Beyond Talk Therapy: Healing Through Nervous System and Somatic Work

What if you’ve tried talk therapy for years but still feel stuck?
Listen in as therapist, Catherine Lucey, LMFT, and host Mandi Pratt unpack the healing practices that go beyond talk therapy bringing the body (not just the midn) into the process.

You’ll learn:

• The three lenses of healing: nervous system regulation, self-compassion (through Internal Family Systems), and community.
  
  
  
• A simple interrupt + orient practice you can use daily to calm your body in minutes.
  
  
  
• How movement, nature, creativity, and even surfing can help regulate the nervous system.
  
  
  
• What questions to ask when seeking a trauma-informed, body-based therapist.
  
  
  

Whether you’ve experienced trauma yourself, or you support others on their healing journey, this episode is filled with practical tools and gentle reminders: you are not broken, and healing doesn’t have to be another overwhelming “to-do.”

RESOURCES

Nourished Wellness Group Website and Instagram

Connect with Mandi:

• Website: MandiPratt.com (Take the Intuition Quiz!)
• Instagram: @WomenAwareAndPrepared
• LinkedIn: Mandi Pratt

The primary purpose of the Women Aware and Prepared Podcast is to educate and inform. This podcast series does not constitute advice or services. Please use common sense for your own situation.

Transcript

 You wanna look for a practitioner that has the mind body integration. I've done a lot of talk therapy. I'm really interested in bringing the body into this healing process, really looking for practitioners that incorporate, uh, somatic based mind body practice. Hey, brave one. Welcome to the Aware and Prepared Podcast.

I'm your host, Mandy Pratt, trauma-informed, resilient speaker, domestic violence victim advocate, and narcissistic abuse survivor. Here we keep it real with true crime stories and real world strategies. To prevent emotional and physical harm, my guests and I share a mix of insight and survivor grit, all to help you feel safer, trust yourself more deeply, and live with greater peace and power.

Let's trade fear for freedom and step into the peace that you deserve.

Hey, welcome to the Aware Prepared Podcast. We have a very special guest with us today. I always say that about every guest because every guest is special. But Catherine, I have been anxiously awaiting our. Interview here, and I'm excited for the wisdom she's gonna share with us. Catherine is a California licensed marriage and family therapist.

With over 20 years of experience helping women and young adults navigate life, transitions, anxiety, relationship challenges, depression, postpartum experiences, and the process. Of reconnecting with themselves, her work bridges, emotional and somatic healing, supporting clients and listening to their bodies, understanding their needs, and moving toward a more grounded and authentic life.

She draws from attachment based therapy, mindfulness in internal family systems, informed parts work, limbic nervous system retraining and psychoeducation to foster both insight and nervous system regulation. Before becoming a therapist, she led wilderness Expeditions with a national outdoor leadership school and directed an environmental education program in Hawaii.

These experiences shaped her belief in the healing power of nature and mind body connection and self-discovery. She believes healing begins when we feel safe enough to slow down. Listen inwardly and allow space for what has long been carried. Her hope is that through her work with clients, they will reconnect with their voice, deepen their sense of self, and move through life with more clarity, compassion, and inner strength outside of her practice.

She enjoys surfing, hiking, live music, and exploring the outdoors with her husband and teenagers in Encinitas, California. So let's dig right in and have our conversation with Catherine. So good to see you. You too. I'm just excited to have you here today because I feel like we're like Soul Sisters here 'cause we've both been through a lot. Yes. A lot. So we both have experienced complex PTSD. That is what this series is on, and so I just wanted to have a conversation with you and have our listeners listen in on, you know, your own experience with that and how, how, I love that you're sharing with me that you've taken what you've learned for yourself and now implement it when you're helping clients.

Okay? So can you share with us about that? Yeah, so thank you so much Mandy. I'm so happy to be here. And I do agree, like I get excited and you know, soul Sisters and as I was saying earlier that I. People who have been through C-P-T-S-D or any sort of trauma or anything are some of my favorite people.

