by Jen Owen, N.P. | May 6, 2025 | Mind-Body Medicine
Written by Jody Cecil, our Licensed Professional Counselo
As we turn the corner into May, we find ourselves in graduation season. Children and adults of all ages are making plans to commemorate the end of a journey, whether it’s the completion of kindergarten or college. After months or years of hard work and dedication, the students have finally reached the culmination of their academic journey. It’s time to celebrate . . . and grieve.
During graduation season, campuses are abuzz with excitement and anticipation. Students don their caps and gowns, ready to walk across the stage and receive their diplomas. Families and friends gather to celebrate the achievements of their loved ones, often traveling hundreds of miles to be part of this special moment. This year, I’m personally celebrating the achievements of both of our adult children as they complete their undergraduate and graduate programs.
Graduation season is also a time of transformation and transition. It brings a sense of accomplishment and joy, but also sadness as students prepare to leave behind the familiar environment of their schools and embark on new adventures. It’s a time for reflecting on the past, cherishing memories, and looking forward to the future with hope and determination.
While reflecting on my own experiences of graduation, I began to hum the words of an old but familiar song, written by Pete Seeger and performed by multiple artists including The Byrds in 1965, “Turn! Turn! Turn!”:
To everything, turn, turn, turn
There is a season, turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven
A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones
A time to gather stones together
The song expresses the reality of a changing, or turning, world in which there is a time and place for everything. Ends mark beginnings. We rejoice and we cry. Graduation is about turning, a change in direction, and with that turning comes a mix of emotions. I’ve been privileged to take part in multiple graduation ceremonies, the last being my own master’s degree in counseling over a decade ago. I can remember the anticipation and excitement as I waited my turn to walk across the stage, receive my diploma, shake hands with a dignitary I barely knew and wave to my family and friends. The grief that followed surprised me. I slowly realized that while I had completed a major milestone, I was also losing a close-knit friendships and the familiarity of an environment and routine. While the days of writing papers and taking exams were over, I was about to start over without the community I had enjoyed for so long.
With all of life, we learn that to be human, to be fully alive, means we hold excitement for the future along with the grief for what we are leaving behind. To turn towards the new means saying goodbye. As we celebrate with friends and family this season, may we all hold space for the celebration as well as the sadness. After all, there is a season for everything. Turn. Turn. Turn.
As a licensed professional counselor, Jody sees clients both virtually and in person at the Flourish Center. She uses a variety of modalities to help her clients in reaching their goals including Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment (TIST), Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). Whatever modality is used, Jody values the uniqueness and strengths of each person and invites them to embrace healing wholistically. If you are interested in counseling, you can contact Jody here, Taking Root Counseling.
by Jen Owen, N.P. | Apr 16, 2025 | Mind-Body Medicine, Uncategorized
Written by our Licensed Professional Counselor, Jody Cecil
If you’re new to the process of counseling, you might imagine it looking something like this: the client does most of the talking while the therapist listens. During the session, the therapist might provide insights into your experiences, share advice on how to navigate issues and help you feel and express emotion. Even as you read this, you might recall a scene from a movie or book you’ve recently read.
Counseling or psychotherapy does involve our thoughts, beliefs, behaviors and emotions. But what about the body?
Will you join me in a little experiment? For just a moment, pause. Put everything down and turn your attention to your body. Slow down and notice your breath. Follow it as you breathe in and out. You don’t have to change it or fix it. Simply be curious, much like watching the flow of a river or clouds in the sky. What did you notice? Perhaps you’ve found yourself caught in thoughts, unable to follow your breath. Maybe your chest tightened, and your breathing became more shallow. Perhaps, as you were breathing in and out, you noticed your shoulders drop and there was an openness in your chest.
When I first began my work as a counselor, my focus was primarily on the narrative – what the client was saying and feeling. What I eventually learned was that I was missing a large part of the client’s “story” and an important pathway for change, healing and growth. The body was telling us something; we needed to slow down and pay attention to it.
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (SP), developed by Pat Ogden, is a therapeutic modality that incorporates the body in the treatment of trauma and attachment/relational issues. You may have heard the phrase, “the body keeps the score,” taken from the title of Bessel Van Der Kolk’s well-known book. Our bodies remember and adapt to keep us safe. Returning to our breathing experiment, even how we breathe is a part of our story. If you learned to “hold it all in” and not feel emotion, you might also hold your breath when feeling distress. Using SP, clients can discover how their body currently functions and work with it to change patterns that currently interfere with health and well-being.
