scarlet Leaf.
"Like me!" said the Little Yellow Leaf.
Neither spoke.
Finally… "Will you?" asked the Little Scarlet Leaf.
"I will!" said the Little Yellow Leaf.
And one, two, three, they let go and soared.🍂
This week, whatever you witness in your clients, may the leaves dropping AND the leaves still hanging on remind us that we can allow ourselves, and our clients, to be exactly as we, and they, are.
And may we also recognize that we are the scarlet leaf, letting our clients know that they are not alone.
PS - for more wisdom and lovingkindness for therapists, by therapists delivered to your inbox each Monday, sign up for Dear Healer here: https://www.resourcedtherapist.com/dear-healer
18/10/2022
Carryn is BACK with her first Yin class since May!
Healers who attend Carryn's Yin class tell us they love:
〰️The chance to experience feeling space held for them
〰️How well they sleep after class
〰️The benefits of the sweet release for the body, mind, and soul
〰️Carryn’s gentle, attentive teaching style that brings a person in contact with themselves
〰️The sense of felt community with other healers
In Yin, we work to cultivate acceptance, ease, release, and to just BE instead of do. It's a healing and complementary balance to our active, engaged, state of doing - and one we are finding more useful than ever these days.
Join us for a deeply restorative Yin practice and give yourself the gifts of care, rest and nourishment.
Registration gets access to the recording for a week after class: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/yin-yoga-for-therapists-tickets-423786515877?aff=ebdsoporgprofile
10/10/2022
Both of us often reference the wisdom of Oliver Burkeman’s “Four Thousand Weeks,” both to clients and to one another.
Burkeman encourages us to ponder: what are your “big rocks”–the things that really matter, the things that at the end of your 4,000 weeks (age 80) you will most cherish–or conversely, most regret–if you don’t get to them?
Consider putting the “big rocks” in your bucket first, then your “small rocks”, and then finally the “sand.”
This metaphor reminds us that it’s much easier to fit in the sand around the rocks rather than the other way around! If you are like us, you may too often begin with the “sand”--you take care of everyday business or housework–in an effort to earn the luxury of your “big rocks.”
How might you live or feel differently if you shifted this habit so that the “big rocks” came first?
We invite you to take a moment now to remember yourself in your intention to foster healing. Breathe, sit back, feel the surface beneath or behind you, and reflect:
🪨 What are your big rocks–the things you will most regret if you don’t get to experience in your one lifetime?
🪨 What would it look like if you prioritized your big rocks first as you remember that you simply can’t do it all?
🪨 What “sand” can you let slip through your fingers–the habitual things you do or tend to that won’t really matter in the end?
Listen to the first words or attend to the first images that arise.
Allow your emotion to be a trusted guide or messenger.
We support you to turn toward what is most important or meaningful to you.
29/09/2022
For me (Carryn), like for so many, time in nature is grounding, awe-inspiring, uplifting, and calming - all at once. If I can move my body in nature - even better!
These pictures show a few of my favorite, most regenerating moments from the summer: sneaking in a sunrise over the lake in Leelanau County, Michigan; pausing mid-bike ride to admire the contrast of clouds, sky, trees, and farmland near my hometown in Minnesota; climbing the huge dunes at Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore with my 3-year-old.
As fall settles in and I turn my attention towards what I love about this season, I continue to savor the moments from summer. Wishing all of you moments to photo-gaze, breathe deep, and find a rhythm for this season.
26/09/2022
Summer vacation on Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula allows for time to slow down, to be in the moment, and to be with family and friends.
A particular joy of this summer for me (Sharon) was helping to introduce this amazing resource to my new grandson!
Taking it all in together, through our cool shades, allows me again to see the world through the curiosity and wonderment of a child’s eyes. At the same time, I hope to offer him a vision and experience of resourcing he’ll enjoy for many years to come.
One perhaps he’ll someday pass along too.
What were some highlights of your summer, healer?
22/09/2022
Today marks the first day of fall (did that sneak up on you, too?!).
As always, we are grateful as healers for the honor and privilege to engage in meaningful work. It fills our hearts to know that we make a difference. It fills our cups to spend time in deep engagement with clients–and with loved ones–nurturing secure attachments and supporting growth, resilience, and wellbeing.
At the same time, we are aware that our caregiving resources are finite–especially in a context in which personal and professional needs continue to run high and so many systems are over-taxed.
We, like you, grapple with the challenge of discerning the right balance of how much to give to others and how best to protect our own energy.
So, we are granting ourselves permission this fall to empathetically resonate both with the needs of others and to sense into our own needs.
As you continue to transition into your fall schedule, healer, we offer you these affirmations:
🍂You are human too.
🍂You can only do your part.
🍂It’s okay to conserve time and energy for you.
🍂Caring for yourself is essential to caring for others.
We know there are no easy or one-size fits all solutions. We also know some of you may be approaching fall with abundant energy and enthusiasm and we cheer you on!
