About Emotional Counseling
Anxiety, grief, anger, frustration, and despair all tell us how our heart really yearns to enjoy life. Sometimes we get stuck in an emotion and its associated thoughts. Sometimes it’s hard to change our patterns- even if we’re unhappy with them, because they are strategies we learned to cope with trauma or difficult experiences.
We are simultaneously whole, and hurting and needing to heal. Our wounds cloud our sense of wholeness and diminish our well-being. Our emotions are a gateway to knowing our true nature as empowered and whole.
Do you want to know your "best self"?
With emotional counseling, you can develop the strengths you already have, liberate yourself further, and gain somatic tools to become who you want to be.
As you gain abilities to enjoy your whole self, you may feel more:
​
confidence,
aliveness,
peace,
and
joy.
Where do we begin the path to freedom?
By bringing awareness to how emotions live in our bodies,
and adding compassion,
we
alleviate suffering
and
create space
for
choice and freedom.
​
We develop skills to work with bodily intelligence.
​​
​
See a demo session below:
​
Scroll down to the red heart
to see a 40 year-old explore her inner struggle with her partner, triggered by growing up with an alcoholic father. We release pain and make space for hope!
How do we deepen?
My core techniques are open-ended questions that beget truth and guided imagery that resources deeper healing within a relaxed body state (parasympathetic nervous system).
​
I’m particularly attuned to scientific research that demonstrates the benefits of breathing and meditative practices. They include common ones such as:
​
-
Square breath
-
Loving-kindness meditation
-
Muscular tension-relaxation and nidra practice
-
Emotional Freedom Technique.
Is it trauma-informed?
From trainings I've taken in the origins and effects of trauma, and working with the nervous system,
I offer:
-
spaciousness & empathy as you talk,
-
embodied processing options (drawing, role play, clay work, etc.),
-
inner parts work (mediated inner dialogue or a “committee of voices,” like Soulwork or Internal Family Systems).
Is Emotional Counseling for me?
A. Most people have childhood wounds.
-
Some wounds are named trauma (see Ace Tree), and some are those we recognize have shaped our behaviors and personality.
-
Wounds keep us from realizing our dreams, by showing up in our adult life appearing like present-day problems. Some folks have repeated challenges, feel frustrated, and wonder what’s at the root.
-
Some folks find that traditional talk therapy helped them understand and ease the pain, but not deeply heal their wounds.
B. Most people want to enjoy their life more.
(We want healthy relationships, a sense of holistic integration with the planet, community purpose, belonging, and empowerment.)
​
If you're ready to try somatic and meditative inquiry, I could help you build your bridge from A to B.
Group Emotional Counseling
​Self-Love for Folks of UnderAffirming Parents:
8 week course & support group
opens each spring, summer, fall, and winter.
​
​Read more about the group below the video.
What is a session with you like?
A 40 year-old earthy volunteer gave permission to share this amazing video (below)
of her in-person session of her inner struggle with her partner, triggered by growing up with an alcoholic father. See how we release the pain and make space for hope!
What Our Clients Say
Damion, 43 years old
"I really appreciate what the Self-Love group did for me. It actually helped me see so many things for what they are, and it's helped me gain so much closure on some things I've been holding onto for decades. Thank you so much for guiding me through it. You're an amazing group leader and I'm so happy I found it!"
Self-Love for Folks of UnderAffirming Parents:
8 week course
In-person or online.
If our parents were overly critical, emotionally abusive, not present enough, or some form of under-affirming, we retain scars of their message: we're not worthy of deep love. We truly are, but it takes
work to fully realize it. In addition to facilitating group reflection on the Self-Compassion Workbook, I'll show how we can listen deeply and lovingly to our truths and model an empathic self-talk of kindness and acceptance.
This course and support group is 8 weeks, 90 minutes each session. 4-8 people.
This group is for you IF ONE of these is true:
You
* hear negative self-talk in your mind
* seek approval or affirmation from others more than from within
* have dominating perfectionist tendencies,
or
* have trouble regulating emotions (feeling & expressing them well)
and
*you're ready to grow more in self-love!
*you want confidence in healthy coping responses to stress.
*you're open to trying guided meditations.
*you want to support others who are on this journey, by attentive listening.
​
If you want to join a group, please click Book an Appointment button.
More about this class:
We will explore the first 8-10 chapters of The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook. One chapter will be the focus each week, and you can come having read the information and done the exercises as much as you can. (I understand that sometimes life prevents us from doing what we intend- it's truly okay.) The
book is 24 chapters long, and you’re welcome to work the rest on your own, or join the “Part 2” support group class after this group finishes.
You could rent the book from your local public library or through interlibrary loan, or purchase it
online. The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook: A Proven Way to Accept Yourself, Build Inner Strength, and Thrive, by Kristin Neff.
This book contains many of the exercises I teach in individual sessions because many people struggle with it. This book is based on scientific research of practices that are shown to help reduce anxiety, increase self-acceptance and stress tolerance, and also grow compassion for others.
A group offers us the experience to:
~honor a shared human experience of struggle and growth
~help ourselves stay accountable to practicing,
~receive empathy (be compassionately seen and heard), and,
~get extra support from Shannon at a group rate.
​
You can read even more about Self-Love in my blog article Suffering + LovingKindness = Self-Compassion.
​
Find the next session you can join by clicking Book Now below.