There's just such a, like I said, we're usually highly sensitive. We have such beautiful gifts and resilience and have been through a lot and, and there's such an empathy and as you said, like a real soul sister as we navigate this, this life, right? Yeah. My journey has been where I spent many years trying to heal myself through talk therapy, and I got really good at that.

I was very self-aware, felt very like, I knew why my patterns and I always doing these things, but nothing really seemed to shift. And change. And I just felt like there was this buzz that just was in my body, uh, that I just couldn't reach I started to have some body symptoms start to come out probably about six or seven years ago where my body was starting to knock.

At the door and then it started pounding at the door, right? And realizing that I had been navigating the, my own healing process and my professional practice in talk therapy and was not bringing my my body. Through the healing process, nor my client's bodies. There was a lot of cognitive conversations, real self-awareness, but I just got to this place of it was almost like I was cut off from my head in my body.

I was just, Catherine was just ahead. Yeah. And so. I started getting into a lot of training, really trying to understand, and this was about six or seven years ago, and started shifting my practice, but more importantly, my healing from the talk cognitive therapy into a more, uh, nervous system regulation and.

Really coming to understand that we as humans, we have this cognitive conscious way about how we live on a day-to-day basis. Mm-hmm. And yet there is this unconscious nervous system. Part that is continually running right next to us mm-hmm. That we're not even aware of and Right. For me personally, realizing that my nervous system was in a state or fight or flight mm-hmm.

From a very, very young age. Mm-hmm. And I was not. I, again, unconscious. Just the, the nervous system gets into such a pattern Yeah. And a loop and neuro pathways that mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It's, it just becomes the norm, right. Living at this hyper diligent, perfectionist, uh, people pleasing kind of mm-hmm. Of state.

Yep. And so I started getting trained in it and shifted both my personal healing and then as well as my professional. And I, I started sort of have built this. Integrative approach that I love to work with clients. That's a much more like embodied way of navigating their own healing, their own understanding of themselves, of how they relate to within relationships, and most importantly in relationship to themselves.

Right. Right. And so. The first, I like to think of it as like a three tier lens. And so the first lens that I see my healing and the healing of my clients is through the nervous system regulation. The way that I like to think about it is, is you know, we can cognitively tell ourselves I am safe.

I am safe, right? And, try to. Talk ourselves into feeling safe. Right, right, right. But it's not until the nervous system really starts to feel it, embody it. Like what does your body feel like when you feel safe? Mm-hmm. And, my mantra around this is that safety is in the present.

Moment. Like in this moment, there's no lion running after us, right? Right. We're in this room, you know, there's nothing happening to us right now, and so I like to do this, that this exercise with my clients and I'd love for your listeners. They can, you know, do this if they want. What it starts to do is it's, you know, one to three minute exercise where you're reminding your nervous system what it feels like to feel safety, not just tell ourselves that we're safe mm-hmm.

But feel the safety. So the, the first part of. This exercise is, is when you interrupt the autopilot, the rumination, the disassociation that you know, you realize you're just going, going, going, and you're not really even present with what you're doing, whether you're driving and you're thinking about other things, or you're cooking and you're thinking of all these other things.

And so the first thing I, I. This exercise is you interrupt you, you could put your hands out, you know, if you need some like real reminders or just like, stop, you know, actually say it out loud, out loud to interrupt and you just, you're stopping that neuro pathway, that loop of the autopilot. Mm-hmm. And then you get to the second part, which is orient.

And this is where you're orienting. Not only to your senses, but most importantly into your body in that moment, wherever you are. Right. You know, like for you and I, it would be really orienting putting our just attention to our feet on the ground right now, and maybe attention to our thighs on the chair and our back.

Just, you know, really for split second. I'm in my body right now and then looking out like, what do you see? Like for me, I see you, I see your brown hair and your speaker, and I see my plant. I feel the fan. Like, what am I feeling? Real Using your sense of like, what am I hearing?

Mm-hmm. And just a real. Gentle orientation of being in the moment, right. For that moment. Mm-hmm. And then the last thing is a statement of like, I am safe right now. Mm-hmm. I'm safe. Right. And what I love to do is I love to get this exercise to my clients and remind them to do it in very benign situations.

