Trauma in the Body: How Somatic Therapy Unlocks Deep Healing with Casey Stevens

Whether you're wrestling with old wounds, seeking deeper healing, or navigating a spiritual awakening, this conversation will transform how you think about your own patterns and the path to genuine transformation. Rose sits down with Casey Stevens, founder of Shrink Bigger, a spiritual psychology practice blending practical psychology with esoteric energy medicine. Casey, a licensed psychotherapist, master certified coach, and certified clinical hypnotherapist, shares her unique approach to healing that transcends traditional Western psychology.

Episode Highlights:

• Understanding Spiritual Psychotherapy: Casey explains how spiritual psychotherapy differs from traditional approaches by seeing the person as a whole being and addressing root causes rather than merely managing symptoms.
• Navigating Spiritual Awakenings: Learn the common signs of spiritual awakening and how Casey guides clients through these transformative but often challenging experiences.
• Polyvagal Theory Explained: Discover how the vagus nerve connects our brain to our organs and how regulating our nervous system can transform our mental, emotional, and physical health.
• Practical Somatic Exercises: Casey shares accessible exercises anyone can use to regulate their nervous system, including bilateral stimulation techniques, eye movement exercises, and breathwork.
• Recognizing Progress in Healing: Understand the subtle yet profound shifts that indicate true transformation in the healing journey.

About Casey Stevens:

Casey is the founder of Shrink Bigger, offering modern therapy and master coaching by blending practical psychology and esoteric energy medicine. With over a decade of clinical practice, she integrates her intuitive and healing abilities to feel people's unique energy and adapt tools based on each soul's precise needs.

Connect with Casey:

• Website: ShrinkBigger.com
• Free guided meditations available on her website

Don't forget to subscribe to Chat Off the Mat for more insightful conversations at the intersection of wellness, spirituality, and personal growth.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Spiritual Psychology
• 2:16 Traditional vs. Spiritual Psychotherapy
• 5:40 Working Through Spiritual Awakenings
• 8:50 Understanding Polyvagal Theory
• 19:10 Somatic Exercises for Nervous System Regulation
• 35:38 Recognizing Signs of Energy Shifting
• 46:13 Finding Your Path to Transformation
• 54:45 Closing Thoughts and Resources

Transcript

Rose: 0:00

Ready to unlock your most vibrant, authentic self. Your journey to radiant wellness starts now. Welcome to Chat Off The Mat. I'm your host, Rose Wippich, and I'm here to guide you on an extraordinary journey of feminine healing, energy work and total wellbeing. Get ready to be inspired by authentic conversations with leading women practitioners, wellness experts and holistic healers who understand your unique journey. Subscribe to Chat Off the Mat wherever you get your podcasts, and let's create magic together. Today on Chat Off The Mat, I welcome Casey Stevens. She's the founder of Shrink Bigger. Shrink Bigger is a spiritual psychology practice offering modern therapy and master coaching, blending practical psychology and esoteric energy medicine With over a decade of clinical practice. She's a licensed psychotherapist, a master certified coach and a certified clinical hypnotherapist With over a decade of clinical practice. Hypnotherapist with over a decade of clinical practice, she integrates her intuitive and healing abilities to allow herself to feel people's unique energy and adapt tools and techniques based on the precise needs of each soul. Welcome, Casey.

Casey: 1:18

Yeah, thanks so much, Rose. I'm so happy to be here with you.

Rose: 1:21

Why don't we just start out by asking about Casey? Who is Casey Stevens?

Casey: 1:29

Well, very multidimensional question, I would say professionally and for purposes, perhaps, of this podcast. I am a spiritual psychotherap and I like to practice in a holistic way, blending both kind of the clinical approach but also the spirit. And so and I practice, you know, here in Seattle and mostly meet with people all over the world who are looking for that particular brand of of work and healing that is a little bit more integral.

Rose: 2:04

So, yeah, so let's talk about what traditional psychotherapy is first, so that we'll have a kind of an understanding, and to compare more the spiritual psychotherapy. So let's start off with that.

Casey: 2:20

Yeah.

Casey: 2:20

So I'm just really, you know, thinking about the way that anyone goes through kind of Western medicine, and there is a bent really there that in my view has a bit of a ceiling to it. There's a certainly inherent value and understanding and diagnosing and studying human patterns and behaviors, but there's also this tendency right to pathologize and, you know, just study things. But again there feels to me like there's a limit that we hit in that framework where it's not really considering the whole person and so, you know it's that, is that really kind of Western framework that really kind of leans into the, you know, psychology of human behavior. But what I think is really valuable is taking it beyond that, and this spiritual approach, holistic approach really is leans away so much from pathologizing, from diagnosing, from any of those things. Certainly we can do that and you know, you know we have the knowledge and the understanding to do so. But I think it really sees the person as a whole being and really understanding that we are, you know, bio and psycho individual.

Casey: 3:37

And so what's informing if there's imbalance in our system in some way, whether whatever layer of our being that's represented on, it's usually because there's something that's gotten out of balance, you know, way down the line before it's ever presented in the present moment.

Casey: 3:55

And so in my perspective, in the holistic and spiritual approach, it's really understanding, you know, what is that, what's gotten out of balance and what is our being calling to have rebalanced inside of ourself. And if we understand that and really try to get to the root of whatever the symptomology is, rather than just treating the symptoms and managing those on a base level, it really feels like that's where we can have real transformation and not be over identified with any of these pathologies or traumas or, you know, whatever the diagnoses, any of those things that Western psychology tends to focus more on. And so I would prefer to go, you know, really downstream and understand what's going on, what's out of balance, what's being called forward to be healed, so that you know we can have liberation in all layers of our being. And so to me that's kind of the distinction.

Rose: 4:55

Wow, Do you find that most of the people that come to you, they go down the traditional path first and then, when they can't find what they're looking for as far as healing, they turn to you for more of an integrative approach?

