Designed to Heal

I truly believe our mind-bodies are wonderfully made to heal. But it doesn’t always seem that way. Especially when life has served us trauma upon trauma, we can feel irreparably broken. Sometimes the simplest things feel impossibly difficult. We have painful struggles that perhaps no one else sees. We try so hard to keep up, only to end up sabotaging our progress or completely burnt out. Perhaps we feel like we’re barely holding it together or hopelessly behind in life.

If any of that sounds familiar, know it all makes sense.

Our systems don’t just need food, clothing, and shelter to properly sustain us. Love, safety, and belonging are the basic needs those of us with complex trauma often miss out on. When those needs aren’t filled, we can end up carrying a visceral sense of fear and desperation. Even if we aren’t fully aware of those undercurrents within us, (because it’s all we’ve ever known), our mental, physical, spiritual, and relational well-being are profoundly affected. We might feel anxious, depressed, emotionally flooded, or addicted.

As much as we might try, we can’t truly relax, connect, or heal when we’re stuck in these survival-based states.

The good news is, we can provide ourselves with an internal sense of safety and unconditional love now. We can find belonging, connection, and support with safe others. We can rewire our systems for healing. We can interrupt old patterns and teach ourselves new ways of thinking and being. None of this is easy or quick, of course. But it is worth it.

This is the work I am here to support you in.

Qualifications

My professional training as a space holder started in 2017 with a year-long coaching training with a focus on habit change (becoming a BHC Certified Health & Life Coach). I also am a certified Aroma Freedom Technique (AFT) Practioner. AFT was developed by a psychologist and uses aromatherapy to facilitate memory reconsolidation.

In 2020 I began my journey into somatic work with nervous system expert Irene Lyon’s Smart Body Smart Mind program. Going through this program twice and independently studying Polyvagal Theory and the work of Peter Levine (founder of Somatic Experiencing) changed my body, mind, and life. I knew this was the work I wanted to bring to others with CPTSD.

Currently, I am enrolled in a Somatic Psychology program training as a Somatic Movement Educator/Therapist. My studies include being mentored by a somatic psychologist with 40 years of experience in psychotherapy and mind-body healing work. I’m receiving specialized training in birth trauma, infant memory, early attachment wounds, and CPSTD.

This being said, (because we like to know people know what they are doing!), I have been training for this work my entire life. I bring you the compassion I hold as someone whose life started with near death and who by age three knew the feelings of devastating loss, shame, and fear. I have an embodied sense of how developmental trauma wires our systems and have experienced the ongoing process of recovering from what was and rebuilding the foundation that wasn’t.

I also bring you the understanding of someone who has lived with narcissistic abuse and felt trapped in cycles of codependency. I know what it’s like to not feel safe around others, to be blocked in self-expression, and frustratingly imprisoned in ways of being that downright hurt.

I don’t know everything. And while I learn more every day, I know I never will! The good news is you don’t need me, or anyone else to have all the answers! You are the expert on your own body and life. I am simply a mentor, a guide, and a source of education. I am here to help you tap into what your body has been wanting to tell you all along.

Deep inside you hold your own medicine. Your power has never left you. You already know the way.

I would be so honored to walk beside you on your healing journey. If I can be of assistance, please reach out! My email is jen@jenniferlaurenparker.com