Like the two I usually use is when they're driving in a car. Mm-hmm. And they're at a red light. Mm-hmm. Like do that. Right? Do them. Or when they're washing their hands, right? Mm-hmm. Just for a second, like feel your hands under the water and the soap. Like just really feeling that, that safety in the body of Right, right now I am safe.

And it's just these reminders and these little tiny building blocks. Hmm. Of teaching the nervous system and reminding the nervous system, right. What it feels like. Right. That self-compassion piece comes into play because a lot of my clients and myself too. We are in Fix it modality. Totally right?

We wanna fix it. We want the magic bullet. What? It's going to heal me. We've done every training program, all of this stuff. And so when I talk to my clients and when I practice this myself, I like to say, look, once or twice a day. That's enough enough. Try it once or twice a day. Like don't put this on your list.

And it's just another thing you have to do. You know, it's really just a beautiful gift that you're giving yourself and your nervous system of like remind like your body is such a beautiful messenger. It's such a beautiful, I mean that's what I've learned through this process is it is the messenger for Right.

Right. Your relationship like it's, it's the channel to getting in touch with. With yourself, your sense of self is your body. Right, right, right. So I really try to make it easy and doable. Right. And a reminder of that is enough. Yeah. Your choice today, I love that. Today is just, it's perfect. Right. You know, like habit stacking.

Right. How you said when you're at a red light in the car. Yeah. Or if you're washing your hands. Yeah. That's a good practice to. To do. And as you said, as you keep building on it, your brain thinks, okay, like I am safe, I am becoming more safe. And that does stack on itself. And like you said, your brain is so used to being in a rut that you're, you're saying, Hey, brain, hello.

Like, hello, we're, we're kind of doing something a little bit different gradually. We're bringing the body along. And I think it's such a important piece to this because the biggest piece around nervous system regulation is building capacity.

Mm-hmm. Right? When we have our nervous system dysregulated, which mine. Was and is continuing to evolve, but I'm sure with a lot of your listeners too, whether it's anxiety or trauma or all of this, our worlds get so small. Right, right. And so reminding our nervous system and you know, our bodies, that we are so capable and we, we have so much agency and, you know, and the more that we start to feel a little bit more in our body and feel safe mm-hmm.

And then the next time we can go maybe a little bit more and just building that capacity of, of how much our nervous system actually really can right. Tolerate and withstand. Right, exactly. And I wanna pull out the part that you're talking about with self-compassion.

Yeah. Because I feel like that really is key. So in my own healing journey, just learning how important that is. Yeah. And I don't think we give that enough attention. For our listeners, like what does that actually mean? How would you define that in like practical terms?

It's funny that you say that, 'cause this actually, I. Beautifully goes into the second part of the lens where I work from. Cool. And it's, it's through Internal family systems. It's a Dick Schwartz. Model that I just love. Mm-hmm. And his model is the epitome.

Self-compassion. Oh, cool. Let me explain it so that you can understand and then I'll, I'll tie in the self-compassion into it. But his model is this notion that we are all innately born with this incredible, true essence, true self. Very confident, just relaxed. You know, that's how most kids are, right?

Yes. Like, no matter circumstances, no matter where we live, what we're born into, we're all born with this divine innate sense of true essence, right? Mm-hmm. And then what starts to happen is. As we walk through life and there's overwhelming experiences, there's traumatic experiences, there's all these situations that happen to us, all different parts of our life that are so overwhelming that it's too overwhelming for us.

Sure. We have these parts that sort of come in and take over, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And. The self-compassion piece around this is to understand that these parts only have good intentions. Right. And they're there to protect us. Exactly. They have a beautiful job. Right. And you know, so they're there for a really good reason.

These parts can be, you know, again, people pleasing, you know, last podcast you talked a lot about the inner critic. Mm-hmm. Which is, you know, that's a part that's there to protect you. Workaholism, you know, people pleasing, all of that. And so the way I think about it is, is like the metaphor of being on a bus, and they are driving the bus. Your true self, your true essence that was born sort of gets thrown in the back. Right? True. These parts just sort of take over, and so the work that I love to do is to really. Beautifully gently, with all the self-compassion in the world start to pull their hands off of the driver steering wheel.

