The PATH that led me here:
You can find my resume by hitting LinkedIn at the footer of this site but here is a story I like to tell, about the underlying meaning and foundation of my work.
It’s interesting to talk about trauma these days and what it means for everyone. It’s so personal. I realized how broad the spectrum of trauma could be in some of my early experiences as a clinically trained therapist on an unconventional path. When I graduated in the spring of 1994, I didn’t waste any time immersing myself on this path, one which I would later come to understand as the backbone of my “expertise”.
I worked in parts of NYC where at the time no one I knew would ever visit willingly. My wise professor called those places “the trenches”. I can only see them now as my gold mine.
It was there, through the eyes of poverty-stricken and street war torn humans that I saw myself and my own flaws, weaknesses, and strengths.
Humility. Love. Kindness.
Trauma, as per the “clients” I served meant for many, waking up and growing up in drug and crime-ridden neighborhoods. Having little or no food or safety of “home”.
The experience of the “Therapy” I would practice back then obliterated the textbook definitions I learned about in college. Instead I learned it meant to be WITH, to listen and to humble.
To give from your heart, not from your pedigree.
To have fun with, to laugh with, and yes, to love your clients — because they needed you to. And because only in that way of meeting people where THEY were at would I learn about true connection and trust. And hell I probably needed them to love me too because what did I know about anything at age 23 lol. Those early experiences gave me my legs both in confidence and empathy.
Reciprocity.
I gained trust because I was humbled into presence, and only then would I be allowed “in” through the hearts locked gates of anger hurt and fear.
I could then offer- after learning the gift of humility first and by letting my clients teach me about who they were and what they really needed.
Attachment theory, trauma bonding or what the DSM says about personalities and mental illness was not the type of “treatment” that was needed there.
Just like you and I, basic needs revolved around a desire for safety security trust love which many did not have or ever experience.
Earning trust gaining humility:
How? By visiting homes, going to doctors’ appointments, hospital visits, sitting bedside at the time of deaths, celebrating births, attending weddings, parades, field trips, thrift shops, grocery stores, subways — from one end of a borough to the opposite end of another and back, sometimes multiple times in a day. Sounds like life.
I realize now as an art therapist back then that my non-traditional therapy training did me a world of good.
Because I learned early on how to see the world through the universal lens of symbols imagery and the right brain freedoms. People are not diagnoses, people are complex configurations of experiences who are all longing for witness agency and love.
We are all the same. Our differences can draw us together paradoxically like the repellant force between two magnets, which is akin to the illusion of opposites or separateness. This is the space of fertility. Where we can learn from one another. Where we become each other’s mirrors. We repel and compartmentalize only when we refuse to see this truth -and one which is uncommonly reflected in our world today.
I was slow to accept, if ever, the status quo as the truth for all. My training and experience pushed the boundaries of what “real talk therapy” meant. It allowed me to see people (including myself) far beyond and outside of the labels and boxes of what clinical work would look like or come to mean.
I was once arrested with a group of clients, spent a night in The Tombs (old nyc jail) for protesting budget cuts imposed on important mental health funding in NYC programs. Labels fall away when we come together as one for a cause serving the greater good.
We must realize, in fighting for any cause or person, we are actually also fighting for some yearning deep within ourselves because
WE ARE THE SAME
We bond because we risk for one another. Enter trust. Healing. Connection. Relationship
These days I am putting my money where my mouth is and fighting for MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD.
The walking wounded reach far beyond yesterday’s streets of NYC that I speak of. Our own warriors are forgotten by state and government officials. We need only to remember 911 and how it continues to ravage our first responders both in body and mind
Opportunities for profound healing and peaceful living beyond the battlefield for these men and women can be swapped for the rising numbers of lives lost every day to suicide.
This is the time to fight for our warriors who fight for us every day in multiple ways. Don’t let fear win. It is not the time to be silent.
DM me for more info on my Alt Healing programs for VETS and First Responders.
Check out more About me in the 5D
My personae
Fun! laughing at nothing and everything (esp at me)
LovE & a profound love for:
Coffee
Oceans & Forests
Indian food
Music of all kinds
And I will call you out on your bs so don’t mistake my kindness for weakness ;)
3D Methods <<