Your ability to understand and feel connected to
your body is the foundation of agency.
Physical health is a crucial component of your therapy work, even if it's not the focus. Your health involves how you feel within your body and about it.
Many people find they are estranged from their own bodies. They feel far away from themselves and confused about why they tired, cannot sleep, don't have a desire for sex or connection, feel hungry all the time or none of the time. The signals become obscured and interrupted; there's a sense of being betrayed by the body.
How you eat, move, sleep, experience pleasure and pain, and feel inside your body is where all the answers live.
Symptoms can often be interpreted as resistance. Sleep issues can feel incredibly frustrating and mysterious. Chronic sleep interruption may require a closer analysis of what the nervous system is responding to, and what is being communicated by the body that isn't being consciously understood.
In the same way that hunger is a cue from your body, arousal is also an important biological function that can become muted or shut down. Many people who struggle with their relationship to food also have difficulty experiencing sexual pleasure. This occurs on a physiological level as well as a psychological level; a disordered relationship to food and eating can cause irregularities in or disruptions to blood sugar and hormonal functioning. When your stress hormones are out of balance, your sex hormones are too.
Therapy should improve your relationship to your body.
Feeling safe and good inside your body, and feeling confident that you know how to nourish yourself makes pleasure more accessible.
I work with clients to understand how and when your relationship to your body became so difficult and counterintuitive. My approach makes sense of physical symptoms from a biological as well as a psychological perspective. Depending on the severity of your case, we will design a treatment plan for you which may include a team of practitioners that can help get you on the right track. We work together to develop a congruent and peaceful relationship with your body.
If you're curious to learn more about how I work with these issues, please reach out.