Casey: 5:11

Definitely, definitely. So typically, working with me, it's maybe a little bit more advanced approach I've. You know most people will say, wow, I've never done therapy like this before. So it's kind of like you've done some of these other stops. Sometimes they've tried these other things, but it could be a lot of things too.

Casey: 5:28

I mean, I actually tend to work with a lot of people who are having spiritual awakenings, so really confused, not know where to turn for. That feels like, you know, life is falling apart and so what to do. So people will seek me out who do that. I have a lot of doctors, psychiatrists, nurses, people who are literally in Western medicine in some way, who are wanting to integrate a more holistic approach there. They've kind of had an awakening themselves and they're recognizing whoa. There's more to this and I need somebody who can maybe guide me through this new perspective and write how to hold our patients in a different way than we have been traditionally taught. And so you know, and it's not that I even sought out to treat some of these people, but they just find me right and it seems to be a way that we work. So that's really beautiful. And then I do think it's people who just kind of have already done a lot of healing right. There is certainly inherent value in those kind of introductory methods of psychology and therapy and all of that, a more expansive consciousness.

Casey: 6:46

People tend to find me who want to just kind of, you know, expand this perception of the world that they've been having. That might be a little again, more limited, that might be, you know, based on kind of you know, treating symptoms, and then they want to expand out and just experience more in life, and so that requires an expansion of consciousness and understanding of just a greater perspective. And, okay, how do we not just manage this and have kind of a good life, but how do we have a really great life and what does that look like? And who would I need to be? What identity shifts would I need to make in order to consume that?

Casey: 7:23

So in that regard, I also work with a lot of people who are like, really kind of excellent, have excelled in life and business in many ways, but this, their spiritual self, or their relational self, is really struggling, and so they're, you know, maybe wildly successful in, in, you know, this particular area, but then they're really looking to now that they have, you know, the ability to. But then they're really looking to, now that they have, you know, the ability to do that in the time, they're looking to really kind of optimize their life and have it be a whole experience for themselves.

Rose: 7:55

So, yeah, an overall balance of their experience. You talked about spiritual awakening. Yeah, what are some of the symptoms and I'm air quoting symptoms that people experience and everybody's different, but they're coming to you after a spiritual awakening. What is? What is that for them or for people?

Casey: 8:10

usually come during the spiritual awakening. It's like initiated, right, and then they're like what the heck is happening? My life I think the greatest kind of way I can conceptualize it is my life as I knew it like kind of no longer exists. Nothing seems to fit the people, the relationships, the way that I see things, the way that I feel. It's like and it's not something that most people don't consciously seek out it right, comes through us, right, and there's just a timing that I believe our soul is like ready to have this experience, and so it starts this initiation process to, you know, endeavor on this, you know, just opening consciousness, right, and so it really will start to feel like you don't belong, like the people you know. I mean, it can be all kinds of things, right, it can literally be things falling apart around you or inside of you, and you just start to question everything. And it feels like gosh, if I look around, like it doesn't feel like I fit in this life anymore. You know, these relationships don't make sense. I'm, you know, irritable, I'm having weird things happen to me, I don't quite understand what this is, and so it will really feel like your old life doesn't fit, and that's because it doesn't, and so you know what, you know what's. Those are kind of the signs that something's happening and, and you know, it can be that you're having mystical experiences that feel maybe like you're crazy.

Casey: 9:34

I have a lot of people who come to me with those too.

Casey: 9:36

Right, it's like, you know, if they were to go to somebody in Western medicine then they would be, you know, diagnosed with something you know that's paranoid, or hearing things or whatever, and it's like, well, there might actually be something else going on there.

Casey: 9:50

That is really refreshing, I think, because when they come to me, I mean, certainly there can be kind of psychotic type things that can happen to people in balance and in different chemicals and chemicals and biology of the system, but oftentimes, more than not, it's really fascinating, like people are really connecting to another realm and they don't know how to organize it, or it doesn't make sense to them, or they feel crazy, or they've been told that they're crazy, and so it's really like how do we kind of palpate whatever that is for them in that specific incidence and understand what might be going on? Um, and is this something that needs a different kind of balancing or treatment? Um, in some kind of way, or is it that they just need to learn how to channel that through in a meaningful way? So, um, that's another you know bunch of people that will come through and and you know it's fortunate that they can find that support that nobody's going to. You know, I'm not going to judge them for that.

Rose: 10:47

I'm really going to try to understand with curiosity, like what is going on with you and how do we best channel it, and so, yeah, it can be quite uncomfortable if you don't know what's going on, and I think that people I mean, from my experience, even people that have experienced spiritual awakenings you're always having awakenings and we question like, okay, well, you know what? What is it that we're feeling? And sometimes it's even pain. Have you experienced people experiencing like physical pain in their bodies? Oh my God.

Casey: 11:21

Well, I myself do that, so I get a lot of my, you know. I mean, we're all wired differently and this is why I'm so fascinated just with how this comes through for each of us. But for and and. So you know, there's no one size fits all for anything, I don't believe. But for me, how I experience it is incredibly somatically right. So I'm very clairsentient.

Casey: 11:41

I feel things in my body before and it could be like, you know, somebody has a session, I really feel like to. When we start to connect with somebody, we have an appointment, like we already start to have that connection that comes through right. So I could start feeling things in my body because it's just the way that I imprint things kind of the most intensely or the the on the kind of first level. It comes through my body first, and so I feel all kinds of things right. That then it's not until I'm in the session the next day or later that day or later that week or whatever it is, and I'm like, oh, this is what that was right, because I'm not. And so then it can just kind of move through once we can identify and acknowledge what it is and who it's for, and then we can move it really quickly, but, yeah, for, and a lot of times that ends up being pain and discomfort, and I see a lot of people who experience it that way too.

