On The Blue Couch Podcast

Permalink

Hilary Marshal, LMT and Watsu and WaterDance practitioner shares her experience of providing this “water and shiatsu,” aquatic and body-work therapy. I was fortunate enough to have met Hilary over a year ago when I had my first Watsu session with her. Having had a positive and nervous system calming experience, I wanted to share this therapy with others. Hilary goes into depth about everything from what clients may experience during a session to the healing benefits of this therapy.

Watsu can calm the nervous system, bringing about a sense of well being and help with general anxiety, traumatic stress and PTSD. Watsu is sometimes recommended as an adjunct therapy to help process trauma, in conjunction and collaboration with a psychotherapist.

To find a practitioner in your area: Watsu Aquatic Body Work and Therapy; Watsu and WaterDance Therapy

Healing Wave Aquatics: provides bodywork therapies for military veterans, active duty personnel, and caregivers living with the debilitating impacts of post-traumatic stress.

For appointments with Hilary: [email protected]

In Episode 38, Michael Brightwood describes craniosacral therapy during this conversation on the science, healing framework and practice of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy.

With extensive study and practice in psychology, healing arts and craniosacral therapy, Michael brings his decades of experience to this interesting discussion. Michael spans the conversation with discussion on topics such as central nervous systems, quantum physics, resolution, trauma healing and healing— to name a few.

Michael Brightwood holds an advanced degree in Craniosacral Biodynamics from the Karuna Institute in England. In 1998, Michael started a private practice in San Diego and began a Craniosacral Therapy practice at Rancho La Puerta, where he continues his healing work today

Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates.

We respect your privacy.

In Part 3 of this series on Addiction, Intervention and Recovery During a Pandemic, we focus on long-term recovery. With 30 years of sobriety at the time of this episode and many years of working with clients and their families as an interventionist, Arthur provides his wisdom for walking the paths of long-term recovery.

Upcoming Event

Virtual Event: April 5-8, 2021. For On The Blue Couch listeners, take $50 off conference registration using code: OTBC50.

Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates.

We respect your privacy.

We continue our conversation about addiction, intervention, recovery during a pandemic. In part 2 of this series on addiction, we focus on relapse prevention during this time.

Arthur Westinghouse CIP, CADC, with Westinghouse Intervention and Family Coaching, shares past and more recent personal and professional experiences so that we can all better understand the recovery path. He believes that the good healthy life is available to all of us. No matter what we have been thru or what we are currently going through, we can choose to grab onto the lifelines that are there.

April 5-8, 2021

Use code OTBC50 for $50 off registration fee!

Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates.

We respect your privacy.

Permalink

In a podcast series on addiction, intervention and recovery, I speak with friend and colleague, Arthur Westinghouse with Westinghouse Intervention and Family Coaching . Arthur is a Certified Intervention Professional, Family Recovery Coach, Certified Alcohol & Drug Counselor, Consultant. We talk about intervention, recovery and relapse prevention during this pandemic. How do we support ourselves, friends and loved ones during a time of social isolation and social distancing?

With an interweave of his own personal recovery story, professional experiences and how to think about intervention, recovery and relapse prevention during these times, Arthur provides sound consultation for being mindful and taking action for one’s own recovery path.

Guided Meditation Music:  In a Moment by Lee Rosevere

Routines help create foundation and help us to feel more settled because they offer intentional predictability.  They anchor us. When we have the awareness that yes, of course things are going to change within those routines, we can better be prepared and available to make adjustments and adapt in those moments.

Work email, checking social media again and again can get people stirred up. There is so much news right now. It is a good thing to be informed. No doubt about that. When we go down the news and social media rabbit hole, it can feel as though the world is coming to end. It can also feel like everyone else's lives are going great. Social media can often represent the "best of" peoples' lives. It's great to see how friends and family are doing but keep in mind that we all have struggles, monotony and no-so-great days. 

We are social animals and meant to mingle and be with other people. Our well-being is related to healthy inter-connectedness. It can mean making small talk with an acquantince or listening to someone you're closer to and sharing more of what is going on with you. Think of the last time you felt better after sharing with a person you trust. 

Deep breaths and diaphragmatic breathing engages the part of the nervous system connected to calm. More intentional breathing can go a long way. 

Guided. On your own. It can create calm in the moment and has longer lasting effects for bringing more mindfulness into our lives. Meditation promotes mindfulness. Mindfulness is the thinking about your thinking. When you're able to step back from your anxiety and notice it in a curios way, it has less power. Without internal dialogue, anxiety can just be one big mass of physical and emotional chaos. 

If anxiety seems to be getting to be too much, making an appointment to meet with a therapist or psychiatrist who specializes in anxiety. In meeting with a professional, you will be able to share and find some answers and solutions to your anxiety. 

In Episode 32, I share The Guest House by Rumi. Each and every time I encounter this poem, whether it is shared by a meditation teacher or colleague, I gain a sense of comfort and footing. I am reminded that our inner worlds are vast and wide and no matter what is arising within ourselves, we are going to be okay. Here are a few things that came up for me when I read this poem more recently and talk more about in this episode.

When we go into our inner world:

1) Make space for it all. All inner experiences. When we make room for all of our experiences, we can feel more enlivened. When we push down the harder feelings such as anger, shame, sadness, we push down the other stuff too. The other stuff can be happiness, joy. Every time we look inward with a gentle tone, it brings us closer to acceptance of our experiences and who we are.

2) Know that one emotion is not better or worse than another. They just are. Some emotions and thoughts we carry around can be more painful and uncomfortable than others, but when we start to give each one equal attention and respect, the feelings that can be more difficult to tolerate can become less intense.

3) Judgement gets us nowhere. When we label our experience or have harsh words for where we are in a particular moment, it can create a stuckness, a block to ongoing flow of emotions. Physically, we can become more tight, more anxious or more hard on ourselves.

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

~Rumi

Evan Center, MS, LCPC is a psychotherapist, business coach, mother, and co-founder of an independent high school. She is a go-getter, yet somehow manages to stay super grounded — perhaps because she has chosen to live in a mountain town where she skis, bikes, hikes, rafts, canoes, gathers huckleberries, goes to the farmers market, and carves out time to sketch floor plans, house renovation ideas, and interior design concepts keeping her mind and body happy.

You can learn more about Evan here: centerinstitute.com

Host: Kathleen R. Brennan is a Chicago-based psychotherapist and creator and host of On The Blue Couch.