Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) 

EFT therapists provide accurate and compassionate reflection and guidance, facilitating loving but firm experiences that bring into awareness, then transform previously unconscious, negative views of self and others. For clients, these experiences are surprisingly different from the misunderstanding and neglect they are used to in society and close personal relationships.

In my learning and teaching experience, EFT is among the most challenging therapy models to master. While expert EFT therapists are awe-inspiring in the power and beauty of their work, few therapists reach this level, even after extensive training. 

Internal Family Systems (IFS)

Internal Family Systems, now exploding in popularity, was revolutionary in bridging psychotherapy and spirituality. Core to IFS is the assumption that each person has an entire world of functioning beings inside them, called parts. Like a large family, parts exist in relationship to each other. Some parts are more favored than others, and some are outcasts. To varying degrees, each part is supportive of, ignorant of, or opposed to all the other parts.

At some point, even in a past generation, each part developed its role because it was necessary for survival. No matter how destructive they seem, all parts have positive intentions and fears based on lived experience.

In IFS therapy, people are guided to get to know their parts from a place of curiosity and compassion. When parts finally feel safely seen and supported, they can relax, unburden past traumatic material, update their roles, and allow the person to be more of their true, spiritual Self.

Autonomic Nervous System and PSIP

Aptly called the “floor of the mind” by the 19th-century neurologist Hughlings Jackson, it works primarily outside of conscious awareness, regulating the body at a physiological level to maximize chances of survival. The ANS produces a rapid, constant cascade of neural, chemical, and hormonal reactions in response to moment-to-moment fluctuations in levels of perceived safety and threat.

At the highest levels of safety, the ventral vagus branch of one “side” of the ANS, the parasympathetic nervous system, regulates restoration, recovery, and feelings of connection with others, nature, and spirit. On the other side of the ANS, the sympathetic nervous system mediates responding to threat with alertness and preparedness, and full-blown flight or flight in response to present danger. Finally, in the face of overwhelming threat, the dorsal branch of the parasympathetic nervous system sends the body into collapse and immobilization.

In ideal conditions of health and trust in one’s own body, people are naturally empowered by their ANS to reach for and receive support and restoration and respond successfully to any level of threat as it arises. However, people who have repeatedly experienced threats without solutions, particularly during childhood, can have a more exhausting living experience. Stuck in chronic stress, panic, and overwhelm, their ANS may no longer be flexible and regularly return them to safety and connection.

PSIP works to restore the body’s sense of goodness and empowerment by providing enough resources, safety, and support for the ANS to “thaw” regions of the body stuck in disconnection, first into body sensations of collapse and immobilization. From there, the body can further unfreeze, coming into previously thwarted or unsuccessful fight or flight responses, alertness and re-orientation, and finally into new states of being awake, restored, and belonging. 

While for some people, this modality can be invaluable, in general, I don’t promote psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Typically, I believe the use of these medicines is unnecessary for deep healing and transformation to occur and often counter-indicated. I recommend PSI’s white paper if you’d like to learn more.