Rose: 12:33

Yeah, migraine, headaches, joint pain, different pains in their bodies and they're. It's almost as if this, some sort of energy, is moving through their bodies and in helping to create space for the spiritual awakening that's that's coming. That's kind of how I sense it.

Casey: 12:49

Absolutely. They're just messages, right, like anything that's showing up in your life, in or around you, is a message, and it's really an opportunity to dive into that, to really greet it fully and to welcome it. And so often, right, our tendency with pain or anything that's uncomfortable is we want to resist it, we want to, you know, push it away, we want to stop it. But if you can welcome it in and just be fully with it, then you can transmute it actually pretty easily. I mean this it's all just energy, right, so we can move it, as long as we can acknowledge and really, you know, like, greet it with curiosity and like what? What is it that you're trying to tell me? What do I need to know here? What's asking to be shift? What message is coming through and how do I start to work with those energies in a more conscious way?

Rose: 13:35

What are some of the common struggles people come to with? Is it overcoming a particular emotion, or maybe working with trauma or chronic pain relationships? Is there something that is maybe I don't want to say the word trending, that's the wrong word but something more common? Now that you're working with especially women, I want to focus on women because that's my big audience, on women Because that's my big audience.

Casey: 13:58

Oh, okay, it, you know honestly in this. You know may seem like a silly answer, but it's really anything. And the difference is because there's no problem or challenge, that I mean we, you know we certainly have common human experiences, that we have challenges and right relationship or work or money or health or you know, kind of all the basic ones that are areas of our life that matter to us and kind of our spiritual self is a huge one for me, right, because I work with people in that way. But I would say really the distinction or the differentiation is any problem. I really kind of take people from what is kind of the traditional. I think I really kind of take people from what is kind of the traditional, I think, just way of society and our culture to approach things really and get stuck in a victim mindset.

Casey: 14:46

And people that work with me are not living in a victim mindset. They might have challenge in a particular area, but they're truly open, they truly want to transform. This isn't something that you want to come and just be coddled by me, because I'm really not interested in doing that kind of work with people. We're not just going to kind of, you know, kick the can down the road and treat the symptoms and talk about our feelings Like I want people to transform. So I don't care what your problem it could be the most extreme problem that you're having. You could be suicidal.

Casey: 15:17

If you come to me and you really want to understand it from a higher perspective, then that's what we're going to do. Right, we are going to really get into the depth of it. People come to me when they really want to be, they're ready to be challenged and, like, truly have an identity awakening, right, truly understand. That's kind of really a lot of what I do is I'll kind of get into the nitty gritty of just like, what is, what is the limitation? Right, where are you constrained in your life and how do we remove those constraints so you can be free in whatever way you want to be free. It doesn't matter what it is. Whatever the obstacle is, we can get there as long as you're open to kind of looking from this higher perspective, and so I would say that's a distinction, yeah.

Rose: 16:05

But in people sometimes may not be aware of what they are. They could be going through a thing I'm like they don't know, right, and they come to you and you can help guide that impact or peel back the layers and figure out what the root cause, because we want to get to that root cause and you have to do the work, right. So what I'm hearing your message. You're saying you work with me, we're going to work, we're going to work, yeah, yeah, and we're going to, we're going to figure it out.

Casey: 16:29

Yeah, it's, it's not easy, but, man, it will really shift you. If you're ready for that and you truly are a match for that, you want it then. And sometimes that's deep, long work, right, I mean it may not be this magical, you know fix, but it really is truly. The people who come to me are deeply invested in wanting to change, and so they do.

Rose: 16:52

Nice. Yeah, it's definitely work. I think we've all been there. Yeah, I went on your website and I and I looked at everything that are your credentials and you know so much. So did you start to learn some of these metaphysical tools before you became more of a traditional psychotherapist and then decided that you you know because I was just curious, like what came first?

Casey: 17:18

Yeah, well, I think it was always in me. So I really have this kind of intuitive, mystical side that honestly like happens to all of us. For the first kind of half of my life it was really repressed, right. I mean you just kind of detach from those gifts and those tools and you don't put any conscious awareness on it. And so I always had a curiosity, right. I mean I always kind of almost like talk about my life in two sections, because there was my life before the awakening and then after, and you know it was going to happen no matter what. But I think I always had very. I mean, you know you can talk to my, my mom and she would tell you just stories of how I had these intuitions or how you know, just I think there was a gift that was there all along. But then we separate from that just with conditioning of the world. And so I did that.

Casey: 18:06

I mean I had a very kind of normal life where I, you know, was married and had just a totally. I worked in a totally different field and just my life was just, you know, your average life, right, but I wasn't really focused on my spiritual self and I did. I mean I would go here and there, I'd go to a psychic or a tarot reader, some class on this, and and my grams was very spiritual, my mom's mom, so that kind of maternal line. There's a lot of kind of just kind of curiosity and intuition and psychic ability and there's a lot of that on that maternal side for me. And so I was curious about it, but I never really invested in it in a meaningful way until my life fell apart and the awakening happened really kind of during my Saturn return type years, years, and you know it was like there's no option other than to. I mean, sure I could kind of like sink down into a pit and feel miserable and victimized by all of this, or what I recognized.

Casey: 19:07

My orientation was at that time and this is before I was a therapist, this is before I went and studied. Any of this is what I noticed. The type of help that I started seeking during that time was people who had similar like I happened to find a therapist who had credentials, like mine are now, but at that time, you know, I was just, you know, obviously found her for a reason and she had both this clinical, because there is this real kind of practical side to me that wants to have all of this knowledge kind of grounded in this present day earth and I like to critically think about things and I want to be grounded and practical in that. And she was also very kind of psychic and mystical herself, and so it was very healing for me when I was going through this like absolute, you know, descent into my you know into the shadows, right. I really loved that I had somebody who could hold both parts of me and then eventually and it wasn't immediately I was like oh, wow, I think I need to, I want to do this work too, but I want to do it in my own way. And so it kind of I mean, it's, you know, to answer your question it's like I, it was always there, but I wasn't investing in it. And I would dapple in it, but not too heavily, and like anybody, we don't really start to invest in these things until we have suffering in our life, Right. And so the suffering initiated my kind of investment in like wow, I haven't really bolstered up this part of myself. That's actually like pretty significant and maybe, I would argue, the biggest, most important part of who I am now, my spiritual self.

