Working with Alexandra
THE PROCESS
Does it ever feel like parts of you are stuck in the past?
Or like you’re just going through the motions of everyday life, but with a simmering sense of discontentment?
Childhood sexual abuse, especially within a family, happens more than any of us wants to admit.
You may be juggling any combination of emotions as you integrate the effects of the trauma into your consciousness and your relationships.
Anger or rage, a deep sense of betrayal, shame, fear.
You can’t change the past,
but you can change the way you relate to it.
Thankfully, we have access to an unconditional loving spirit within ourselves.
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We each have within us a deeper knowing.
You can heal
Your deeper knowing is the source of your power.
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One of the most important parts of the healing process is connecting with your deeper knowing.
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We all come into this world with intuition, whether or not we've ever been aware of how to befriend it. Our environment growing up and later life experiences can disrupt our ability to connect with it. Before we know it, we are in a trance of living on autopilot, reacting rather than responding to our daily lives.
It’s okay to take the time you need to recover.
There is no protocol for recovery.
Everyone’s path is unique.
Every stage of recovery has its place in leading you to taking your power back.
The Process
01 Explore and identify
We start by exploring your life situation and circumstances. I will ask you to share with me the story of your hurt if it is one you feel called to share. This will help me to get to know you and understand how you are relating to your reality regardless of the trauma you’ve experienced. You can always count on me to provide a safe space to feel whatever comes up during our sessions. Together, we will name and identify the areas of your life that have been affected by your trauma and empower you to break the silence that has immobilized you.
02 Observe and consider
The areas of resistance that are blocking you from living the life you want will become clear as we engage the hurt parts of you that want to be heard and validated. These could be limiting beliefs and distortions, recurrent negative thought patterns, behaviors that alienate you from feeling close to a loved one, etc. In doing this, we will loosen the grip of your own trauma by understanding its context within your experience and the larger culture in which we live.
03 Dismantle and reframe
As we identify these areas, there will be opportunities and openings to transform your inner dialogue. I will guide you to develop awareness to train your mind so you can process thoughts, emotions, and challenges differently. You will practice disidentifying from your negative thoughts and identities. The space created from your consistent awareness of negative mind activity lights the way to your deeper knowing. I draw upon principles of present moment awareness and radical acceptance during sessions so you can learn to reframe your experience as part of a bigger picture.
04 Transform and engage
The mind is complex and clever. More specifically, the ego may prove challenging as you interrupt and rework how you manage your mind. As I speak about it here, the ego refers to the part of ourselves that has formed itself from our pain and suffering. It exists as a survival mechanism within us and serves as a location for our trauma to reside, in a world where it must exist unrecognized. And yet our ego does not help us heal – rather it integrates our pain deep into our identities, where it is safe from our attempts to heal and uses itself to protect us from a threat to that experience. We will meet the ego with a friendly spirit and redirect its energy to other thoughts and your deeper knowing. Practicing this approach will be at the heart of our work together. Dialoguing with all parts of you creates a sense of integration that was missing. We will interface directly with whatever challenges arise over the course of our work together.
05 Befriend and carry forward
All the while you are envisioning the life you want. A reality you want to live in, where negative thoughts do not sweep you down into despair - where you have affirmed your connection to your deeper knowing. The path to your deeper knowing will be well worn and more available to you. A light you can see and keep strong no matter what future days hold. You will cultivate a willingness to nurture yourself and develop dependable self-soothing activities. Just as important, we will explore how you can allow others to nurture you – a support system that can affirm your inherent worth. With a steady connection to your deeper knowing, responding to everyday challenges will have a different flavor. You understand the context of the challenges as they relate to your life situation and you know how to process them so you can intentionally create the life you want.
