Tagged: nervous system

You can integrate an experience you had years ago

A common assumption about integration is that it has a shelf life: that it belongs to the fortnight after an experience, and once that window closes the opportunity has gone. That is not how it works. A significant…

I'll Always Trade My Rook to Keep My Knight. On why we need to stop pathologizing the people-pleasers of this world.

I want to talk about people-pleasing, but not in the way it usually gets talked about. I'm tired of the version that frames it as a personality quirk, a boundary problem, or a self-esteem issue we just need to do the work on. That framing skips over the most important thing, which is that people-pleasing is a survival strategy that worked. It equated to safety, and sometimes to love, which kind of

What We Lose When We're Not Believed

There's a kind of tired I want to talk about, because I don't think it gets named enough, and because I've lived inside of it, and because the people who walk into my office almost always know exactly what I mean before I finish the sentence. It's the tired that comes from being the one who notices. It's exhausting being the one who feels the shift in the room, who registers the tightness in som

The Queer Body Remembers: Somatic-Focused Trauma Healing

For many LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning) people growing up was distressing due to homophobia and transphobia. Schools felt like a scary place for those who were scapegoated as queer. LGBTQ people of color reported even worse experiences due to the additional stress of racism and racial bullying. Many of the gay men’s personal narratives that I have he

What Is Psychedelic Integration Therapy? (And Do You Need It?)