Casey: 20:43

And so then I just started investing more and at that time, because everything as I knew it had to, you know, was raised to the ground and had to be rebuilt my career, my relationship, just everything. And so I was just seeking. I was really really hungry and seeking, and so I went back to school to do my studies, but I also just started, I was just hungry, to consume, like, okay, well, who is my spiritual self? I don't want to copy anybody else. I really it needs to resonate and land like how does this move through me? And the only way that it's going to be real and authentic for me is if I really get in touch with what that is.

Casey: 21:21

So I studied, you know, with a lot of people, even things that aren't listed on my website. I just really invested gosh, so much. I mean it hasn't stopped really. I mean I still kind of am exploring all of that, but you just kind of sample it and then you recognize, hmm, is that for me? Is, does that resonate? There's beauty in everything, but not everything really resonates with us and our kind of unique blueprint.

Casey: 21:44

And so I was just on a quest to kind of figure out what is that blueprint for me because I don't want to just practice traditionally. I know I want to integrate this other half, but I have to figure out who and what that is. And I will say, of all the studies that I've done, what really informs whether they're holistic or ancient or Eastern or Western or any of those what informs who I am and how I practice the most is really just me really tapping into my true self, my life experiences that I've had and the way that intuition moves through me, and I think that's really when people work with me. That's what they're getting, you know, the most of. That's what they're getting. The best of is just that version of me that you know. Ultimately, kind of, was this journey to discover? But once you click into it it's like, oh, wow, that's the juicy fruit, right?

Rose: 22:37

Yeah, I love that you shared all that, because I think that's important, because I'm sure there are a lot of people out there that have experienced simpler things, but they don't embrace it, and you were very curious and you started to learn more and more and more. People can be skeptical and people can be afraid, so by you sharing that, I think that you I'm sure that you'll inspire others to do the same, and I love that. And also the fact that you practice some traditional psychotherapy. May people that are skeptical may say that well, okay, well, she knows that part too, so she had. You know, you have Casey has that, and now I feel safe in that and that, like you had someone holding your hands or holding your space for both of them, you do the same and I, and I just love that.

Rose: 23:22

Um, because there's a lot of information out there that people don't understand, and I wanted to talk to actually about something that you practice, uh in. Uh is polyvagal theory, and that's kind of a new thing, right. So I want to talk more about some of the, the tools that you use. Can you talk about what? What that is, polyvagal theory or poly? Yeah, I guess that's it. That's polyvagal theory, right.

Casey: 23:46

Yeah, well, it's really understanding again, this like this harmony between all systems of our being, right, and so we are not separate. All things are connected, all layers of our, you know, our, our um, biological self, our human body, right, is not separate from our emotional self or our mental self or our spiritual self. They're all connected and communicating at all times, right. And so what polyvagal theory, right, really kind of touches down on so much. That has kind of become the craze of just really understanding somatics, right, it's like all of this data is stored, it's imprinted in our somatic self, our biology, our physicalatics, right, it's like all of this data is stored, it's imprinted in our somatic self, our biology, our physical body, right, and so it and this is the densest level, right, everything else, kind of, as you travel up, you know it's getting lighter, right, it's less dense. You know material, right, and we're kind of moving into, you know, more of the energetics on all of those, and so we can shift them faster. But on our biology, which is where all of this data is stored somatically in the body, it's really understanding. Well, what system is in place that's informing that? And so really understanding then, okay, well, that's our nervous system and what connects our nervous system? Well, there is this vagus nerve right that communicates between our brain and all the organs in our body and travels, and really so much of that. Then communication highway really lives in this vagus nerve. And so to understand that the vagus nerve again is communicating and all of this stuff that is maybe on, you know, like the mental plane or the spiritual plane or the emotional plane, that that all communicates and transcends through this, this highway right, and it's stored in the body. And so we, and we want to make anything that we do grounded right, like if we're just living too much up in the ethers or we're noticing that we're stuck in our mental plane or we're noticing we're stuck in our emotional plane. It's like how do we integrate all of those? Because, no matter what they really do, imprint down into the body to if ignored, if we're not understanding the kind of synthesis between all of these parts and we're not kind of consciously tending to all layers of our being, but especially that's how we move it right, if it's really feel stuck or if it's, by the way, been like complex or compounded and compressed into the body, which is where we start to show up and have disease, where the body is expressing kind of with different disorders or diseases, it's like, okay, well, that started somewhere else and we have to identify what the root of that is.

Casey: 26:27

But polyvagal theory, right, connects all. It's this information highway, that's just that is unconsciously working for us at all times, right, and so really understanding that if something's feeling out of balance or we want to shift it, then polyvagal theory is really beautiful at coming up with exercises and really tending to that somatic self, right. And so there's lots of exercises that we can do to kind of start to calm. And so sometimes, to your point earlier about the body, it's like sometimes our body is really expressing and it's really some dense matter that's up here, maybe on the, you know, spiritual plane or the mental plane or the emotional plane, but it's trapped now in the body and the body's in so much pain that we can't really access these other parts, right. And so how do we start to bring those together to quiet the body, to quiet the nervous system, to quiet the vagus nerve, literally that's connecting all of these parts, and bring those back into balance, because sometimes there's these layers that we have to peel back in order to get to the deep place that we really need to go in order to do the healing.