Mm-hmm. And let our true self come up and start to drive the bus. Right. Right. Mm-hmm. And. The, the self-compassion piece comes in because a lot of us get really mad at those parts. Right. Those parts have brought us pain, more patterns. Same old, same old, you know? And what I love about this model is there is so much.

Gratitude and right willingness for these parts are allowed to be here. Exactly. Like, hi inner critic, I see you there. Yes. And I see you there. Yes. Instead of saying like, what are you doing here again? Whatcha doing head? Yes. You're, you're critical of the inner critic. Right. Like three parts running method.

Right. So I love that piece because it's the epitome of self-compassion, of like. All of me is welcome here. Right? All of these parts, all of these parts and it's a process of, of peeling these parts off of the steering wheel because Exactly. They forget that your true self back there in the back.

Is a 50 something year old, they still think you're five or three or eight or these young incapable, not incapable, but young self, that, that is just so overwhelmed. Mm-hmm. Right. And so these parts are like, one, they're, they have a job to do, but two, if you as the adult come up to the steering wheel, they don't have a anymore.

Right. They're very like your parts. They tighten up. Yeah. Right. When they think you're gonna, you know, they don't have a job. Right. And so there's this beautiful process of, of talking to you, like really the curiosity piece. Yeah. I love that. The self-compassion piece of like, Hey, I'm gonna be in the driver's seat and, and building that sense of self.

And we do a lot of work around that. Mm-hmm. But reminding these parts that like, they don't. A lot of them have a lot of really great aspects. Totally do. And they saved you from stuff in the past. Yes. And, and when, and they actually can continue, you can continue to use their attributes. They're maybe not as.

You know, like the perfectionist part, right? You don't want that in the driver's seat, but sometimes it's really helpful to be like, look, I have to cross my Ts and.my I. Sure. Right. You know, like when it gets to the full extreme, then they turn into sabotage, right. Versus, mm-hmm. And so the question I love to ask the parts is like, for the inner critic, like if they're protecting, what would the inner critic think would happen?

If the inner critic went away, not what do I think would happen, what is the inner critic think would happen, and a lot of times that's where you touch the emotion of what they're protecting. Interesting. And it's this beautiful, again, real self-compassion piece because. For me and for my clients.

You don't wanna overwhelm. 'cause sometimes when they touch that emotion, it can feel like, whoa, that's a lot right there. Right. And so it's a real gentle like, Hey, we're all, we're doing this slow. Sure. The inner critic is right there with us, right? Right. It gets to witness this beautiful space where.

It gets to see that the cept is capable Exactly. Of feeling a little bit, and I, I love the analogy of a slide, like you're at the top of the slide and you go down this, the slide a little bit and you feel that emotion. Mm-hmm. And get to that little edge of comfort. And then it is like, mm-hmm. Okay, I'm gonna go back up this slide, right?

Mm-hmm. And so each time is a little bit and then come back and again, having agency. Around how much do you start to go into these feelings that these parts have really protected? Right. But don't need to protect anymore. Right, right. It's a real slow, again, beautiful integrative, holistic approach where Ev every part.

Everyone's involved. We're just moving you to the front of the bus and your parts get to like hang out and back. Right. Relax. They don't need to work so hard. Mm-hmm. You know, and so that is this process that I love with the IFS process around doing it with agency, with self-compassion.

Right. Seeing these parts that maybe. We all, you know, get so mad at or wish it was gone. And realizing, you know, that they get to be a part of this healing process too. Right. And a lot of that is incorporated into a somatic piece, like mm-hmm. Where do you feel the inner critic, what do you feel it in?

You know, a lot of times it's in the throat when you are tapping into. Your true essence, how do you even know what that feels like? Like a lot of times it's really grounded in your thighs and in your hips and you're really seating in your chair, and sometimes it's just sort of playing around with that.

Mm-hmm. Right? Yeah. Does that make sense? So I sort of, yeah, that's how I view self-compassion. It's like a real. Full embracement of all aspects. Sure. Of ourselves. Because if we're, it's wonderful to be self-compassionate of all of the wonderful things we love about ourselves.

