Anxiety, fear, and panic are at the root of many psychological and health conditions. Paradoxically, feeling fear is not keeping you stuck. NOT feeling your fear is keeping you stuck! Our clinicians provide a safe and supportive container where your fears can be faced, experienced, processed, and outgrown. Thankfully, as we approach our fears, they diminish in size and the overall tone of the nervous system becomes less threatening. We build comfort with discomfort and widen our window of tolerance. Fear stops dominating our life and recedes in significance, while other repressed emotions can emerge, such as sadness and anger, which lead the way to gratitude, love, awe, and wonder.

Recent discoveries in chronic pain research indicate that many chronic conditions are not caused by structural damage to the body, but by the overall sensitization of the nervous system which leads to fear-based and learned neural circuitry. Conditions that are amenable to treatment through somatic psychotherapy include back and neck pain, headaches and migraines, tendonitis, fibromyalgia, CRPS, IBS, repetitive stress injury, dizziness, tinnitus, and more. The key to our approach is bottom-up somatic processing where you are guided into deeper states of relaxation and non-judgmental awareness, from which vantage sensations can be fully experienced, accepted and re-coded as safe.

Burnout may seem unavoidable in the modern world, however it can be significantly lowered when we unburden the nervous system of traumatic patterning that causes unnecessary sympathetic arousal, or anxiety, and a state of constant hypervigilance to threat. Sympathetic arousal is energetically costly and diminishes creativity, memory, emotional availability, and in most cases job performance. If we lower the stakes, slow down, and operate from a place of embodiment and flow, we become more efficient and have more access to our brain. This leads to working more collaboratively and smarter instead of harder.

There are many terms in psychology that describe identification with a fear-based protective structure that limits and protects our authenticity. This structure is known as the false self, the persona, ego defenses, character armor, protectors, and more. Somatic work is ideally suited to deepen the awareness of core authenticity or true self, which lessens reliance on the protective layer. When you are more in touch with sensations and emotions, you gain access to a foundation of self esteem, a source of energy, and a stream of information, known as intuition or wisdom. This information becomes a guide that you can trust to build the life you actually want.

Healthy relating includes effective communication of needs, greater levels of intimacy and self-expression, healthy boundaries, and interdependence, which replaces co-dependence or isolation. Therapeutic relationships are often cited as “the first place I could really be myself” or “a place where I could express the full range of my emotions without having to protect the other.” This kind of intimate relationship forms a model that can be used in the outside world. Depression, anxiety, chronic pain, insomnia, addiction, and more can be conceptualized as separation distress due to a lack of intimacy in supportive relationships. Many of these issues naturally subside when a person is able to get more out of relationships.

Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapies are being evaluated for depression, PTSD, chronic pain, couples therapy, and more. Select psychedelics are being fast-tracked for FDA approval and are already legal in some localities. Somatic and traditional psychotherapies pair extremely well with psychedelic treatments to facilitate the process of healing and integration. Beyond does not work directly with psychedelic medicines but can help you prepare for and integrate psychedelic treatments that are performed elsewhere. Many of our clients have undergone outside psychedelic treatments while working with us and it has generally been beneficial to the healing process. It is important that you do your own research and seek appropriate medical advice.

Sexuality is a core aspect of our identity that is often repressed and traumatized. Many people have an aspect of their sexuality that they find difficult to accept or believe others will not accept and therefore keep as a shameful secret. Therapy is an ideal venue to surface and integrate these natural inclinations in a non-judgmental and sex-positive setting. The acceptance and liberation of sexuality can lead to the resolution of other symptoms such as pain, anxiety, depression, and insomnia. Erectile dysfunction is a common area of focus where a somatic approach can be effective in lowering anxiety which has been blocking arousal. Sexual pain, dysfunction, trauma, and addiction are other common areas of focus.

Beyond practitioners all operate from an affirmative and non-judgmental stance toward all forms of sexual, gender, and relationship expression. Many of our clients identify as LGBTQ, or as gender or relationship non-conforming and this forms a major component of the work in therapy. Common areas of focus include identity-based trauma, internalized oppression such as homophobia, ethical non-monogamy, and issues arising from holding a non-traditional identity. Symptoms such as anxiety, depression, pain, and insomnia often reflect identity-based trauma and resolve with a greater degree of acceptance and support. There is a generational shift in accepting new forms of gender and relationship structures and Beyond is here for it.

Beyond works extensively with teenagers and children. Common areas of focus include anxiety, depression, failure-to-launch, identity crisis, ADHD, autism spectrum, and mindbody issues. Beyond offers individual and family sessions and a range of modalities that include play, art, and movement. We can advise on the most appropriate treatment format based on your situation.