Casey: 27:31

And so polyvagal theory is really brilliant, because it's really understanding this connection between all things. And then it's telling us understanding this connection between all things, and then it's telling us, hey, there's some really specific tools that you can utilize somatically in order to get you back into balance, into this homeostasis, right into this kind of ventral, vagal state that we all want to live in, so that we can then do be the people that we want to be. Then we can reach and access these parts that will allow us to progress other layers of our healing or other just kind of not even focused on healing. Right, if you just want to be life and not be dysregulated, right, there's a window of tolerance that we all have, and when we get dysregulated in our nervous system, window of tolerance shrinks and it's it's it's much smaller.

Casey: 28:18

And so traumatic events, complex trauma, not regulating our nervous system, not being conscious that it's not even regulated, we don't even understand what we, you know, we don't know what we don't know about our dysregulation. And so it's one way to somatically communicate calming down the nervous system, calming down the body, so that we can get back to this kind of what in somatics and polyvagal theory they call the ventral vagal system. Right, which is all is well. I'm not dysregulated, I can look at you in the eye, I can laugh, I can reach access, joy and levity and love and just all of the healthy expression, the higher expression of our emotions and our state that we want to live in. Right, and so it's a scientific, studied way that they connect in the biology, how there are patterns there that we can disrupt in order to get back into regulation.

Rose: 29:14

Essentially, yeah, wow. So can you share with us like an example of a somatic or movement or an exercise?

Casey: 29:24

Yeah.

Rose: 29:25

So people have an understanding of what you're talking about.

Casey: 29:30

So first step is you would want to notice, okay, am I dysregulated? And how do you notice? It's like, however it is for you. Sometimes we internalize that, sometimes it's external, if you notice that you're kind of out of your center, you're not calm, you're not regulated, you're stressed, you're irritable, you're snapping your body's in a lot of pain. There's lots of signs and however that typically expresses for you, it could be that you're getting migraines. Right, that's actually one that I get a lot, and so it's really recognizing wow, a lot. And so it's really recognizing wow, my system is out of balance here, I'm dysregulated. So what do I need?

Casey: 30:09

And it's really kind of calming down, getting to a place where you can kind of remove all of those distractions if possible. Getting to a quiet space. Sitting in a dark room, sitting in your bedroom, sitting on the floor, whatever you need to walking outside and there's lots of bilateral stimulation, is really a great one. So a really easy one is you can take these kind of butterfly hands, you interlace and you can see that there's this crossing of the hemispheres of the brain and so anytime our body does that, there's lots of ways that we can cross and you can do it with jumping, you can just move your body, you can do it with your eyes. There's lots of wonderful ways to access this bilateral stimulation, which also just might mean, right, what we're doing is we're recognizing, okay, the hemispheres of my brain do different things. And if I call it being scrambled, if I feel a little in energy psychology right, I think of it that way, right, it's just, it's another way that kind of accesses that. But the I call it, when our brain gets a little scrambled, and I'll notice it myself it's like if I can't find my words, or if I'm kind of stumbling over my words, can't think straight, or I can't access, well, probably the hemispheres of your brain are not balanced and they've just, for whatever reason, they've just gotten out of balance, right, and probably because you're dysregulated, probably because there's some disruption of some type, and so when you notice that you're scrambled or irritable or any of those things, what we need is to cross the hemispheres of the brain. So, going back to our butterfly, you can interlace your fingers and just kind of slowly bring yourself back right.

Casey: 31:39

This is one. If you're kind of slumped into a dorsal vagal, so, um, dorsal vagal and polyvagal is really, when we've gone into. We're all kind of familiar with the fight flight, freeze right. So dorsal vagal is when we've gone into um, into free state right, and so we want to um recognize that we've entered into this free state. And so if we're laying there and we're frozen and our mind is moving a million miles and we're saying, oh, you're so awful, you ought to be doing this, why aren't you up? Why aren't you working out? Why aren't you cleaning the bathroom? Why aren't you doing whatever? Oh, I'm so hopeless, it's so helpless. I'm a loser, whatever it is that we do, loser, whatever it is that we do.

Casey: 32:20

And so we actually just want to slowly bring back some movement. And this is a way. You could be laying in your bed feeling depressed, you could be totally sluggish, you could be just stuck, and this kind of bilateral stimulation where we just kind of slowly, intermittently, tap each side. What that's doing is it's mobilizing our energy, and so it's also really recognizing in polyvagal theory, what state are you in right, and are you in a place where you need to mobilize energy because you're in freeze right, and so if we're in that, then we just kind of need to slowly bring some movement back, or are you in a state that you're hyper mobilized right, you're in fight or flight and you actually need to calm the energy down right, so you need to bring more grounding and more stillness, and so exercises would be different in polyvagal, dependent on what that is. So if you're kind of in this freeze, this is a great one, right, because this doesn't require a lot of effort or energy. You can start to mobilize, you can breathe as you do it.

Casey: 33:20

A lot of it's also remembering that our vagus nerve again, it connects our brain and all of our organs down through our central nervous system, right, and so if we're dysregulated, we're in a state of fight or flight and we want to get back to rest and digest right, and so it's really understanding the autonomic nervous system and again, all of these things. And there's just different language and sometimes the scientific language isn't so important to understand, but that's why I use this language around mobilizing versus immobilizing energy. And so another one, if you're just really dysregulated, is humming. So you can just hum, hum, and just do that slowly at whatever pace you want, but like it's bringing vibration through the nerve that connects all things. And so if these two parts have been dysregulated or fragmented, or then. Then you know, humming is a great way to do that, this kind of bilateral stimulation, but tapping is a great way to do that. There's a breath. How about the?

Rose: 34:22

breath.