That's easy. Yeah. Yeah. Right. The real self-compassion comes around these parts that maybe it made us, made not very good decisions. Mm-hmm. You know, they were survival decisions in that moment. Right, right. Yeah. And really instead of kicking them out or you know. Not allowing them in into the healing process.

Mm-hmm. The most important piece is that they are allowed in. Right, right. We're not trying to kick them off the bus. Correct. We're just saying, okay. Thank you so much for helping me stay safe before, yes. Now I'm growing and I'm learning. Yes. So you can move back a couple seats. Correct. And then if you wanna come back up a little bit later, you can.

Yeah. And really asking . What do you wanna tell me? And again, it's the curiosity piece, that is so important around, right?

Like what are you trying to keep me safe from? Yes. Yes. What are you trying to keep me safe from? I mean, it's just this beautiful conversation and it really does come. Through, like with curiosity. Mm-hmm. They really answer. And clients, yeah. As well as myself have profound like, wow, I did not know that.

Yeah. You know, and so there's a real, again, like I am living proof of like this, there's a real forgiveness that I walk with because of this work and there's a real. Gratitude, as crazy as that feels. Mm-hmm. Just to these parts of like Right. But there's a real, you know, hey, I'm the captain of, of the bus here, I'm the driver mm-hmm.

Of the bus. Mm-hmm. And, and slowly over time, reminding these parts that I, I'm not the little young little girl. I am this adult now mm-hmm. Who has a lot more agency and resources and, mm-hmm. The nervous system piece. Mm-hmm. Just beautifully builds into that because when I feel safe and when I am feeling regulated, I feel more capable.

Mm-hmm. And then I feel more like, yes, I can tolerate a little bit of these emotions. 'cause a lot of us, that was what the parts do is they, they're protecting us from this overwhelming emotions that were just too much at that time. Exactly. Yeah. I love that. So when you are helping yourself or your clients Yeah.

Um, what are some more of the practical types of like exercises that you find work? Like we were talking about. And I've shared this many times before too, is that, you know, I had so much talk therapy mm-hmm. But I felt like once I started getting the body involved Yeah. And realizing that I can tell myself I'm safe all day.

But yeah. My, my brain says, we're still running from the lion. So what are the practical things that you like to do that are helpful? It's so interesting you ask these questions. 'cause then it beautifully ties into like the, my third lens, the way that I see myself healing and, and my client's healing is, is actually through community.

I'm a big believer that our ne nervous system heals and we heal in, in a collective. And this is where I like to bring in the notion of. Which I think we all forget that like, healing can be fun. Totally. We do forget that. Joyful. We think we need to put more things on our list. Totally. Like, I need to do this training or Right.

You know, I need to go into therapy and talk about my, you know, and feel my feelings and all this. And I'm like, oh, I just, I, I really tried to incorporate joyful things because it's just a reminder to our nervous system. Again, that has gotten so small that like being in nature, and I know that you've talked about that, like going into the backyard and taking your shoes off.

And feeling the grass and the grounding. And there's so much research, it talks about grounding. Yes. And how grounding actually decreases inflammation. Yep. I mean, it's just this beautiful thing. So if it's outsides putting your feet in the grass, being with trees and orienting, you know, you can use some of the, the.

Aspects of oriented that I talked about in the interrupt exercise earlier is just like when you're on a walk, like maybe not listening to music and maybe just looking at, you know, and I know being present. Yeah. And you had mentioned before like the, the forest bathing and I know mm-hmm. You know. Being in nature is such a, a huge piece of this.

Yeah. The other piece that I love that I do is bringing in the body in a really fun, pushing a little bit of an edge to comfort kind of experience. And um, there's an organization here in Southern California called Groundswell Therapy, and what it is, is it's surf therapy.

Ah, fun. It's this beautiful organization where all of the instructors are trauma informed. They have nurses that, that surf, they have therapists that surf. What they do is they have, they're like, look, you can be at any level of surfing when you get there, it's a six week.

