An Integrative Model for
chronic and complex truama,
death and non-death grief,
and spiritual evolution
virtual individual therapy in OntariO
Grief
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Trauma
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Spiritual Integration
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Grief | Trauma | Spiritual Integration |
Complex and Chronic Trauma
Experiencing of repetitive instances of trauma.
Trauma breaches one's sense of safety resulting in a disconnection with oneself and the world around them.
Some traumatic experiences can occur in repetition for an extended period of time and these can be categorized as complex trauma or chronic trauma.
Therapy for chronic or complex trauma can involve long-term therapeutic work with focus on developing stability and moving towards integrating experiences holistically for healing
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Complex trauma invloves:
Mutiple traumatic events
Different types of traumatic events
Interpersonal in nature (within close relationships)
Occurs during developmental years (childhood to adolescence)
Complex trauma can look like:
Challenges with emotional stability and regulation
Dissociation (feeling disconnected, numb)
Negative view of self (low self-esteem, shame, guilt)
Heightened sense of threat (hypervigilence)
Self-impacting behaviours (self-harm, substance use)
Sleep disturbances, nightmares (possibly recurring)
Physical difficulties (such as pains, nausea)
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Chronic trauma involves:
Prolonged occurance of repeated (or sustaining) traumatic events (high stress)
Same event occuring repetitedly (such as, challenges with illness/disability, abusive relationships)
Can occur during developmental years or during adult years
Chronic trauma looks like:
Intrusive thoughts
Sleep disturbance and distressing dreams/nightmares
Avoidance of people, places, things, and activities that are triggering
Cognitive impacts (memory issues, negative emotions, feeling apathetic)
Negative view of self (low self-esteem, shame, guilt)
Self-impacting behaviours (self-harm, substance use)
Physical difficulties like pain
Emotional Distress, Grief, and Trauma due to Work or Professional Challenges
Support for creatives, healers, professionals, and leaders.
We spend a significant amount of time in our lives working. When we are feeling empowered, creative, and supported by the work we do, life can feel wonderful. However, when we are feeling depleted, burnt out, unhappy, numb, and demotivated through our work then it can take quite a toll.
Work or professional life can be a source of grief and trauma caused by finances, professional relationships, abuse, loss of opportunities, work/life balance, and many more situations. We support clients through these impacts in a holistic and person-centered manner helping them reconnect with themselves and reclaim their power creating a personal and professional life that supports them.
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Facing stressful events due to work or profession
Work-related distress can involve feelings of:
Lack of work-life balance
Impact of physical, mental, and emotional health
Experiences of burnout (lack of motivation, negative feelings about work that one may have enjoyed in the past)
Experiences of isolation and feelings of withdrawal
Decline in work performance
Reliance on coping mechanisms for a prolonged period of time
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Facing traumatic events due work or profession
Workplace or professional trauma can bring up a variety of emotional and cognitive impacts. Some of these impacts may look like:
Anxiety due to worry or fear
Depression due to loss of enjoyment and fulfillment
There may an emergence of symptoms like distressing dreams, fatigue, withdrawal, body pains, and flashbacks
May notice a change in mood when there is work/professional contact
Impacts on ability to focus, perform, or comprehend work related tasks
Nervous system activation (fight/flight/freeze) becomes more sensitive
Distress in workplace relationships (especially if the source of the trauma lies in these relationships)
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Grief at work can occur in various ways which include death in the individual's personal life (having to return to work during personal grief), death of a colleague, or loss work/something at work that brought meaning for an individual. Some of the impacts of grief at work can look like:
Grieving a personal loss at the workplace where there are not spaces one can express their grief as it shows up
Grieving the death of a colleague, but not having the space of work culture to hold space for grief as the individual needs
Having grief responses (like difficulty with focus/memory, sudden grief bursts, social withdrawal, fatigue and many others) at work and not knowing how to manage them
Changes in mood impacting work performance
Becoming hyper-focused in work to avoid the grief intensity or other colleagues so as to not be activated into a grief response
Having difficulty making decisions related to work
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Seeking personal and professional growth
There may be times when one has come across a non-death loss in their professional life which can be quite challenging to process. It can create confusion and an unclear vision of where one sees their professional life going. In a counselling/therapy session a client can process the loss of what they had hoped for from their profession and develop ways to find a new sense of meaning and purpose as their professional goals change and evolve with time.