Casey: 34:24

Yeah, I mean absolutely so. Just, you know, whatever kind of breath work would I mean? You think about. It's like how do I connect? How am I really? Obviously your breath is moving through your you know nose and your mouth right down, but how deeply is it moving Right? And so if you think about this nerve that that runs literally through, like this, this center channel of you and kind of spreads out in this way to connect everything, ok, well, how can I even put my intention on this this nerve Right that's connecting in you the brainstem that goes all the way through all of that right and then comes down through your spine and connects to all of your organs and into this kind of system that we want to activate, which is the rest and digest.

Casey: 35:10

It's really great because you can also start noticing I don't know if you've probably in your practice right with yoga or any of these practices that you're doing it's like when you start to notice that you like, just are tense, your muscles are tight, you're holding, you're not. You can literally hear I'll be in a like a craniosacral treatment or I'm doing some of these polyvagal exercises, and you'll notice your stomach starts to gurgle a little bit. Yes, yes, like great, that's a really good sign because, guess what? You just shifted your state and so, whether you're receiving whatever practice, if it's Qigong or any of those things, right, it's like okay when you start to notice that that movement is happening in your belly and you put your active attention, if it's just breath work and you're just really concentrating, it's like well, am I shallow breathing or can I breathe all the way down into my belly and really intend to connect all the layers of what that vagus nerve would be, if you can imagine what it is, and sometimes you can even close your eyes and like go inside yourself and track the energy and trace where that vagus nerve travels inside your body and then just notice, wow, is this connecting? Is this left side a little blocked? Is this right side a little disconnected? Am I only going up to my high heart and I'm not really connecting with my breath? Well then, I'm definitely not really in the full life force of that vagus nerve. And so, putting your attention on that and just intending and staying with it until it feels like it has been completely achieved, right, until you have completely reached and accessed all parts of that, and it's like, okay, well, now we've just turned on our vitality and so it's looking for the signs of that that that's happening.

Casey: 36:53

But really another really great one is these eye exercises that we can do right, which are really recognizing. Again, there's this bilateral stimulation, so you can keep your nose pointing forward, and there's lots of ways it's like you can take. Here's a great way to do it that kind of integrates both the body and the breath and we can kind of fully integrate the exercises. You take your hands like this and you weave them together. Okay, well, there's bilateral stimulation. That's going on here, and now I take it and I put it behind my head and I look up and I breathe from that place.

Casey: 37:25

There's a lot that's happening in your nervous system and with your vagus nerve specifically when we do these exercises, and so just kind of breathing, and then you can turn your head either way and breathe through it, and you'll notice that. And there's another one, another exercise I can give you in a second that has to do with this. But you'll notice that if you do this and then you just breathe, eventually you reach a point and this is how you know that you've completed it and it actually doesn't take that long is, you'll have some kind of like release of energy, similar to the gurgling in the stomach. Your breath, you might do a sigh, you might do a deep breath, you might kind of just really fully exhale more deeply than you have. It's something like that all the time, but the state, the energy, and it's subtle, but it shifts, and it's not just subtle because it actually is quite powerful. It's like wow, you have just downregulated your nervous system, you've done it right and it just can take these simple exercises that you can do.

Casey: 38:21

Another one is you can sit and I can look head on and then I can keep my nose straight, but I turn my eyes and simply doing that, you can do it while you do the interchanging of your, but you just hold your eyes in one direction and I just tell myself, okay, I'm gonna keep my nose straight, but I'm going to keep my nose straight, but I'm going to look my eyes as far as I possibly can Like, if I want to imagine looking at my ear, and I just breathe while I do it and I stay in one direction until I feel that sigh or that release. And it always happens and it might take a little longer if you haven't practiced or haven't done it for a while, or you're really dysregulated, but it always happens, and so then you'll just feel it shifts, and then you come back to center and then you go the other way and then see it already starts happening Just when my it's just automatic that you can really downregulate nerve system, and so these are all somatic exercises that help us to get back to that state. And then you come back and then you notice, hmm, how, you know, how do I feel? Am I completely changed?

Casey: 39:20

Well, another one then is after you've done that, then you can take your head and you can turn it as far to the right, the first direction again, whatever direction that was for you can turn it as far. And then you take your eyes beyond that and then you try to look behind yourself and you might even notice I noticed this in my body I tend to carry a lot of tension, kind of in my you know, shoulders, yeah, head, neck, shoulders for me as a huge one, so you'll even notice, like, how far can you turn? And Ooh, wow, my shoulder over on that side is really tense. And it's amazing when you do this and you just notice, you observe, you don't judge it. You're not like, oh shit, my, you know right, it really hurts, or whatever. But you just kind of notice oh wow, this is my range of motion. I'm noticing a little tension here. Wow, it's a little tweaked. Okay, that's as far as I can go.

Casey: 40:08

And then you do the same thing, your eyes look back until you get that release, that sigh, and the more you do it, the faster it happens for you. And then you go the other way and then you notice the same thing, and then you wait for the release and you hold your eyes and you notice what tension do you feel? And sometimes they're different, right, Because we can be out of balance or twisted, or you know these common patterns that can happen to us. And then you come back and you notice okay, how do I feel? You take a few breaths and then you do it again. And when you do it the second time, what you will notice is shocking is, if you are somebody who holds tension in your body somewhere, it's probably dissolved and it might not be completely gone, but I promise you it will be reduced. It's amazing. It's amazing how it works right. And so then you just kind of notice like, oh wow, I can turn my neck farther. Oh, wow, that I had. That felt like a, you know, level seven. It's like a level three now, and you can just do this as long as you need until you can bring yourself down and taking the time to do this.

Casey: 41:06

How does that then, you know, replicate into our lives that if I get myself to a regulated state, and the more often that I do that, and my ability to kind of observe what simple practical tools are that I can access to get myself there, well then I'm living from that state more often, and then when I get out of it, I recognize when I'm out of it, and then I know exactly how to get myself back into balance. And so then, how am I different for the world? How am I different from my relationships? How am I able to more consciously access Because that's the other thing too is you think about just the parts of the brain right, when we're dysregulated, our amygdala is firing and we're not in control of that right. It's an automatic survival mechanism where we disconnect from our prefrontal cortex and we're not able to access our rational, conscious thinking anymore, and so that's a really huge distinction. Again, the vagus nerve connects all of these parts.

