Services
East Asian Medicine
East Asian medicine (AKA Chinese Medicine) offers many amazing tools. I use acupuncture to help open energy pathways, regulate the nervous system, support the immune system, and to promote healthy circulation and relaxation within the body. Acupuncture can be used to treat most chronic and acute ailments—Anything from pain, to digestive issues, emotional instability, insomnia, and much more.
I utilize the traditional method of moxibustion—a process of warming the points with burning mugwort—to increase and balance energy as needed. In addition, I sometimes use cupping and gua sha when needed. I am also trained in several medical qigong techniques including Tong Ren Therapy. I was trained originally in the Worsley Five Element tradition, and now combine that style with a Korean Monastic-style tradition called Sa’am.
I am gentle and sensitive in my application of these methods; always willing to switch modalities if something feels uncomfortable or ‘not right’ in any way. I am highly respectful of each client’s innate healing wisdom and the timing that goes with it.
Craniosacral therapy is a gentle, non-invasive, hands-on healing modality that focuses on the wave-like rhythmic pulse that stems from the movement of cerebral-spinal fluid. This rhythmic pulse can be accessed anywhere on the body and used to detect restrictions in the system, which can then be released in a gentle process called “unwinding.” This process allows for better functioning of all the body’s systems, especially the nervous system, immune system, and musculoskeletal system.
I will commonly spend some time during the treatment—often while the acupuncture needles are in—with my hands on your feet, head or sacrum, working with the craniosacral rhythm. Nothing is ever pushed or forced. I am there as a witness and support to what already wants to shift in your body. Most find this extremely relaxing.
Craniosacral Therapy
Somatic Counseling
I am trained in two styles of counseling: Hakomi and Internal Family Systems (IFS). I am a registered Hypnotherapist in the state of Washington which allows me to use “trance” therapies such as these.
Hakomi is a practice of “guided self-study,” where the practitioner guides the client in using mindfulness to explore patterns and beliefs as they show up in the body. Once identified and made conscious, these beliefs can be transformed, so as to allow more freedom and wholeness in the client’s life.
IFS, or Internal Family Systems is a therapy model that proposes that the mind is not a singular entity or self but is composed of multiple parts (or roles) as in a family. There are some parts which carry the painful memories of traumatic childhood events, and there are other parts which use often outdated strategies to keep us safe in life by keeping these vulnerable emotions/parts hidden. There are parts of us that work together in our system, and also parts that are polarized against each other, causing internal and external reactivity. The model also proposes that each of us has essential “Self” energy as well, existing separately from our parts. Using the IFS model, the therapist guides the client internally to develop compassionate relationships with their parts, so as to help access more Self energy and Self leadership of one’s system. This leads to a more harmonious state which in turn helps us have better relationships and show up in life with more ease and presence.
To the left is a short YouTube Video of Richard Schwartz explaining IFS.