As a licensed professional counselor, I have completed extensive training in SP and other modalities that incorporate the whole person – mind, body and spirit. If you’re interested in a wholistic form of therapy, please contact me to schedule a session: Taking Root Counseling. For more information on Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, visit Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute.
by Jen Owen, N.P. | Mar 28, 2025 | Mind-Body Medicine
Written by Jody Cecil, Licensed Professional Counselor
The practice of mindfulness, a state of being present to the moment without judgment or evaluation, can be a powerful tool in managing stress, anxiety, pain, and improving our overall physical and mental health. Years ago, while preparing for a group session on mindfulness, I discovered a short film on YouTube, Just Breathe. It turns out, not only can children practice mindfulness, but they may also be our best teachers.
Rather than share a few paragraphs of information about this ancient skill, I invite you to pause and watch the 3:41 minute documentary by Julie Bayer Salzman & Josh Salzman. Listen and watch as elementary school children share how they navigate the big feeling of anger, Just Breathe.
As I watch, I personally connect with their stories and experiences of anger. We’ve all been there when “mad takes over our bodies”. Sometimes we feel it rising within us, don’t we? The squeezing of hands, blood rushing to our faces, shallow breaths. Other times, anger or other overwhelming emotions hit us like a flash of lightning. Whether we’re able to notice the signs before or after, mindfulness offers us a pathway to calm.
When working with my clients at Taking Root Counseling, I often invite us to experience a new skill rather than talking about it. Today, will you join me and a sweet group of children and just breathe?
As a licensed professional counselor, Jody sees clients both virtually and in person at the Flourish Center. She uses a variety of modalities to help her clients in reaching their goals including Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment (TIST), Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). Whatever modality is used, Jody values the uniqueness and strengths of each person and invites them to embrace healing wholistically.
by Jen Owen, N.P. | Mar 7, 2025 | Mind-Body Medicine
Written by our Licensed Professional Counselor, Jody Cecil
When sharing their goals with me in session, clients often express their longing for peace. Perhaps they seek respite from symptoms of anxiety or depression. Or they long to feel safe and secure in a world that feels unstable. Many of us believe we’ll experience peace when all stressors are removed, when all problems are solved. However, the reality is that peace comes from within and can be cultivated even in the presence of challenges.
Feeling peaceful means experiencing a state of calm and tranquility, where the mind and body are at ease. It involves a sense of inner harmony and balance, free from stress, anxiety, and disturbances. When we feel peaceful, we can think clearly, make decisions with a calm mind, and manage our emotions effectively. How is it possible to experience peace when we have no control of events or environment around us?
The Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute has developed a resource called the Peace Protocol, a five step guide to modulating emotional and physiological arousal and building resilience. I encourage you to check out their one-page document, but here are the steps:
P – Pause what you are doing to briefly identify bodily signals of unrest
E – Embody a somatic resource that feels supportive in your body in this moment
A – Acknowledge the positive effects of the resource
C – Concentrate your attention on the positive effects of the resource for 15 seconds or more
E – Engage with your environment
What makes this protocol somewhat different from practices such as mindfulness or meditation is the focus on savoring the positive effects of the resource or “A”, acknowledging the positive shift in your body. What does this mean? Imagine yourself in a stressful situation. Your body communicates its distress through tension, shortness of breath and a racing heart. You decide to stand up, feel your feet on the ground and lengthen your spine. You then notice yourself breathing more deeply. Your shoulders have dropped, and you feel your heart slowing down. Linger and truly sense into the positive changes. As you do, you’re deepening the experience of peace.
As you practice the Peace Protocol, remember to be gentle with yourself. New practices take time to develop. If you feel you need additional support in finding peace and resourcing, please contact Jody. As a licensed professional counselor trained in the modalities of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Jody specializes in collaborating with her clients to find peace – emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually. You can find information about Jody at Taking Root Counseling.
by Jen Owen, N.P. | Jan 23, 2025 | Mind-Body Medicine
As society and culture become more open to the importance of mental health, you may have also noticed the growing interest in trauma. We hear the word so often, don’t we? In our conversations with friends, in the movies we watch, and in the offices of our care providers. What happened to us in the past impacts us in the present. What might it look like if you were interested in working with a licensed professional counselor to address past trauma?