Casey: 41:59

And so how do we really recognize that? Doing some simple exercises, if that's the way that you want to access, but it's a really simple, practical way to do it that it will allow me to get back into the part of my brain that can reason, that can think with consciousness, that isn't in survival mode, because we are not who we are when we're in survival mode. That's just a part of us trying to help us survive and it's useful and it's valuable, right, that it's there. It's there for a reason, but so often, especially in this day and age, right, we're triggered by everything and we're dysregulated, we're not bringing ourselves back, and there's so many stressors and there's so many things working against us that we have to really consciously work to bring ourselves out of that state, because so much, so many of us are just living in a constant state of survival and we don't even know it.

Rose: 42:49

But these are exercises that anybody can do, like you can wait, you don't have to get out of bed, you can start doing them in the morning. You don't have to wait until something happens. You can just make them a regular part of your routine and then they start to kick in a little quicker, like you'll know if you'll start to be more aware of what's happening in the body as well. I think that's the most important thing. A lot of people I'm not saying a lot of people, I'm just saying people can be very disassociated from their body, right, people that have experienced trauma or anybody, and then they don't know what's happening. But if you practice these things or if you become more in tune, more somatic, more aware, then you can do the practices right away and you know what's going on. It's really important.

Casey: 43:35

Yeah, they're free, they're accessible, they're available to anybody. Yeah, they're free, they're accessible, they're available to anybody. It really just requires your awareness and then your discipline to, and your desire right to put yourself back into a state where you know you are somebody that you would want to be around and you are. You are, you know, bringing that peace. You're bringing kind of your conscious highest self to any situation and circumstance that you're in, and if you bring that version of yourself, well then how could you not succeed?

Rose: 44:05

Right, yeah, how you get better relationships, you have a better life, you make better choices, you see things with more clarity. All the good things, all the good things, all the good things. This is fantastic. What about any other tools that you use in your practice, if you want to talk about anything else that you provide as specifically talk that you want to highlight?

Casey: 44:38

Oh, I mean, it really is. I, you know, I don't know, it's this kind of to your point earlier. It's like this psychology and the clinical framework is a great foundation and then everything else just kind of builds on that. And I don't know that I would say anything specific, right, because it is just sort of this amalgam of all of the things that I feel like are just kind of floating around in there. And what I do is I really, you know, believe that we are so psycho individual, and so when I meet with somebody, I'm really just truly connecting with their energy. When I meet, whether it's a couple or a family or an individual, right, I'm truly connecting with their energy. And it is a way that it just kind of sorts and and I'm an organizer in that way, right, it's sort of second nature to me at this at this point. So any of those trainings, it's like they're all swimming around in there somewhere and I'm the amalgam of all of that.

Casey: 45:23

And then when I meet with you, what seems to kind of channel through is whatever you most need in that moment, and so I, and I don't tend to like, oh okay, well, I studied this, and so here we go, we're doing this theory and it's it's I don't really tend to do.

Casey: 45:38

It's like if you meet with me, you're probably going to get again just the, the whole buffet of everything that's available and whatever you specifically need in any given moment. And I don't even slow down to consciously think anymore Because, again, it's pretty second nature, it's just like I mean, of course I know if I, if I do, but just like, what's what's needed here right now? What do you need? And that's what we're going to do. And so sometimes that's, you know, kind of more shamanic, unconscious work. Sometimes it's more of a meditation, so sometimes it's really a deeper descent into the subconscious, sometimes it's healing work, sometimes it's energy work, sometimes it's, you know, psychoeducation, sometimes it's exercises. It's really identifying what is it that's needed here, and then it's all available to you of what you need in that moment so that we can shift you to where you need to be, to peel back the layers right, so that we can get to that kind of more ascendant state that we all you know want to live in.

Rose: 46:38

Yeah, Beautiful. Now we talked earlier that it is work. When someone comes to you, you do guide them and you and you work together. What markers of progress do you look for when working with clients using your combined modalities?

Casey: 46:54

It's really funny I would. So I don't tend to really love a lot of that. Even in psychology, you know, it's like all this very you know quantitative box. Yeah, it's quantitative, it's linear, it's like, okay, here are the steps and we follow the steps. I'm not like that at all. There's no steps in what I do. It's really qualitative.

Casey: 47:13

And so for me, I want people to have a felt sense and I can feel it right in my body again, because all this kind of comes through. When I'm working with you, I become this real mirror. We're in a container. I can feel things shifting, and so can people.

Casey: 47:26

This is another thing that happens a lot when I work is which I've talked about before, but it just is kind of on trend with all of this is, you know, when we're having a release or a shift of states, we yawn, we burp, we sneeze, we have like a release again.

Casey: 47:44

It can be a sigh, it can be any of these things, and so one of the ways that is kind of cool that that comes through and I've noticed other people have this as well, or people that work with me will tend to start doing it as well is, if I'm working with you and we're shifting something. I'll start burping or yawning a lot, which you know might seem kind of weird, but it's just the way that I am getting confirmation which, hopefully you can see, kind of answers your question a little bit. It's like I'm getting confirmation that we're number one on the right track, but we're also shifting your state. We're moving the energy inside your field, inside your body, inside whatever layer you know that we're accessing, and so it's a really great confirmation for me. It could be we were just talking and all of a sudden I'm just like you know, burping, like and I don't mean like belching, but I mean you know it's kind of crazy right.

Rose: 48:29

It's all energy. It's the language of energy. It's the language of energy.