Grief and Loss
Supporting the experiences of death and non-death losses.
Grief is a human experience in many respects and it can occur through death losses, as well as, non-death losses (such as divorce, health loss). Grief can be an intense, overwhelming, and overtaking experience for grievers where they feel they have lost themselves because of losing someone or something that brings meaning, purpose, freedom, and joy in their lives.
We provide person-centered, holistic, and integrative grief therapy to support the unique experiences of each client. Grief is as unique as a finger-print and we are here to support you knowing that your grief is a unique and an individual experience.
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Grief emerges from loss of something meaningful
Grief is an emotion, an experience, a struggle, a triumph, and so much more for each an every griever in the world. The two overarching ways grief occurs is either through a death loss or a non-death loss.
Death loss can include:
Anticipatory grief - anticipation of loss
Complicated grief - intense and continouse grief emotions
Common grief - natural grief response
Traumatic grief - loss caused by sudden and/or violent death
Disenfranchised grief - lacks societal support
Delayed grief - grief response emerges later than the occurance of the loss
Non-Death loss can include:
Non-finite grief - ongoing grief, such as, from chronic illness
Anticipatory grief - anticipation of loss
Ambiguous grief - loss without a sense of closure, such as with missing persons
Other types of grief:
Compounded grief - multiple losses within a short period of time
Collected grief - grief experienced by a community
Parasocial grief - grief felt for a celebrity's death or loss
Transgenerational grief - grief passed down through generations
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Experiencing loss through death
Death loss can cause extreme emotional distress, numbness, shock, physical difficulties, a shaken up sense of safety, loss of self, and many other impacts. Grief work happens as one processes the loss they have experienced. The grief work process can be supported through resources, professional support, community support, and self-care.
In therapy, grief is supported through non-judgemental understanding that includes observing the nuanaced and unique experience it is for each client.
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Loss that occurs from causes other than death
Non-death losses include loss of realtionships, health loss, job/career loss, loss of purpose, loss of home, loss of community, loss of faith, or any other loss that is impactful in a persons life but it is not a loss by death.
Non-death losses can be layered, nuanced, traumatic, and specific to one's overall life. In therapy, non-death losses are processed through a person-centered approach using the holitic and integrative model to meet the unique needs of the client.
Spiritual Emergency and Awakening
Integrating spiritual shifts into spiritual growth and evolution
Spirituality may be a significant part of your life or something you want to explore more deeply within yourself.
A spiritual emergency involves a profound and spontaneous spiritual experience. It involves a significant and sudden shift in beliefs and a sense of reality that can be overwhelming to process causing distress when going through it alone.
A spiritual awakening happens when a spiritual tranformation occurs that feels whole, interconnected, peaceful, and joyful.
Which ever of the two you may be experiencing, we can support you through the use of transpersonal and integrative therapy.
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Profound spiritual shifts that can feel distressing
Spiritual emergency or emergence (coined by Stanislav Grof and Christina Grof) occurs through shocking experiences that can break pre-existing beliefs for a person. It can be activated by traumatic events (such as profound loss) leading into a spiritual crisis such. The impacts of these shifts can be distressing leaving a person feeling disconnected to themselves, but through integration work, it can lead to deep personal growth. In counselling/therapy, we use an eclectic model involving depth and transpersonal psychology (possibly more modalities) in person-centered ways for gentle integration of the experiences into the client's whole being.
Spiritual emergency can look like:
Vivid visuals and dreams
Loss of identity
Emotional intensity
Questions about spiritual beliefs
Non-ordinary states
Physical difficulties
It is not a disorder, but a transformation taking place
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Facing traumatic events due work or profession
Spiritual growth that is intriguing
Spiritual awakenings can look unique for each individual, however, there are some common elements that can present themselves:
A significant shift in consciousness
Increases sense of self-transcendence
A deeper awareness of self, others, reality, and connection to nature
Questions around life's meaning and purpose emerge
A sense of interconnection among all living and non-living things
An increased sense of compassion
Finding meaning in existence that is beyond the material world
A sense of inner transformation
Let's Begin Your Journey Together
Reach Out, Let's Connect
Scheduling your first appointment is simple; just use the online booking page. For more information or specific queries, please visit the contact page. Alternatively, you can fill out the contact form available below for a direct line to us.