Trauma treatment is a specialized form of therapy designed to help individuals process and heal from traumatic experiences. It focuses on addressing the psychological and physiological impacts of trauma, providing strategies to manage and reduce symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Safe trauma therapy includes five phases: 1) safety and stabilization; 2) deconditioning of traumatic memories and responses; 3) reorganizing and integrating memory; 4) re-establishing secure social connections; and 5) integrating into present life with a new sense of self (Onno Van der hart and Judith Herman).
There are many different methods used to facilitate healing from traumatic events; there is no “one size fits all” approach. However, the phases are key, especially when working with childhood and developmental trauma. Before processing painful memories, a person must develop effective resources that help to regulate the autonomic nervous system and emotions. Past events often leave our bodies in a perpetual state of fight, flight, freeze, and collapse. If dissociation is involved, the treatment involves the development of strategies to cope with the loss of connection to present moment experiences. Our brain and body work well to help us in coping at the time of a traumatic event. Later, these strategies may no longer serve us.
In my practice as a licensed professional counselor, I work closely with the client to develop a treatment plan that involves each of the five phases mentioned earlier. We collaborate and move only as fast as the “slowest part of you”. Three types of therapy can be helpful: 1) Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (https://sensorimotorpsychotherapy.org); 2) Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR, https://www.emdr.com); and 3) Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment (TIST, https://janinafisher.com). As a counselor, I use each of these to support clients in their journey of the creation of internal resources to process trauma, shift out of the prolonged fight-flight-or-freeze reaction of the autonomic nervous system, recognize and self-regulate emotions, and respond calmly and thoughtfully to their world.
If you are interested in learning more about the treatment of trauma, please reach out. You can find me at www.takingrootcounseling.com.
by Jen Owen, N.P. | Jan 3, 2025 | Mind-Body Medicine
Written by Jody Cecil, Licensed Professional Counselor
As the holiday season ends and we begin a new year, some of us may be feeling a little down or out of sorts. Known as the holiday blues or post-vacation depression, several factors contribute to this phenomenon. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), 64% of people report being affected by holiday depression, and it’s most often triggered by the financial, emotional, and physical stress of the season. But for others, the “blues” occur when we come down from the high of the celebrations and face the inevitable return to our normal routine. While the distress we experience is short-lived, there are simple steps we can take to restore a sense of balance and joy.
How are you feeling right now? Perhaps that’s a place to start even as you read this article. What are you noticing about yourself – physically, emotionally, relationally, and spiritually? Allow yourself some time and space to be curious about yourself without judgment. Most of us can push past distress and “keep on keeping on”. Take a moment and check in with yourself. If you are feeling sadness or exhaustion, know you are not alone. What you are experiencing is normal.
While there are no quick fixes to our emotional and physical states, every small step we take matters. Most of you will read this list and think to yourself, “I know this”. You’re all wise and know your body well. But here’s the thing about the post-holiday blues; your body and brain may decide to “protect” you by shifting into a state of hypo arousal or disconnection. That fatigue and sadness you’re feeling may be part of a survival instinct – one that might not be very helpful for you in the long run. As you look at this list, remember that self-care does not have to be expensive or extravagant. Just like the light from the small candle in the image above, one small activity can help you to shift out of the blues.
- Take care of yourself physically. Of course it’s fun to stay up late and enjoy all the fun food and drink! Now it’s time to resume a schedule that allows for sleep, healthier food choices, hydration, and exercise. Be patient with yourself. Doing less does not make you less.
- Create time for connection with others.
- What sounds fun? Find a way to engage in play and creativity.
- Take a break from technology.
- Spend time in nature. Even five minutes outside can make a difference.
- Meditation and mindfulness practices.
- Clean and organize a small space in your home or office. Again, it’s okay to start small!
- Listen to music . . . or even dance!
If your symptoms persist, consider reaching out to a professional for additional support and treatment. As a licensed professional counselor, Jody might be a good place to start. Contact her at takingrootcounseling.com.
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