What is trauma, and how does it affect humans?: (long, but full explanation; fyi last 2 min are approaches unknown to Cherylann) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byQBP7fq5vQ
Therapy for Children:Please note that Cherylann is not seeing young children by telehealth during the pandemic, given the difficulty of doing play therapy this way.
Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT): Please note that Cherylann is not currently seeing new couples. Please refer to the following resource for local couples' therapists providing the therapy with the highest success rate of which I am aware. http://www.seattleeft.com/
“Here is a basic description of how Brainspotting works. The therapist acts as a guide, but you are in charge of your own process. You might begin with a few minutes of relaxed breathing and listening with headphones to BioLateral sound (www.biolateral .com). You pay attention to the place in your body where you feel the most distress. You give a ‘0 to 10’ rating for the level of distress you feel, and then the therapist helps you find an eye position (“brain-spot”) - a point in front of you where the eyes naturally focus when your pain feels the strongest.
The therapist acts as a support and facilitator in helping you to slowly and safely move through the awareness that unfolds inside after finding the brainspot. You and the therapist focus deep moment-to-moment attention on the troubles presented by this one neural pathway.
What comes up? This is different for every individual and in every session. It may be visual images, memories, a few words, sensations in the body, forgotten sounds, and various feelings. The point is to allow and witness these natural “leftover” responses from the trauma to surface. The individual is free to just experience the associations or they can share it in words with the therapist as they go along. You may periodically re-rate the distress, or shift to another brainspot if too overwhelmed by the first.
By the end of the session, your rating of the distressed state is most often lower and your “felt-sense” of the suffering is lessened. A gentle release of energy happens with the process, which may be felt physically as tingling, slight shaking (like from a chill), or a need to stretch. This is the body’s natural response to “unfreezing” what was held from the past. You are also likely to experience a lasting mental relief upon realizing that this disturbance from long-ago is no longer upsetting to you.
An after-sense of change stays with you outside the session in everyday life. When Brainspotting is facilitated within the context of a caring therapeutic relationship, it feels safe, noninvasive and contained. In my experience as a client, this type of intervention feels like a precise laser beam, versus the impact of a sledge hammer - the often overwhelming side-effects of medications and ECT.” From HEART Resources, LLC 2009, All Rights Reserved, By Katherine F. H. Heart, M.Ed.