Set aside time just for you.
Re-story Retreats
Accelerated progress on your truest story
What if there were an easier way to heal?
Maybe you’ve been to therapy before, and while it was helpful at the time, nothing really changed. Or, maybe you’ve considered therapy but are nervous that the therapist wouldn’t understand your faith or the dynamics that ministry inevitably contributes to your struggle. Perhaps you know that you’ve been needing help for years and now it just feels like too much to unravel and address. Or maybe you’ve concluded that your only real option is to pray more and just continue putting one foot in front of the other.
You may be feeling…
Stressed and overwhelmed, finding yourself over-responding to situations that shouldn’t be that big a deal.
Uncertain of who you are or what you believe.
Like you can’t move past a traumatic experience that happened years ago but still continues to show up as fear, indecision, hopelessness, anxiety in relationships, lack of confidence, and more.
Deeply lonely and disconnected.
Disappointed and sad about unrealized hopes and dreams.
How I work
At the core of my approach for re-storying trauma is harnessing the brain’s natural process of memory reconsolidation.
God has designed our brains with an amazing ability to update learnings as we go through life. When we are small, for example, we might learn that we should never step into a road without an adult. As we grow, we will add to that learning with new information. We will learn about cars and the danger they present to us. We may learn that if no cars are around, we are safe to cross. Eventually we will learn the rules of the road and be able to judge for ourselves, when it is safe to cross. We continue adding to the original learning, making new choices accordingly.
Sometimes, however, if we are unable to safely process new information (as in a traumatic event), learnings can get mis-filed in our brain’s categorization process. Sensations or experiences or even emotions, can get labeled as “dangerous” and “to be avoided” and remain stuck, as our brain strives to keep us safe (and alive), resulting in symptoms like anxiety, overwhelm, panic attacks, relationship issues, chronic health issues, mental fog, and so many more. Recovery remains impossible without a felt experience of safety, within which a person can move through their distress and create a new story.
I have been privileged to learn a number of amazing ways of enabling a person’s emotional brain to feel safe so they can finally heal, create a new story and move forward again. When a person heals from trauma, amazing possibilities open up— for themselves, for their families, and for the world.
Trauma Restorying can create space for real and lasting changes to take place.
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A combination of powerful trauma healing modalities customized for your unique needs, to facilitate transformative change through the brain’s amazing process of memory reconsolidation. We will meet together for a consolidated amount of time and I’ll show you how to talk to your emotional brain, to update the story that has been keeping you stuck so you can experience true progress in your healing journey, and lasting change.
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Women who are functioning in their current lives but would love to finally heal stuck trauma, thus setting the foundation for lives of greater hope and joy.
A Re-story Retreat may be good for you if cannot fit regular therapy into your schedule but you know that something needs to change.
A Re-story Retreat may be for you if you are currently working with a mental health professional and want to set aside some time to finally get to the root of an issue that keeps coming up and getting in the way of progress and growth. A retreat can provide new energy and effectiveness to the work you are doing with a regular therapist.
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Change is a deeply integrative process for human beings. And in order to change a person’s experience of life, we have to talk to their deeper brain.
People know something in their mind without feeling the truth of it. A Re-story Retreat brings those two ways of knowing together through a unique combination of evidence based therapies, developed out of psychology and neurobiology and delivered through the lens of biblical faith.
Re-story Retreats heal and promote growth while also providing a foundation of understanding of why and how we get stuck and what to do about it in the future. Clients who attend a retreat will not only heal in the moment but have the skills to continue healing and growing as they move forward in life.
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Based on your initial interview (part of a retreat package), I will customize our time to fit your personal growth style. I typically blend together and draw from Brainspotting, Hypnotherapy, Cognitive Processing Therapy, Pain Reprocessing Therapy, Art, Music, and Play in shaping my work with people. If you have any questions about any of these modalities, you can learn more about some of them on my resources page and I am also happy to share more on a consultation call.
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Change can happen in the blink of and eye and change can take years. Intensives will shift your story in some way but, as with any creative and collaborative process, outcomes cannot be determined ahead of time.
Often clients feel immediately different as a result of our time together, reporting calm and a greater sense of hope and joy. Typically, these benefits continue to build over the days following our work together, as the brain continues to rewire and create new patterns for growth and change.
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If you are actively suicidal or need ongoing clinical treatment for a mental health issue, A Re-story Retreat will not provide that for you. I love to collaborate with primary providers for clients’ highest level of care, but do not provide medical or diagnostic care through Re-story Retreats.