Wherever you are, however you are feeling, we honor that your needs and wishes matter too.
19/09/2022
Friday Release with Sharon is BACK for the first time since May!!
This class offers gentle movement and stretching to let go of tension in your body, breathwork to settle your nervous system, and guided meditation to resource your spirit.
This is a unique opportunity to connect with a community of healers and to be held in the space Sharon creates. Join us to release anything that is still with you from the week and to set yourself up for grounding and relaxation as you head into the weekend.
Link in bio to register; registration gets access to the recording for a week after class.
Recollecting summer’s resourcing as we move into fall.
This is the view and water that restores me (Sharon) by my family’s cottage in northern Michigan on Grand Traverse Bay. Time there offers peace, beauty and presence. Remembering the experience year round, with senses wide open, allows me to return at any time:
Sense the coolness of the water and the warmth of the air.
Observe the clear shimmering water revealing the rocks beneath.
Hear the call of the gulls above.
Savor and smell the fir trees along the shoreline.
Imagine floating in serenity, held by the gently lapping waves.
28/07/2022
This is a lesson that we hope to model to the other hrealers in our lives –and one that we are constantly learning and re-learning ourselves.
In the spirit of this reminder, we'll be taking the next several weeks off of social media; the whole Resourced Therapist team will be off for the month of August.
We acknowledge what a privilege it is to be able to take a break, and also believe that rest is absolutely crucial to our survival, our care, and our ability to show up for ourselves and for others.
May you give yourself the gift of rest, healer, whatever it looks like for you.
We'll be back in September with more exciting offerings just for you! In the meantime, we have so many wonderful resources to hold you over: find self-paced courses, meditations, free downloads, words of wisdom and more at our website https://www.resourcedtherapist.com/
Take good care, healer.
15/07/2022
We are excited and honored to have an article featured in the print version of Pollen magazine (a simplepractice publication)!
Those of you who are simplepractice subscribers will receive it in the mail this Spring/Summer. You can also check out a digital version of the issue out here: https://www.simplepractice.com/pollen/magazine-issue2/
The title of our article is Vicarious Trauma: Limit your Exposure to the Inevitable Occupational Hazard and is written by both Sharon and Carryn. This is a topic that is near and dear to our hearts, and we love getting to share wisdom around it any chance we get (including in one of our signature self-paced video courses, Transforming Vicarious Trauma).
If you've already gotten the issue, let us know your thoughts!
07/07/2022
Healer, what is beckoning to you this summer?
As we find ourselves in the midst of summer, what calls to you? Perhaps sense into the first image or words that arise in response to this query, or to the predominant emotion here for you now. Each may carry a message about the resources for which you long.
Like intuitive eating, our best self-care is responsive to that which best matches the hunger or yearning that calls to us now. Might you need:
〰️Rest
〰️Play
〰️Connection
〰️Creativity
〰️Beauty
〰️Escape
〰️Nature
〰️Freedom from responsibility
〰️Spiritual renewal
We invite you to let go of judgment, let go of expectation. Trust your intuition. Healing is organic. You are the best expert on what you need. And, healer, you too are deserving of care.
PS. Wisdom and loving guidance like this can be found each week in our free newsletter Dear Healer. Join thousands of healers worldwide in starting your week with a little support from us. Sign up here https://www.resourcedtherapist.com/dear-healer
30/06/2022
As you may have noticed, we're slowing down and leaning into summer–which has meant less time online and more time with loved ones and in nature.
To that end, we're taking the summer off from our popular Refresh classes. But, we still want to offer you the resourcing and care you so deserve.
We offer a Refresh On-Demand bundle for just $25, which includes four videos of our recorded Refresh classes: movement, breathwork and relaxation practices available to you anytime you need resourcing!
The 4 videos include:
🔅Nourish & Restore Yin Yoga
🔅Yoga Nidra for Rest & Restoring
🔅Gentle Movement for Tension Release
🔅Communal Exhale
Click here to grab the bundle, and check out our other self-paced resources as well! https://www.resourcedtherapist.com/refresh-classes
28/06/2022
We're here for you, and we're with you.
We, too, are devastated and angry and afraid.
We, too, are trying to focus on right action.
And, most of all, we want to remind you that your skills as a therapist can be used for clarity and action for collective trauma - and advocacy in our society.
We honor the work that each of you does - helping individuals heal from the harm caused to them by people, events, policies, and systems.
We must find ways to recognize the devastating toll of collective trauma and to simultaneously find hope and enhance safety.
Both caring for yourself as well as acting for change are essential for healing trauma.
The trauma we continue to experience and witness is unrelenting. Our autonomic nervous system responds to the stress in the way that it is meant to - activating the sympathetic nervous system.
At some point, you may notice yourself in a parasympathetic come-down, feeling exhausted or depleted. This is normal, expected, and okay. Our bodies are so wise - this is your body telling you what you need: rest.
It's okay to take time off - from work, from the news, from social media. Honor rest as essential for action.