Casey: 48:34

And it's just how I know I can track it, because I can feel we're shifting things, and sometimes we've got to shift thousands of things right in order to really get to a deeper place. So sometimes it's subtle, but that's one real clear indication for me. But another one is just this kind of more qualitative approach to, you know, psychology or healing or any of it, which is really a felt sense. Sometimes it's like I'll have people tell me this too, and sometimes it's the men who will say this, because they they're more linear, right, they need to kind of measure things more than women do. But you know, all of us can be anything, but you know they'll say to me something like you know, I just didn't really seem like I didn't really know exactly what we were doing, I mean. But all of a sudden I noticed I just felt better and it was just different and I was just a different. It was a slow but sure like difference and I'm just transformed.

Casey: 49:24

And sometimes it's more dramatic, right, it's more radical where it's like whoa, that's just like night and day.

Casey: 49:29

But generally when you work with me it is this kind of subtle shift that isn't even anything that you could exactly put your finger on one thing.

Casey: 49:38

I mean you probably could if you really thought about it, but it's like, it's just like this gradual transformation that happens and you are kind of qualitatively different, the felt sense you like you have shifted who you are and so, and that kind of qualitatively different, the felt sense you like you have shifted who you are and so, and that kind of transformation.

Casey: 49:55

Right, we're not typically looking just to move one thing, we're looking to transform because all things are right. So it's usually this whole kind of I don't know complex web of things that need to be untangled right, and because, you know, it's not ever just one thing that's needs to be changed, it's all interwoven. And so it's this, this web that we unweave and it's like, oh, wow, I'm just noticing, like you know, wow, like this is totally different, or that problem just isn't in my life anymore, and it's not even one moment that you can point to like, wow, that was just different, but it just happened and you were, you know less of this and more of that, and it feels pretty good, it feels pretty light, we're reaching the higher states that we want to. So I hope that answers your question.

Rose: 50:40

I know it's perfect, perfect answer because people have a certain expectation when they work with someone. They're like, okay, well, I'm going to leave this session feeling a certain way. And it's not that way. It's you evolve and you have subtle changes, and you may not even know what those changes are, but they're there and I think what you said is perfect Because you know, you, you everyone's experiences are different.

Casey: 51:10

And it's not an overnight thing, and it's not a quick fix.

Rose: 51:16

And yeah it is. Then then run, you know, yeah, know, yeah, right, exactly so. So I think that was a perfect. You know, and I've worked with a lot of people too and you know they expect something to happen, but they're, and for the first time or second time, but you're just starting to become aware of your energy and and how you respond to this type of work. So it takes time, right. So that was perfect and I'm glad I asked because that was a wonderful, beautiful answer. Is there anything else you would like to add before we end the interview?

Casey: 51:49

I just know. I mean, I think, if you know, I welcome, I love having chats with people like you who are also doing this really worthy work to give people access to just other people who might come from a different angle or offer a new thing. And you know, it's not just one size fits all or there's no one person or one approach who should be the end, all be all. Really it's. There's no one person or one approach who should be the end, all be all. Really it's it's. I love to have these chats, really to just bring awareness and also direct people to other ways of doing things and to open up so that we can really be held in a community. And if it's your desire to work and heal and transform in this way which is not a small thing right, it takes a community to be held. It takes all the right people.

Casey: 52:33

I know for me I can't point to any one thing that has led me to be where I am or how I've transformed and healed.

Casey: 52:41

It's really kind of this combination of being held in so many ways and, you know, tapping into what's really true for you and so what resonates with you, because we're also bio-individual, also psycho individual.

Casey: 52:54

We all need different things and there's different layers and different parts, and so, if that's something you're seeking, right, I really just want to offer the access and the availability for people to know what is available to them and and here are some offerings that might work for you and so just really trust your intuition and listen to what is expanding you and moving you along on that path, if that's where you desire to go, because sometimes it can be hard to find you know, people with integrity who really can hold you in that way or ways that really will resonate with you, and so that's really why I do. It is just like pay attention to what it feels like, and it should always be expanding you, even if that expansion, right is, is a challenge at times. You really want to listen, you know, learn to listen to those kind of quiet messages and move into something that is expanding you in a good way.

Rose: 53:53

Beautiful and I know you offer free guided meditation on your website, shrinkbiggercom. I'll put all the links in the show notes. And you do work with people individually and you also group, because you said you all, you work with families or couples. So there's different ways that you work with people or groups of people. So I encourage everyone to check out Casey's website and her offerings. I think this is it's just been magical. I enjoy, truly enjoyed, listening to you and learning more about polyvagal theory. I'm going to incorporate some of these exercises in my yoga class that I teach as well, more and more theory. I'm going to incorporate some of these exercises in my yoga class that I teach as well, more and more, because I think I think it's important to introduce right to, to get the information out there, to introduce people to to all kinds of new theories. Even though this is not new, it's it's kind of new yeah, 1994. Yeah.

Casey: 54:50

Yeah, in the scheme of things, it's, it's newer Right, and I think somatics have really kind of I mean even all of this spiritual holistic, all of it. It's like when I started practicing it was like, okay, you know, you have to be careful, I don't want, you know, people to judge this or whatever, but it's all of this has really kind of opened up a lot and so people are more receptive. But yeah, you know, in the scheme of things it's, it's newish, so it's it's really brilliant and right on track with kind of somatics and trauma and and helping us to understand.

Rose: 55:19

Well, thank you for being here today. I really appreciate it.

Casey: 55:22

Thank you for having me, Rose.

Rose: 55:26

Thank you for joining me on Chat Off The Mat. If you're ready to transform your energy and step into your fullest potential, I'd love to work with you. As an energy alchemist, I help women release blocked energy and reclaim their vibrant essence. Visit rosewipichcom to explore working together and discover free resources for your journey. Love today's episode, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, leave a rating and share your biggest takeaway with me on Instagram at Rose Wippich. Remember wellness warriors your energy is precious. Nurture it wisely.