Of course where you go to the beach every day and you're in community, it's usually, you know, when I did it and I know other people that have done it, it's primarily women. Mm-hmm. And there's this, you, you just have a goal and some women are like, I just wanna get a wetsuit on and I wanna get in the water.

That would be me. Or, yeah. And some people are like, I want a bookie board and some whatever. And again. It's this beautiful in community reminding your nervous system you can do these things that maybe push it a little bit to the edge of comfort, but with agency. Mm-hmm. And with support. And I love talking about 'em because for two reasons.

One is they told this beautiful story of a woman who she was, she had done the. Groundswell. She was a prior participant and she had had, um, a very traumatic experience happen on the sand. And so for her her goal was to actually just walk on the sand. And so that's what they worked on for six weeks.

Wow. She came to the parking lot and just looked at the sand. Right. In the next week, she actually. Walked up to the sand and by the end of the six weeks she had actually walked on the sand and just put her feet in the water and she was teaching her nervous system. That she's safe.

Right? She has agency within the containment of this beautiful community that was supporting her. Yeah. That was like, you are exactly where you need to be, and we are right here with you. Mm-hmm. You know? Yeah. The other piece I love about it is because it really does bring your body. Into this healing process.

And I love when they talk about it because if you think about surfers, when they're in the water and when we're all in the water, like it just does something to our, you know, we're fully in the present moment. Right, right, right, right. But with surfers, if you think about they're on a wave or even boogie boarding or.

Right. Bo body sort, whichever. Yeah. And then you get tumbled up in a wave. Yes. Right? And you're like all dysregulated, whichever The first thing that you do or surfers do, is they start to paddle back out. Right? Mm-hmm. And what that is, is a bilateral stimulation. Oh, right. Like a butterfly hug. Yes. And it's exactly, and you're using your right brain and your left brain.

Mm-hmm. And it, it's like your body is actually doing this. Bilateral stimulation of Right paddle. Right paddle left paddle right. Paddle left. And what that does is very similar to what EMDR does. Yes. Yeah. The bilateral stimulation of right and left and what, mm-hmm. You spoke about. And a couple of episodes ago where you would look at a tennis ball yes.

And you would do your eyes left, to the left, to right, to the right, keep my gaze on the ball, keep your gaze on the, on the tennis ball. And what that does is it actually, it releases your vagus nerve, which in turn calms your nervous system. So it's this beautiful. Thing that like your bodies are doing when you're out surfing or whichever.

And so I love to be able to talk about like ways that people are doing it automatically, even without like these, you know, a lot of these surfers are out calming their nervous system after a big crash, and they don't even realize that that's what they're doing. Right? And so the bilateral stimulation is really important and so.

I just like to bring up the groundswell therapy because Yeah. That's cool. It's a fun, it's community based.

Right. And with the bilateral stimulation, I, what I do every morning, which has been. Very helpful. It's called the Reichen bird, uh, method. And it's exactly what you do with the tennis balls, but it's you, you put your hands behind your head mm-hmm. When you're lying down in the morning before you wake up.

Mm-hmm. And you keep your head straight and you look up at the ceiling and you just gaze your eyes to the left. For about 10 to 15 seconds until you yawn. Hmm. And then you gaze your eyes to the right. Mm-hmm. For 10 to 15 seconds until you yawn and then you come back. And again, this is. Because our eyes are the first thing that are constantly looking out for danger.

Danger, danger. Yeah, you're right. And so when we do these eye exercises, which there's a whole bunch, we could go through millions of 'em, but with these certain eye exercises, we're reminding our eyes in that moment that like, Hey, we're. Everything is okay here. We're safe. But the movement of your eyes,

as you move your eyes back and forth, you can feel the, the muscles back here and they actually start to relax. Hmm. And that releases the tension on the vagus nerve. Mm-hmm. Which is, we know the vagus nerve when it's out of whack then. Right. Our nervous system is out of whack. Right. And so, right. That is something, you know, any sort of bilateral stimulation with eye movement can be, you know, reminding our nervous system that it is, it, it allows it to go into rest. Right, right. And digest. Mm-hmm. A lot of times people will. Burp or yawn when they're doing those kinds of things. Hmm. That's interesting. Yeah.

