• Sex – a Mindful Exploration of the Experience of Pleasure in the Body
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    Sex – a Mindful Exploration of the Experience of Pleasure in the Body

    Bringing mindfulness to your sexual experience can begin to offer a more nuanced understanding of your own experience in your body.  It’s often true that unless something is wrong, we don’t spend much time noticing what’s right. And when it comes to sex, our feelings and experiences can be complicated by trauma or fear, which […]

  • CCIH Study Group
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    CCIH Study Group

    In the CCIH Study Group, we have decided to read The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy: Engaging the Rhythm of Regulation for our next book together.  The work of Stephen Porges has been fundamental to our growing understanding of the effects of trauma on our brains and central nervous systems. In her book Deb Dana takes […]

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    Trauma Outside the Box

    These days we hear more and more about services and programs that call themselves “trauma-informed”. I often find myself curious about what that actually means. When we use the word trauma, we are calling to mind the worst of what we as human beings suffer and do to one another. The consequences of trauma occupy […]

  • for Carol

    for Carol

    Carol McRaith was a member of the CCIH community since the very beginning–from before we even existed as an office.  I remember well our first conversation when she agreed to embark on this journey with me. Neither of us knew what would evolve but she entered wholeheartedly.  She participated in all of our early decision […]

  • Embodied Practices: A Day of Collaborative Reflection
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    Embodied Practices: A Day of Collaborative Reflection

    Thank you!  This was a resourcing, positive experience in a supportive and nurturing format.  I am leaving with more energy and inspiration to make work the best for myself and clients.                        — Embodied Practices                            workshop participant   […]

  • Mental Health, Nutrition, and Depression

    As mental health treatment becomes more integrative in its approach, diet, along with such other lifestyle factors as exercise and sleep is now being studied. Recent studies, especially one randomized controlled study, are supporting what many have known, at least anecdotally, all along: food affects mood. Any discussion of mood must begin with the brain […]

  • Trauma Brain Project

    Trauma Brain Project

    The Trauma Brain Project is a beautifully written, beautifully performed play about the powerful effects of childhood trauma and the incredible wisdom of the body in the healing process https://www.thetraumabrainproject.com. I had the honor of participating in the expert panel discussion after the performance last night. I was again moved by the performance and grateful […]

  • Getting to Know Your Pain

    According to a survey conducted by the National Institute for Health (2012), “about 25.3 million U.S. adults (11.2%) had pain every day for the previous 3 months” (nccih.nih.gov, Chronic Pain: In Depth, n.d.). Clearly, chronic pain, which NIH defines as pain that lasts for several months and lasts longer than “normal healing” is a very […]

  • Deepening Connection and Healing through the Group Experience
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    Deepening Connection and Healing through the Group Experience

    How do I know if I should do a group experience?  What are the criteria for readiness? As I write this, another cohort of brave people is halfway into a 12 week group experience, supporting their individual healing paths by participating in Becoming Safely Embodied. There is no replacement for solid, trauma-informed individual treatment for […]