Have you lost a loved one and feel like there is “unfinished business”? Do you have the desire to make contact or receive resolution around a particular issue? Please enjoy this interview with Dr. Rebecca Merz as she discussed the “Psychomanteum”, a process for grieving that also involves attempting to contact your departed loved one.
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“Nobody can “treat” a war, or abuse, rape, molestation, or any other horrendous event, for that matter; what has happened cannot be undone. But what can be dealt with are the imprints of the trauma on body, mind, and soul: the crushing sensations in your chest that you may label as anxiety or depression; the fear of losing control; always being on alert for danger or rejection; the self-loathing; the nightmares and flashbacks; the fog that keeps you from staying on task and from engaging fully in what you are doing; being unable to fully open your heart to another human being.
The challenge of recovery is to reestablish ownership of your body and your mind — of your self. This means feeling free to know what you know and to feel what you feel without becoming overwhelmed, enraged, ashamed, or collapsed. For most people this involves (1) finding a way to become calm and focused, (2) learning to maintain that calm in response to images, thoughts, sounds, or physical sensations that remind you of the past, (3) finding a way to be fully alive in the present and engaged with the people around you, (4) not having to keep secrets from yourself, including secrets about the ways that you have managed to survive.”
– Bessel Van Der Kolk, MD
Caregiving can challenge the most resilient among us. If you’ve found yourself in the role of caregiver, feelings of overwhelm and stress are quite common.
You may be feeling sad, irritable, angry, or depressed. You could be suffering from exhaustion or weight gain. The constant strain and worry can cause headaches or other physical symptoms which could then lead to self-medicating with alcohol, drugs, or unhealthy foods.
In short, high levels of stress over a long period of time can have serious and long-lasting effects on both your mental and physical health.
However, you may be so focused on your loved one that you don’t realize your own health and well-being are suffering, and the thought of doing something for you can feel selfish.
Now is the time when you need it the most.
Rei-Ki: The word translated means “life-force-energy”. There are many different names for this life force and energy field we exist within such as; Chi, Prana, Qi, Higher Power, God force- in other words, spiritually guided life force energy. It is administered by “laying on hands” in a variety of placements and is commonly used for stress reduction and relaxation and can also promote healing.
Reiki is a very calming therapy and is performed with you lying on a massage table, fully clothed in a pleasing environment. Essential oils, Tibetan singing bowls, and guided visualization are also used during your session to enhance the relaxation process.
If you find yourself regularly stressed out, Reiki may be the therapy for you.
When you are wanting expansion in your spiritual consciousness. These sessions are based and centered on the exploration of the ego, and include reading assignments. Phone sessions are also available.
The BAUD is a sound based device that helps to disrupt the circuits of Trauma that get held in the nervous system of the brain and body. It is helpful with a variety of different personal issues.
Darlene Coleman is a Professionally Certified Life Coach, Certified Hypnotherapist, speaker, instructor, and creator of the Rise & Thrive corporate wellness series. Her professional background spans military service, emergency medicine, Fire Science, mortgage lending, personal transformation, and nervous-system-informed wellness.
A United States Marine Corps veteran and former firefighter/paramedic, Darlene understands the human side of high-pressure environments. She is a graduate of Bennett-Stellar University, received her paramedic training through George Washington University, Fire Science studies through the University of Maryland, and extensive specialized training in behavior change, emotional regulation, communication, and personal development.
Darlene brings practical tools, warmth, and real-world insight to organizations seeking to strengthen resilience, communication, self-awareness, and employee well-being.
When people hear the word “hypnosis”, they immediately think of swinging watches, spinning spirals and mind-control that they see in the movies. While it can be, it’s not really like that.
Hypnotic trance exists in many different forms in everyday life, for example when you are watching your favorite TV show or reading a good book or daydreaming. We become hypnotized all of the time without our awareness, into particular mindsets. Many of these mindsets are created when we are children and learning to navigate the world around us. Powerful post-hypnotic suggestions can stay with us for years, especially in areas where self-esteem is concerned. Often, the job of the therapist is to de-hypnotize the client.
I am certified in “Ericksonian” style hypnosis, which uses more of what it is called indirect suggestions. Indirect suggestions are much harder to resist because they are often not even recognized as suggestions by the conscious mind.
Hypnosis helps to open and relax the mind, works on many different topics and enables a space for healing to occur.
Your words and thoughts are powerful. Very powerful. This isn’t speculation; it is a reality.
The basic premise of NLP is focused on the “language” of our thoughts and how that language is stored in the brain. The specific language we use reveals our inner, subconscious perceptions or beliefs around our problems and the world at large. If our language and our perceptions are inaccurate, as long as we continue to talk and to think in that same way, the underlying problems will persist. In other words, our attitudes are, in a sense, a self-fulfilling prophecy and a way of remaining stuck. Our words and thoughts create our own version of reality.
“The phrase “Neuro-Linguistic Programming” describes the process of how personality creates and expresses itself. Put simply, we are all made up of a neurology that conveys information about our environment to our central nervous systems and brains. Since we are also meaning creating creatures, we translate these perceptions in our brains into meanings, beliefs and expectations. As we continue to grow from a rather infant brain into a more complex adult human, we tend to filter, distort and magnify the input we get from our environment such that it matches the elaborate program we evolve to explain our life experience.” -Wikipedia
In the early 70’s a man named Richard Bandler, decided for his thesis project that he wanted to develop models of human behavior to understand why certain people seemed to be excellent at what they did, while others found the same tasks challenging or nearly impossible to do. Along with his then professor, John Grinder, and using inspiration by pioneers in the fields of therapy and personal growth, they began to develop systematic procedures and theories that formed the basis of NLP. They studied three top therapists: Virginia Satir, the extraordinary family therapist, who consistently was able to resolve difficult family relationships that many other therapists found intractable, the innovative psychotherapist Fritz Perls, who originated the school of therapy known as Gestalt, and Milton Erickson, the world-famous hypnotherapist.
“Their goal was to develop models of how it was that these people got the results they did. They sought to identify and model the patterns that produced these results and then to teach these models to others. These three gifted therapists were quite different personalities, yet Grinder and Bandler discovered some underlying patterns that were quite similar. These patterns became the underlying structure of NLP, with names such as meta-model, sub-modalities, reframing, language patterns, well-formed conditions and eye accessing clues.”
NLP allows you to change the language and beliefs that you are holding, thereby allowing you to create new, healthier, productive patterns.
