PARENTING
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IDENTITY
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TEAMS
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CRISIS
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Services
Not taking new clients as of May 2024.
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Individual Client Sessions
addressing all personal issues & growth understanding relationship, family & parenting job challenges & opportunities, career coaching Couples Sessions working together to resolve relationship conflict build skills to communicate, hear your partner & be heard learn how to create & sustain intimacy, trust & play |
Groups & Organizations
team development & conflict resolution support for visioning, planning & ongoing operations Practitioner Training study the Coaching Cascadia method as a practitioner mastery with the process is a pre-requisite one-on-one mentorship through our rigorous curriculum period of clinical supervision with client work |
"Elle is a powerful blend of ferocity and tenderness. Working with her allowed me to feel solidly safe in ways I hadn't experienced before in a therapeutic setting. I knew Elle would not shy away from hard truths - and I knew that she would hold those hard truths with a tangible, reliable kindness. That potent combination allowed me to unlock and open places that had long been closed in me, and gave me the courage to explore long-hidden pain with the tenacity and tenderness it deserved."
NAOMI ALORA, Teacher, Artist, Writer, Craniosacral Therapist, Pretty Damn Good Mama |
Work that Transforms - Retiring May 2024 - page to be updated soon
There is one theme running through all of my work with individuals, couples and groups:
FOR REAL AND LASTING CHANGE, THE ONLY WAY OUT IS THROUGH!
We human beings are at our best in the world when we are in an open, relaxed, grounded and curious inner state.
This is true for how we face our internal demons, or how we handle conflict in relationships and challenges within group dynamics.
But, while an open and grounded inner state is ideal, the human mind is like a monkey!
Our defense reflexes cause the mind to instinctually hop around to turn off or smash the emergency alarm
that sounds from deep within us when things aren’t going well.
Why?
This is the human condition. We regulate against distress. We shape ourselves to fit in or to avoid conflict.
And no amount of fixing, denying, squeezing or pushing will change that.
We do best when we understand and work with, not against, our very nature.
What?
In the work we undertake together, we develop the strength and safety to tolerate the baseline experiences that set off your alarm bells and cause you to go into fight, flight or freeze ... to numb, to collapse and isolate OR to act out.
We become very clear about the habitual and unconscious regulating behaviors we all share. Do you recognize these patterns?
They can be subtle or ferocious, harmless or destructive, neutral and sometimes even resourceful!
Often our defenses lead us to into more trouble.
There is a way through this dynamic.
When we develop the capacity to sit with and witness the alarm sounding and allay our impulses for reacting immediately, we create
the internal space for exploration and clarity. Then, we can address our all of our challenges with power and grace. Whether it means we should stay or leave our current situation, change ourselves or challenge someone else, we know how to know what is true.
Our thinking and reasoning is clearer, our observations are more objective, our planning more rigorous, our creativity is freely flowing.
In our work together, you will learn HOW to come back to yourself, under any inflamed internal or
external conditions, and to explore what you really need to see. You will develop the confidence
and skills that will lead you to return to an open, relaxed, grounded and curious inner state.
This is the groundwork for personal growth.
How?
We do this work with a mix of focusing practices, sensing and inquiring to train our awareness with a gentle openness. Then together we explore what's showing up in life: this can be a feeling of disappointment, frustration with work or relationships, difficulty in parenting. You might feel lost, confused, numb, stuck or chronically exhausted. Many clients describe their experience as depression, anxiety, judgment, fear, anger or rage, trauma, loneliness, sadness, grief or illness.
Who?
I provide facilitation, mirroring, feedback and teachings to support the exploration of your baseline experience,
unconscious beliefs and emotional reactions. I help you to cultivate and develop your inherent strengths.
I am not a psychotherapist: I am a private teacher, mentor, ally and facilitator. I hold space, I challenge, I encourage, I share.
Together, we go in to what life brings, and your reactions, with consistency and kindness,
grapple with what we find and come out with insight, peace and freedom.
Together we attune the work to your pace, your challenges and your resources.
There is one theme running through all of my work with individuals, couples and groups:
FOR REAL AND LASTING CHANGE, THE ONLY WAY OUT IS THROUGH!
We human beings are at our best in the world when we are in an open, relaxed, grounded and curious inner state.
This is true for how we face our internal demons, or how we handle conflict in relationships and challenges within group dynamics.
But, while an open and grounded inner state is ideal, the human mind is like a monkey!
Our defense reflexes cause the mind to instinctually hop around to turn off or smash the emergency alarm
that sounds from deep within us when things aren’t going well.
Why?
This is the human condition. We regulate against distress. We shape ourselves to fit in or to avoid conflict.
And no amount of fixing, denying, squeezing or pushing will change that.
We do best when we understand and work with, not against, our very nature.
What?
In the work we undertake together, we develop the strength and safety to tolerate the baseline experiences that set off your alarm bells and cause you to go into fight, flight or freeze ... to numb, to collapse and isolate OR to act out.
We become very clear about the habitual and unconscious regulating behaviors we all share. Do you recognize these patterns?
They can be subtle or ferocious, harmless or destructive, neutral and sometimes even resourceful!
Often our defenses lead us to into more trouble.
There is a way through this dynamic.
When we develop the capacity to sit with and witness the alarm sounding and allay our impulses for reacting immediately, we create
the internal space for exploration and clarity. Then, we can address our all of our challenges with power and grace. Whether it means we should stay or leave our current situation, change ourselves or challenge someone else, we know how to know what is true.
Our thinking and reasoning is clearer, our observations are more objective, our planning more rigorous, our creativity is freely flowing.
In our work together, you will learn HOW to come back to yourself, under any inflamed internal or
external conditions, and to explore what you really need to see. You will develop the confidence
and skills that will lead you to return to an open, relaxed, grounded and curious inner state.
This is the groundwork for personal growth.
How?
We do this work with a mix of focusing practices, sensing and inquiring to train our awareness with a gentle openness. Then together we explore what's showing up in life: this can be a feeling of disappointment, frustration with work or relationships, difficulty in parenting. You might feel lost, confused, numb, stuck or chronically exhausted. Many clients describe their experience as depression, anxiety, judgment, fear, anger or rage, trauma, loneliness, sadness, grief or illness.
Who?
I provide facilitation, mirroring, feedback and teachings to support the exploration of your baseline experience,
unconscious beliefs and emotional reactions. I help you to cultivate and develop your inherent strengths.
I am not a psychotherapist: I am a private teacher, mentor, ally and facilitator. I hold space, I challenge, I encourage, I share.
Together, we go in to what life brings, and your reactions, with consistency and kindness,
grapple with what we find and come out with insight, peace and freedom.
Together we attune the work to your pace, your challenges and your resources.