And like we were saying too, like everybody's so different, you know, with even like breath work I had, talked about with Brit in the last episode. Yeah. And then you and I were saying too, like you felt the same way. Yeah. And that makes me think too, like it doesn't mean that breath work is bad.

Correct. Um, and even for ourselves, it's just. It's important, like what you were saying too, about having community and making sure that you have somebody who makes you feel safe first. Yeah, for sure. Before you do whatever you're doing. For sure. So like you were saying with groundswell, that's really, really cool that they're trauma informed 100%.

So they can help you ease into that instead of just forcing, like you were saying. For sure, for sure. Using curiosity instead of force. Yes, 100%. I think that is such a crucial piece of all of this, because nervous system regulation is booming right now.

Mm-hmm. And having. Uh, clients or your listeners if they're doing any sort of practice or work that, that the practitioner is really trained in a lot of, you know, trauma, very trauma informed, because a lot of times it can be overwhelming that's the piece of all of this work, right. Is is the agency and not overwhelming the system.

We're trying to, you know, regulate it and if we're just overwhelming it with like, breathe through those feelings and feel that sadness and Right. You know, all of that.

Right. Or you know, and like for similar with you, like for me. It's really dysregulating sometimes to be still. Yes. Oh my gosh. And like medi, oh my gosh, okay. Meditate or whatever. When you, yeah, when you're going like to meditate somewhere or sound bath or whatever. Like I have to move like I have to, I have to move.

I can't, making me sit completely still. Yes. Especially 'cause I have a neuromuscular disorder is like torture. Yes. So, and it's, it's not supportive for me personally, it's not supportive. Mm-hmm. Or any sort of dysregulation, like mm-hmm. That's why for me, like when I finally gave myself permission of I'm just gonna do the guided meditations on my walk.

Yeah, exactly. That's what I'm doing, right? Like, I'm not gonna sit in my room and, you know, ah, it's like, no, you know, exactly. What works for you? And a lot of times there's like, oh, I must not be healed enough that I can't.

And I'm like, the shame element. Yes. The shame and no, and yeah, really understanding that and like. And there's so many great, like even my colleague is hosting, um, a slow throw this weekend, which is a trauma informed practitioner who's my colleague and in a ceramics studio. And so it's called the slow throw, where it's real embodied nervous system regulation work using clay and, and really getting into it.

And again, just having. Practitioners that understand what can come up. You know, 'cause we don't wanna overwhelm. Overwhelm the system. The whole purpose of this is to find safety and find practitioners or community that do feel safe. Right. Right. And some other things too are dependent on what people find for themselves.

But like at equine therapy, right? Yes. 1%. Yes. And of course, actually, I was just speaking in Oklahoma at a. School Counselor association. And I asked them in the room like, how many of you have therapy dogs that come out to your school? Mm-hmm. And there were a couple that raised their hand and I was like, yes.

Oh my gosh, yes. Wonderful. I'm so happy to see that. I wish they all could raise their hands, but Yes. But like, just getting creative. Um, and I was talking to them too about my own experience and my sons, you know, even with kids, like the last thing they wanna do is. Sit down in a therapist's office and stare at your face and tell you for sure how their feelings are.

Right? Like, yes. So I was telling them how cool it was when my son was getting counseling when he was really young, when we were going through the thick of it and the counselor walked with him? Yes. Walked and talked. Walked and talked. Not just like, okay, sit down. Little five-year-old. Yeah. Gonna, we're gonna talk this out, you know?

For sure. Yeah, and there's, I mean, I think that is the beauty of all of this because walking and talking again, there's the bilateral stimulation of like, you know, you're walking left. Right. There's, you know, you're looking straight ahead and the, the pressure especially, I mean, I think all of us really, you know, sitting in a room staring at somebody sometimes can be really in, in intimidating.

Right. Especially when you're talking about the hardest things of your life. Yes, exactly. There's also pieces of like eco psychology that's coming into place, nature-based psychology, that's really getting people you know out. But even if it's just walking through your neighborhood, it doesn't have to be, you know, on a hike or anything or really utilizing other aspects of healing.

