Welcome to your journey into Self realization,
Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make healthy choices.
Mental well-being goes beyond just the mind.
“Emotions can be and, in fact, probably are mostly processed at an unconscious level. We become conscious and aware of all this after the fact.” – Joseph LeDoux
This Intensive On-line Outpatient Program (IOP) is a holistic, integrative approach to healing that installs positive reparative experiences for you to build a new foundation of a healthy felt sense of attachment and belonging.
An Integrative Mental Health Program
- Heart-centered to help you be your authentic Self. We focus on you as a unique individual; respecting who you are and the choices you make due to your life experiences
- Trauma-informed – educating you on how trauma affects your brain.
- Holistic – you’re not just a mind or a body. You’re a complete individual with the need for well-being for your whole person. We focus on healing the mind, body. and spirit and relationships so you can live attuned and aligned to your authentic Self and with self-agency.
- Uniquely designed to fit your needs and to reestablish feelings of safety.
We offer a somatic or “embodied” approach to learning which is much different than the cognitive approaches most commonly used in our society. Embodied learning is experiential in nature. using ourselves in the process of physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and energetic healing. We’re going to gain the confidence to drop the research and instead, do the MEsearch.
We will embark upon a gentle self-discovery journey to learn how to love/accept our bodies and gain effective self-regulation tools that work.
The best modalities for bottom-up therapy incorporate dual awareness – thinking & feeling – that are necessary for healing. Feeling safe and learning how to have regulated responses in the body and brain need to develop.
The somatic nature of this group process fosters a sense of safety, trust. connection to self and others, while allowing you to express emotions without words. When used in conjunction with ‘talk therapy,’ it enhances honest communication as you become more aware of your inner dialogue, emotions, mistaken beliefs. and faulty conditioning in a non-threatening way to feel more ready to talk from a heart-felt place to become more connected to your authentic Self.
How Somatic Therapy Works
Somatic therapy can provide relief for mental health concerns that manifest in the body. By understanding how your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs impact your physical body, you can heal. Grounding techniques can allow you to access deep emotional issues that are otherwise not revealed through talk therapy.
Somatic therapy will provide you with a variety of methods to help heal from trauma, to help you move out of your head, to help you learn where you store trauma in your body. As a result, you will move into a space for deep healing, which you may not be able to access through other types of therapy.
It’s believed by psychologists that our bodies hold onto past trauma which are reflected in our posture, our body language, our facial affect, and can sometimes manifest itself with physical conditions.
By practicing somatic therapies, you will be guided to become more aware of these physical manifestations and learn therapeutic techniques to release any tension that the body is holding.
You will take note of patterns of behavior, identify effects these patterns may have on new emotions, and experience concerns that come up in therapy.
New self-awareness will help you become more attuned to your own body, reduce stress, and help you to explore your emotional and physical concerns.
Somatic therapy may be your missing link in your recovery. You are your best resource. Somatic therapy encourages you to find and access your innate resilience, to connect to your authentic Self, and to move away from shame to develop empathy.
With consistent practice, you will learn how to shift into a more down-regulated neutral state. essentially re-training the brain to become your friend for more focused, energetic, eager learning that includes improved choices and healthy social engagement.
Experiential Modalities You Will Experience
Grounding
A body-based technique to encourage you to stay embodied in any given moment. You’ll learn how to calm your physical body to reduce reaction to a situation/trigger. By engaging all your senses, you can calm your nervous system.
Titration
Our goal is to relieve pain by using the process of experiencing small amounts of distress. You’ll revisit past trauma in bite-sized pieces. We will track your body’s responses so you can learn how those responses relate to what you’re feeling.
Movement/Process
When you experience things, your body responds automatically. By using various postures/gestures, you gain insight into your previous experiences. You’ll mindfully engage with cravings and impulses so that you can experience thoughtful resolve.
Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE)
Learn how to literally shake stress naturally from the body in order to return to a state of balance. These simple exercises promote increased self-awareness, increased self-regulation, and increased well-being by supporting your ability to learn how to become more present with yourself and with somatic sensations, as sensations are what fuel our emotions.
Sound Healing
Healing sounds, especially your own voice, will be used to help rebalance physical, emotional, and spiritual bodies. Sound waves open, clear, and recharge the whole mind, body, and spirit. Sound vibrations stimulate the release of tension in the body. Additionally, they stimulate the cells that line the walls of the arteries in order to secrete nitric oxide (aka – laughing gas).
Progressive Relaxation, Visualization & Guided Imagery
Learn how to use imagery to develop safe internal places. Clearing the energy centers of the body allows you to notice sensations and emotions, leading to activating awareness that will lead to releasing blockages in order to live more creatively, purposefully, and joyfully.
Aromatherapy
Some essential oils are soothing, toning, and grounding, while others are energizing, warming, and renewing, but all essential oils are natural. We will use a variety of essential oils to allow you to naturally and effectively address your specific concerns.
Group Schedule
- Group begins Monday, May 1, 2023
- Group will begin promptly at 8:45 a.m and will end promptly at 11 a.m.
- Group will meet Fridays, Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.
- Group will run from six (6) to twelve (12 weeks) and is an open-enrollment format.
Group Guidelines
- Cell phones are required to be silenced and put out of the way during group.
- We ask that you respectfully give 24-hr. notice if you’re unable to attend group.
- Buttonwood requires clients attend group four (4) days per week (No more than three (3) unexcused absences while in an IOP without medical excuse or clearance from your therapist)
- We ask that group members refrain from chewing gum or hard candy while in group.
- Bathroom breaks are at designated times to provide maximum support to all members.
- Copays are due weekly.
- Groups work best if you’re open and receptive to the process.
- It’s okay to talk about your experiences in the group including your needs, struggles, or things that are working well.
- Remember, comparing yourself to others is normal; however, it can also be destructive. Also remember that you and each individual in the group deserve support, treatment, and recovery no matter your symptoms, struggles or recovery needs.
- We care about you and are here for your support. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions, concerns, or struggles.
- Remember, sometimes being part of a group can be difficult. You are not alone! Remember that other group members are likely struggling with anxiety. Being open with the group will be helpful and will model opening up for others who are also struggling to do so.
What To Bring
- A laptop or desktop computer
- A quiet space to focus/work without interruption
- A journal of your choice
- A three-ring binder with 5 tab Dividers
- Loose leaf lined paper
- A yoga mat or rugged surface
Buttonwood A Place To Heal 