Some of our resources may help support you: Sharon's guided meditative practice - Resourcing All Parts of Self in a Difficult Time - is incredibly helpful and therapeutic. (In fact, it's been featured on the Insight Timer home page as a staff pick three different times!)
If you don't have a half hour, perhaps try Community - so you can sense into the collective power of healers and healing.
And, create space for hope. It's a balm for us to soothe our nervous systems and fuel for us to keep working. Recall that humans just like you have successfully advocated for change in the past. We can, and will, again.
24/06/2022
We hear a lot about “balance” in advice for how to manage the overwhelm of work and the world around us.
When we are stressed, burned out, or overwhelmed, people tell us to seek balance. When the demands of work pull us under, we’re told to “balance” it by seeking joy and play.
Yes, we agree that working towards balance is helpful.
Yet, lately, as the tragedies around us continue (and compound)...
…As we continue to do this important healing work in difficult times…
…As we experience so many difficult emotions in response to our pain, our clients’ pain, and the pain of the world…
…It has helped us to think about seeking harmony, rather than balance.
Harmony -- defined as the quality of forming a consistent, perhaps pleasing, whole.
The world can sometimes almost seem to demand we dissociate or compartmentalize to get through the day. Tragedies happen around us, human rights and human lives are stripped away, and yet we have the demands of being a worker, a parent, a friend, a caregiver…a human.
We know that, while temporary compartmentalization is necessary and helpful, it’s integrating all parts of our experience that actually helps us move towards feeling whole and…harmonious.
We’re reminded of a beautiful quote by the Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön:
"[Things] come together and they fall apart.
Then they come together again and fall apart again.
It's just like that.
The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy."
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
If we can allow our experience to be there, it can guide us. It serves us, our clients, and our whole world.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
—-
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
07/06/2022
Have you checked out our library of free meditations for healers?
This one is quick enough to fit in between sessions and will help you reconnect with joy when you're bogged down in burnout or heaviness.
In it, we'll guide you through visualizing, embracing, and embodying joy as you let tension or suffering recede.
Check it and our other meditations out at the link in our bio! And let us know below - what is bringing you joy today?
03/06/2022
How are you doing, healer?
We invite you to take a moment for you.
Breathe, sit back, feel the chair or surface beneath or behind you, and reflect: “How am I doing?” “What do I need?”
So much suffering pervades the news; tragedy abounds; the pandemic shifts course yet persists in its impact especially on vulnerable populations. Spring brings hope of renewal, summer vacation calls to us...Yet, the air is heavy with grief.
We encourage you to remember yourself in your intention to foster healing and to bring solace to pain. Turning toward what you need, and responding with the same compassion you offer to so many others, is not selfish. Care for you is the foundation of your care for others.
If our resources can support you, please visit our website to listen to our free meditations, to sign up for our free Dear Healer weekly newsletter of wisdom and lovingkindness, or to consult our (CE eligible) self-paced video courses to nurture you through vicarious trauma or burnout.
We wish you good healing.
31/05/2022
Have you checked out our latest course, From Ragged to Resilient: Practical Strategies to Buffer Burnout?
We created this course for therapists and helping professionals like yourself: big-hearted people who give so much to others, yet feel the toll of demands that exceed resources, or who feel the impact of so much exposure to human suffering.
In this self-paced video course, we lay out tactics and strategies that we teach our colleagues in workshops and private consultation sessions.
We’ve seen the meaningful results that our strategies can have, and we are delighted to share them with you. We’ve divided the course into easy to digest and access episodes. You can binge watch in one 2-hour sitting, or tune into a single episode on a specific topic and set of resources you need on a given day.
Our course is for therapists and other helping professionals, such as educators, healthcare workers, clergy, and those in legal and social justice fields. We share both a framework for understanding burnout and we demonstrate strategies and practices in real-time that can help.
When we say that we put hours (months? years?) of work and the sum of our professional experience into this course, we’re not kidding. It was a total labor of love, and we deeply believe in how it can help you.
Sign up here: https://www.resourcedtherapist.com/from-ragged-to-resilient
Payment plans are available as well.
26/05/2022
Are you signed up for Dear Healer yet?
This is one of our longest-running and most beloved resources, and one that we take so much pleasure in creating for our community each week.
Dear Healer features reflections, insight and resources that tend to be in tune with the rhythms of the seasons, what is happening in the world, and wisdom from our own lives. It is created for healers, by healers, and is an honor to offer it to you.
You can sign up, and view past topics here: https://www.resourcedtherapist.com/dear-healer
Therpist Refresh
Therapist Refresh is here to resource you: to offer healing, support and inspiration for healers.
Therapist Refresh was born out of our shared mission and vision to help resource psychotherapists around the globe. We believe in the power of practice, of community, and of harnessing our innate capacities for vitality and contentment.
We hope that you will visit our page often throughout your day to take advantage of our meditations, breathwork, and guided movement.
Videos (show all)