Modalities versus just the talk and, and what's so important is bringing the body. Mm-hmm. And you know, and there's art therapy and drama therapy. Yes. And, yeah. You know, which is dance therapy, you know, again. Right. The list goes on. Yeah. How so if somebody was looking for a therapist and trying to find somebody that wasn't going to only do the talk therapy mm-hmm.

What kind of questions would they ask, or how would they find somebody like yourself? Like who is. Open to other things and creative ideas. Yeah, so I think the, the biggest thing would would be to ask if you bring the way that they would describe it as a much more somatic piece. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That is usually you wanna look for a practitioner that has like the mind body integration, and so how do you work?

Mm-hmm. Tell me a little bit more about, you know, I've done a lot of talk. Talk therapy. How do you bring, you know, I'm really interested in bringing the body into this healing process. How do you bring the body into it? What are some of the modalities that you use? Mm-hmm. And mostly really looking for websites that are for practitioners that incorporate that.

Usually they're very on the front page of their website, like we're an integrative, somatic based mind body. Practice. For instance, for our group practice, we collaborate with a lot of different practitioners and we, we, we utilize those practitioners, whether they're.

Yoga instructors. You know, there's some, clients that really do like the, the sound bath or the mm-hmm. The breath work or the right. You know, and so we have a, a well resourced list on our website that says these are a lot of the people that we, and we constantly have them coming in and collaborating.

So again, it, it's really bringing the body in and so we, that's what our. Our practice use is just a lot of like body-based. Sure. Really innovative, somatic, holistic approaches.

Yeah. I love it. And can you tell us, I have quite a few listeners from San Diego, so mm-hmm. Tell us, um, what is. The group and even how they can find you or, oh yeah, sure. So yeah, so the name of our, our group practice is nourished wellness group.com. And we have all of the practitioners, we all have specialties, but we're all somatic based.

Some of us are E, some of them are EMDR. I'm more of the nervous system IFS. Approach. And again, it, I used to have a private practice and like I'm living and breathing like I thrive in community. Mm-hmm. And so joining like-minded group practice where we collaborate with each other, we, that's great.

We have all this. And so it's been such a joy to Yeah. To be a part of this group. But um, right. Yeah. So, and what is their Instagram? Their Instagram is a nourished wellness group. Okay. That's easy. Yes, that's easy. Got it. But yeah, and just if anybody is interested, take a look at all of our bios, see if there's anybody that really resonates.

Mm-hmm. You know, and then the client coordinator can get, get you connected with one of us. And you guys are in Encinitas? We are in Encinitas, yes. So people can come and see you or? Yes. See a couple of you. And then they can have a walk on the beach. For sure walk on the beach, walk and talk. Right. And we also do, um, you know, all of us are are hybrid, so sometimes there are people that live farther up and say, you know, I really wanna do the somatic piece, which is such a beautiful thing because you can do all of this work virtually.

As well. It does not need to be, I mean, of course, you know, doing the walk and talk, it's hard to do that. But this, all of this nervous system regulation absolutely can be done virtually. So I work hyperly and all of the C colleagues, like we see people in person and we also see virtually as well. That's cool.

And then if you see people virtually, it just has to be in California, is that right? They have to that in California, correct. They have to be in California. Yeah. Cool. Awesome. Well thank you so much for welcome being here. Welcome and you know, sharing with us all of the wisdom that you shared, just learning from your own story and then how you help other clients now with the wisdom that you've gained.

So I love hearing that. So thank you. Of course. You're so welcome. This was such a wonderful conversation. And you know, I just. I think that the, the bringing the body along in the healing process has really been, that's key. A profound experience both for myself and my clients and Yep. Wanting to just continue to get the word out of how important it is to, to our healing for sure.

Exactly. Our journey. A hundred percent agree. Well, thank you. You're so welcome. Thanks for listening to the Aware and Prepared Podcast. If this episode encouraged you, I bet it might help someone else too. So please leave a quick review. Simply scroll down in your podcast app, tap the number of stars and share one sentence of what resonated most with new reviews.

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