Specialities

What am I passionate about and can I help YOU?

Research, Modalities, Interventions, Areas of Interest and Inquiry:

Being someone who is highly intuitive and energetically sensitive, while also being research-oriented and scientifically minded, my life has been and continues to be very interesting. I can often see the big picture of things in a way that is not typical or obvious to those around me.

I imagine this is one reason why I love research so much...it starts with an idea or a vision of something that is outside the box, then I get to put on a detective hat and find clues and solutions in unlooked-for places.

Couple that with an intense desire to help eliminate suffering and it's a combination that inspires education, training, cultivating deeper ways of "knowing" all in the service of health and healing mind, body, and spirit.

I believe and have witnessed that change can be immediate, powerful, and lasting; especially when it is from a remapping of your neural networking. The right combination of interventions can generate a new YOU in just a few sessions. It's powerful stuff when the entire body gets on board and the brain and nervous system rewire themselves.

Spontaneous Transformation

I have a vast interest in a variety of areas of research; first and foremost my own published works on the phenomenon of Spontaneous Transformation. Spontaneous Transformation is an all-encompassing experience that culminates in a significant shift in mind, body, and soul reality. It happens when we have an intense 'ahha' moment or other moments of awareness outside of our typical daily experiences or cognitive awareness. Basically, they happen when your inner world and your outer world crash into each other.

PTSD is a good example of a less beneficial transformation. When someone experiences significant trauma to the point where it alters thought process and brain patterns, they have undergone a spontaneous and immediate "transformation". The great thing is, you can use the same concept for positive change and sessions can be carefully crafted to orchestrate a spontaneous shift in neurobiology, which means a lasting change for you. My research on this topic has been in the area of trauma recovery and maladaptive eating patterns.

Trauma-Related Eating Disorders and Addictions

Despite what the conventional world of medicine and healthcare says, there are any number of reasons that someone may exhibit addictive or self-damaging behavior. This is why there is no one size fits all treatment for eating disorders or trauma recovery.

As a practitioner, successful interventions can only happen if there is an understanding of the root origination in the nervous system. This doesn't mean spending hours, days, weeks, or years combing through all the gritty details of your life, it means listening deeply to the body to find the pathway of compulsion and then interrupting and redirecting the patterns. Identifying sympathetic or parasympathetic dominance and stimuli response time on the spectrum of arousal goes a very long way towards providing just the information needed to enhance body-oriented interventions that can establish a safe and effective way to create lasting relief and transformation.

Food and Eating Psychology and Biology

I love food. I love eating good, quality food. This was not always the case. As a young adult, I had a pretty severe eating disorder. Understanding my own compulsions and patterns has helped me have an open and inquisitive mind when it comes to why we eat, what we eat when we eat it. That coupled with understanding, that very quickly, malnutrition begins to play a role in the loop of addiction creates a framework for addressing change at the foundation of the body, mind, spirit rather than just addressing symptoms.

Understanding how food impacts the mind, body, and spirit and developing inspired ways to use it as not only medicine but also communion with self and others is a passion of mine. There is no one size fits all diet for every body. You are unique, what you choose to eat, whether you choose to cook or not, what inspires you to pack a meal, how you stock your pantry...all of that is unique to you. Once more I get to play detective and together we find ways to help you be the best you and make the best choices.

I'm also fascinated by the basic neurobiology of eating and how both your brain and your stomach impact the nervous system and vice versa. This is what inspires me to delve into all the facets of taste and flavor and make relating to food; fun, enjoyable and educational.

Neuroesthetics of food and eating is the study of aesthetic perceptions that influence eating enjoyment. Subtle messages in the environment influence your subconscious and your perception of whether or not an eating experience is enjoyable. The sensory stimulus that accompanies a meal will influence your brain despite the actual flavor of the food.

For example, looking at a picture of a juicy and delicious burger while eating a mediocre one will influence your brain to think it tastes better than it actually does. Even what the burger is named can influence your perception of enjoyment. Fast food marketers know this. Another example; certain kinds of music playing lightly in the background during a dining experience will influence your perception of taste and the speed with which you eat. Mozart makes food taste better; Metallica makes you eat faster.

Holistic and Integrative Nutrition

Hippocrates said it, "let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food". Everything you put in your mouth influences your biochemistry. I'm fascinated by this and spend days on end wrapped up in the latest research on functional foods. That being said, while it's all well and good to understand how certain chemical components of food interact with the cells of the body, it's also important to understand that you are not a test tube in a lab.

There is any number of other influences that decide how you will assimilate nutrients and how they will impact your body, mind, and soul. Once more we get to put on our detective hats and find the most suitable choices for you.

I am a strong proponent of understanding the "cumulative effects" of what you put into your body (and mind, and spirit) and how that impacts your wellness. This is an area that typically gets very little attention from most healthcare providers but has a dramatic impact on your health.

Somatic Psychology - NeuroAlchemy

How does your body influence your mind and your mind influence your body? How does your environment impact the wellness of your body and mind? The truth is that your thoughts and beliefs are so completely intertwined with your movements and environmental influences there is absolutely no way to say that one does not influence the other; despite what conventional medicine still attempts to tell you.

No longer relegated to the world of new-age, the fact that we have a biofield that is influenced and influencing is a fact of your health. There is ample research demonstrating the power of the connection between you, your environment, and the natural world. It behooves us to be sure we are including these ideas when trying to find answers to disease and illness. Your body keeps the score of your life.

It's important to check out the scoreboard and pay attention to the information it is delivering to you on a daily basis. Sometimes a simple massage can do the trick or sometimes movement repatterning is the key, either way, it's important to include it in your healing repertoire.