It’s August…
A TIME TO EXPERIENCE WELLNESS AND BE INSPIRED by The Rooted Heart Psychotherapy
This month has been another amazing time of growth in my practice.
This has been a busy summer! I have settled into The Rooted Heart’s new home, located at 101 Worthington Street East - Suite 401-A, North Bay, Ontario P1B9G5. You can book your next session here!
Over the last half year I have travelled Western Canada twice to complete my basic and now Master Accelerated Resolution Therapist (A.R.T) designation so that I can provide the amazing trauma based brief therapy here in Ontario and specifically to those of you in North Bay. I took a break from my studies at Lake Moraine. That water was absolutely breathtaking!
I am finishing my Level two Gottman Method training, which allows me to use evidenced based interventions to help couples who are struggling and want to resolve conflict and thrive in their relationships. You can check out more about The Gottman Method on the website here.
I interviewed Colleen Clark last month… here is a link to her book if you are interested in reading more about ART and Colleen. Here is me and Colleen at the Master training!
I did an interview with Matt Sookram for Bay Today on ART and the amazing potential it has for treating Trauma in particular. You can read the entire article here.
I am now the first practitioner in Northern Ontario to be certified as a Master in Accelerated Resolution Therapy. The results with clients have been so positive and they affirm my continued learning and application of this trauma therapy that helps clients move mountains (in my experience).
ART’s effectiveness in treating post-traumatic stress (PTS) is remarkable. In one of the first published studies, 80 participants with PTSD underwent ART and showed an 80% positive response rate after just four sessions. Combining components of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with deliberate eye movements and imagery, ART offers a swift alternative to traditional therapy methods.
Click here to read more about ART’s benefits
Click here to read the evidenced based research for ART’s benefit for first responders, military, post traumatic stress and more…
And coming this fall, new Group Therapy Sessions on Connection…
Tools and Tips For Your Well-Being
Polyvagal Theory gives clinicians a guide to help clients safely tune into their autonomic states, reshape their nervous systems, and rewrite the trauma stories that are carried in their autonomic pathways.
This exercise uses specific, strategic positioning of the eyes and head to send body messages of safety to the brain. Once the brain receives and believes that you are truly safe, it will relax in the form of a yawn, sigh or swallow - leaving you feeling more calm, centered and grounded.
Love this meditation by Deb Dana as well that helps you understand your nervous system and how we can identify what each state feels like.
Here is an article talking about childhood trauma that lists ART as one of the effective ways to help resolve negative emotions, symptoms and images of childhood trauma.
Childhood Adversity: Strategies to Recover and Lift Spirits - Small and simple steps make a difference in recovering from childhood adversity by Glenn R. Schiraldi Ph.D.
It’s now understood that adverse childhood experiences can affect mental and physical health well into adulthood. Dr Schiraldi introducec eight important strategies to maintain sound mental health and a healthy, well-functioning brain.
1. Resolve disturbing memories from childhood as soon as possible. Unpleasant, stuck memories that continually replay, often beneath conscious awareness, are mood and health destroyers. I am most impressed by three treatments that are usually effective, rapid, and well tolerated: accelerated resolution therapy, instinctual trauma response, and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. These can often bring relief in days or weeks, rather than months or years.
For more tips daily… be sure to follow my new Facebook Page here! Even if you are part of the private group, you will find different posts, notifications etc. on this page.
This Month’s Funny
Some Modalities I use during the course of Therapy
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Accelerated Resolution Therapy
A therapeutic technique designed to help people overcome the stress associated with troubling memories. Combining eye movements and imagery, ART offers a swift alternative to traditional therapy methods, with an impressive track record for treating conditions like PTSD, anxiety, and depression.
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The Gottman Method - Couple's Therapy
The Gottman Method is an approach to couples therapy that includes a thorough assessment of the couple’s relationship, and integrates research-based interventions to disarm conflicting verbal communication; increase intimacy, respect, and affection; remove barriers that create a feeling of stagnancy; and create a heightened sense of empathy and understanding within the context of the relationship.
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CI: Compassionate Inquiry
Compassionate Inquiry is an approach, which reveals what lies beneath the appearance we present to the world. This approach helps to recognize the unconscious dynamics that run our lives and learn how to liberate ourselves from them.
This Month’s Book Recommendations
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Our Polyvagal World: How Safety and Trauma Change Us
by Steven Porges and Seth Porges
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Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory
by Deb Dana LCSW
Stephen Porges first proposed the Polyvagal Theory in 1994, its basic premise―that the level of safety we feel impacts our health and happiness―has radically shifted how researchers and clinicians approach trauma interventions and therapeutic interactions. Much of the writing on this topic has been obscured behind clinical texts and scientific jargon, but Our Polyvagal World presents Polyvagal Theory in an understandable way to the layman and demonstrates how its practical principles are applicable to anyone looking to live their safest, healthiest, and happiest life. What emerges is a worldview filled with optimism and hope, and an understanding of the relationship between our bodies and our brains.
Filled with actionable advice and real-world examples, this book will change the way you think about your brain, body, and ability to stay calm in a world that feels increasingly overwhelming and stressful.
My favorite quote: “There’s a brutal irony to the fact that many of the features of our built world that are billed as keeping us safe also make us feel unsafe. If one wanted to take a cynical point of view, one might posit that, at times, this is an intended outcome. And that certain individuals or institutions may want us to feel unsafe for their own selfish ends”
Deb Dana, LCSW, is a clinician and consultant specializing in using the lens of Polyvagal Theory to understand and resolve the impact of trauma and create ways of working that honor the role of the autonomic nervous system. She developed the Rhythm of Regulation Clinical Training Series and lectures internationally on ways Polyvagal Theory informs work with trauma survivors. She is a founding member of the Polyvagal Institute, clinical advisor to Khiron Clinics, and advisor to Unyte.
In Anchored, Deb shares a down-to-earth presentation of Polyvagal Theory, then brings the science to life with practical, everyday ways to transform your relationship with your body using field-tested techniques to become more aware of your nervous system moment to moment―and change the way you respond to the great and small challenges of life by:
Befriending Your Nervous System―attuning to what’s going on in your body by developing your “neuroception”, along with lots of practices and guidance to gently shape your nervous system for greater resilience, intuition, safety, and wonder.
My favorite quote: “Take a moment and find something that reminds you of the feeling of being anchored in regulation and then put it somewhere you’ll see it as you move through your day.”
My New Podcast: Ask Angela launches soon!
In the meantime, you can check me out as a guest on To North Bay with Love with Lisa Boivin where I talk a bit about Accelerated Resolution Therapy and Compassionate Inquiry!
What Other Experts Are Saying…
To contact the deeper truth of who we are, we must engage in some activity or practice that questions what we assume to be true about ourselves.
- A. H. Almaas
"Worrying is carrying tomorrow's load with today's strength—carrying two days at once. Worrying doesn't empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength."
- Corrie Ten Boom
‘What’s the greater risk? Letting go of what people think – or letting go of how I feel, what I believe, and who I am?’
- Brene Brown