My Trauma Re-storying process is an intentional and careful integration of multiple different therapeutic modalities, understood and practiced through a lens of faith. Some of my favorites, Brainspotting, Trauma Informed Hypnosis, and Listening Protocols, may be less familiar to you and so I have provided extra details below. Click on each image for more information.

Additionally, in my retreats, I may include therapeutic knitting, art, games, story-telling, music, and gentle movement. I choose what to include based on each person’s unique nervous system and interests (as learned during our pre-retreat interview), with my plan being always subject to change, based on what will best support each person’s needs in any given moment. If you are interested in incorporating one or more of these methods in our work together or have further questions, please mention this in your consultation call and we’ll discuss the possibilities together.

A Memory Reconsolidation Framework

Memory Reconsolidation refers to the brain’s created process for healing traumatic experiences. Trauma occurs when a person doesn’t have the necessary resources at a given time to process an upsetting experience and the associated memory becomes stuck in the person’s system in an unprocessed form (as still happening and not in the past). One might cognitively know that a thing happened in the past but still be experiencing the effects of it present day. This can be disorienting and confusing, seriously disrupting a person’s life. Trauma healing is, therefore, different from traditional talk therapy, in that it involves working with a person’s system of memory organization so that the distressing memory is finally experienced as complete and a thing of the past. It’s kind of like tidying up an “old school” detective’s messy desk and systematically going through and updating the files to reflect their true current status so they can be put away into deeper storage.

My work with people, regardless of the methods used on any given day, is organized using a memory reconsolidation framework, always with the goal to help a person’s brain to reorganize their past, present, and future experiences so that they align with their truest story.

A Different Way Forward…

And so, the Re-storying Retreats are a unique combination of science developed and evidence based trauma healing practices combined with decades of experience in church ministry and with pastor’s families, offered to you in a faith aligned way. I’m so excited to bring some of these powerful modalities for working with the brain’s natural memory reconsolidation processes to pastor’s wives! Please enjoy reading more about some of these amazing methods and do reach out with any questions.