Body-Centered Psychotherapy - An integrative, wholistic approach to healing

SAP - a model founded and taught by Canadian psychotherapists, Lisa Mortimore, PhD and Stacy Adam Jensen specializes in the reparation of insecure attachment and trauma through an orientation that weaves Somatic Psychotherapy, Attachment Theory and Relational Psychodynamic Practice.

Early relational experiences forge a neurophysiological and psychological template of self, often creating insecure attachment which distorts the development of self, and impacts relational functioning throughout the lifespan.

Corresponding affect management strategies and attachment patterns, accompanied by dysregulation of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), impact one’s self perceptions, world, and identity.

This legacy of trauma deeply impacts the integrity of the self, creating a split between psyche, body, and spirit.

Therapists are called to facilitate shifting of affect management strategies, attachment patterning, and support the maturation and development of complex right brain functioning to heal relational trauma, including insecure attachment, PTSD, and chronic shame, rather than merely working with symptom reduction.

This SAP training responds to this call and offers an immersive educational experience to deepen embodiment and capacity as therapist.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychotherapeutic technique that uses bilateral stimulation, such as eye movements, to process and alleviate the distress associated with traumatic memories. This approach helps reduce the emotional intensity of past experiences, enabling the brain to reprocess trauma. EMDR is supported by the World Health Organization as an effective method for healing trauma and numerous other mental health conditions. It is recognized for its ability to accelerate the healing process from psychological stress and trauma.

Neuroscientists are now calling the right hemisphere, the “embodied brain”. I employ an integrative compassionate approach when I facilitate EMDR sessions, in which I interweave somatic experiencing exercises as well as practices from the realization process, to help my clients inhabit the body more deeply and refine their attunement within the body.

Compassionate Inquiry is a psychotherapeutic approach developed by Dr. Gabor Maté that focuses on uncovering the hidden origins of trauma and chronic conditions. This method guides clients through a process of self-discovery by gently questioning and exploring painful emotional territories, facilitating deep personal insight. The technique emphasizes a non-judgmental and accepting atmosphere, encouraging profound healing and connection with one's authentic self.

The Realization Process is an innovative system of meditation practices that facilitate embodied nondual awakening, uncovering an ever-present spacious stillness pervading your whole body and environment. Developed by psychotherapist and nondual teacher Judith Blackstone, Ph.D., these sitting, standing, lying, and gentle movement exercises help you become more present in the whole internal space of your body. 

Being more embodied allows you to come into deeper contact with yourself, others, and your environment. The Realization Process helps refine your human capacities, such as physical sensation, emotional responsiveness, understanding, and perception. Using precise techniques to open the subtle energy centres and channels, you will also cultivate your essential qualities of being, such as awareness, self-expression, love, power, and vitality.

Nature-Based Therapy is relational and systemic,

Drawing on the importance of a healthy relationship system and an inherent relationship to our ecological world.

Nature-based therapy draws on attachment research which highlights the crucial need to have secure connections with others, in order to have the confidence to grow and explore one’s potential in the world.

Our nature-based therapy sessions and embodied-nature meditation classes encourage you to attune to nature as a grounded mentor, which both serves in regulating the nervous system and deepens one's connection with the true Self.