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Intensive Therapy Retreats are not covered by insurance because insurance requires a diagnosis to justify coverage and diagnosis is not part of this service.
Intensive Therapy Retreats are considered an adjunctive service and not a comprehensive clinical treatment strategy.
Clients may use all major credit cards, including HSA/FSA cards for payment.
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All retreats are available online, as long as client is in the state of Illinois at the time of service. In person retreats are planned on a case by case basis and depend on a variety of factors, including available venue and proximity to therapist.
Often clients like to increase the retreat feel by booking a bed and breakfast or staying at a family vacation home to truly get away. In these cases, we can meet via telehealth in the morning for our retreat hours and then clients can have the rest of the day to enjoy their chosen location and allow time and space to create space for further integration of mind, body and spirit.
Whatever it is that you’re going through, you can know joy again and experience real transformation.
The Trauma Restorying Process
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Pre Retreat Interview
I will provide you with a comprehensive workbook to complete ahead of this meeting. We will then go through your results together. This initial 90 minute meeting held on a separate day, prior to your scheduled retreat. This provides the basis from which I customize and plan your most effective healing and growth experience.
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Retreat
We will meet together for your rest, accelerated healing and deep growth for lasting change. I will provide a safe and compassionate space for you to process and heal trauma, updating the story that your brain has been telling you and teaching your deeper brain a better and truer story to trust.
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Post Retreat Interview
An hour or less, in which we meet together to review the outcomes of your retreat, celebrate progress and growth, and plan for any future follow up.
Trauma Restorying with me is not…
Just an opportunity to have someone listen to you. I will listen but in a more focused way than your best friend might listen. My listening is intentional and organized towards the goal of your lasting healing and growth.
An ongoing therapeutic relationship that will continue indefinitely over months or years.
Pat answers and unsatisfying solutions
Judgemental and pressuring
Diagnostic or clinical. While I do provide a comprehensive intake/pre-interview, which includes various psychological screenings and assessments, these are to help me gain a fuller picture of your unique struggles and strengths so that I can customize your intensive to be the most helpful for your best outcome. It is not, in any way, for the purpose of providing a diagnosis. If something arises in the course of our work that I believe would be helpful for you to seek treatment for, I will certainly share that for you. But my work with pastor’s wives should not be mistaken for medical treatment.
Trauma Restorying with me is…
Intentional and targeted; a powerful blend of evidence based strategies, customized to provide real progress on your deepest longings (alongside a compassionate guide who is very familiar with the terrain).
A concentrated time set aside for accelerated healing and growth, with a clear up front investment.
Deep, brain and body based healing work
Faith aligned—no matter where you are at, faith wise, I will meet you there (with no assumptions / expectations)
Re-story Retreats are hope based and growth focused, integrating the mind, spirit, and body’s natural processes of healing to effect change.
Is Trauma Re-storying
the right fit for you?
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A 7.5 hour package
Starting at $1500
5.5 face to face hours
Comprehensive pre-retreat workbook (important for shaping our time together)
90 minute Pre-retreat interview
One 3 hour day, to provide deep and transformative work, focusing on one targeted issue for change.
60 minute follow up interview
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11 hour package
Starting at $2200
8.5 face to face hours
Comprehensive pre-retreat workbook (important for shaping our time together)
90 minute Pre-retreat interview
Two 3 hour days, to provide deep and transformative work
60 minute follow up interview
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14 hour package
Starting at $2800
11.5 face to face hours
Comprehensive pre-retreat workbook (important for shaping our time together)
90 minute Pre-retreat interview
Three 3 hour days, to provide deep and transformative work
60 minute follow up interview
If you’re ready to find a different and truer story to live, I’d love to show you the way…
In addition to the above,
Your Re-story Retreat package will include…
Set aside time, just for you (This might be the best part!)
Confidence that your faith will be protected and nurtured.
Personalized process, based on your unique struggles and strengths, facilitated by a trained trauma healing practitioner who also commits to praying for you in advance of, during, and after your intensive.
Planned breaks for rest and integration. It’s kind of like a spa day for your deepest self.
Transformation, whether that looks like the confidence to apply newly gained growth tools in your day to day, the deep knowing that you are no longer alone, or the seemingly magical “shift” that many clients report of feeling completely different about a previously distressing situation.
And…other delightful surprises. Deep brain healing work can be fun too!
Get in touch
Change is possible.
discover your truest story.
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discover your truest story. —