Therapy Chat | Psychotherapy | Mindfulness | Trauma | Attachment | Worthiness | Self Care | Parenting

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! In today’s episode, Laura speaks in person with Charlotte Hiler Easley. Charlotte is a psychotherapist in private practice who specializes in working with survivors of trauma using equine-assisted psychotherapy (EAP). Charlotte discusses her work using Equine Assisted Survivors of Trauma Therapy, a method she developed in collaboration with a rape crisis center when she was in grad school. When you work with Charlotte, you will be encouraged, coached, and heard with compassion and understanding. You can also expect to be gently challenged to understand who you really are and why you’re here. You will work together with Charlotte to understand your patterns of behavior and thought and develop skills that will enable you to get unstuck and to move ahead in your story. Resources Charlotte’s website: https://charlotteeasley.com/ Charlotte’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/charlottehilereasleyLCSW Central Kentucky Riding for Hope’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CKyRH

Welcome to episode 138 of the Therapy Chat Podcast with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C. This week, we speak with Rebecca E. Williams, PhD and Julie S. Kraft, MA, LMFT, about their new book The Gift of Recovery: Mindfulness Skills for Living Joyfully Beyond Addiction. Rebecca E. Williams, PhD, is a clinical psychologist specializing in recovery from mental illness and addictions. She received her master's degree from Harvard University and her PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is currently the Wellness and Vocational Enrichment Clinic director of the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System. In addition, she is an associate clinical professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, an adjunct faculty member at the University of San Diego, and coauthor of Couple Therapy for Alcoholism. Williams is coauthor, with Julie Kraft, of The Mindfulness Workbook for Addiction. She has a psychotherapy practice in San Diego, CA. Julie S. Kraft, MA, LMFT, receiv

*Warning, explicit episode* Welcome to episode 137 of the Therapy Chat Podcast with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C. This week, we speak with Tamara Powell, LMHC about spiritual bypass. Tamara is the owner of Arya Therapy Services, the now global phenomenon in holistic health and healing. She is also the founder of Tales from a Trapezoid dedicated to the more raw and edgier side of life, working with those who may often feel like a trapezoid in a world full of circles. Tamara also hosts her own podcast Sacred Psychology, where through stories and interviews, she takes listeners behind the veil of counseling into erotic, relational, and spiritual diversity, uncovering how to accomplish mankind’s greatest challenge – finding purpose and passion no matter the worldview or proclivity. Resources Find Tamara at: https://aryatherapy.com https://aryatherapy.com/about-the-podcast (Sacred Psychology Podcast) https://talesfromatrapezoid.com https://www.facebook.com/talesfromatrapezoid Become a member of Therapy Chat by joinin

Welcome to episode 136 of the Therapy Chat Podcast with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C. This week, we speak with Paula Scatoloni, LCSW, CEDS, SEP and Rachel Lewis-Marlow, MS, EdS, LPC, LMBT about embodied recovery. Paula is a somatic-based psychotherapist, Certified Eating Disorders Specialist, and Somatic Experiencing™ practitioner in Durham, NC. She has a private practice in Chapel Hill, NC and has worked in the field of eating disorders for over two decades. Prior to developing Embodied Recovery, Paula co-developed the first intensive outpatient program for eating disorders with Dr. Anita Johnston author, Eating In the Light of the Moon. She also served as the Eating Disorder Coordinator at Duke University for nine years where she developed campus policies and managed a multidisciplinary treatment team. She is a certified Shake Your Soul ® instructor and has provided mindful movement classes at Carolina House Treatment Center. Paula has taught extensively on the etiology and treatment of eating disorders throug

Welcome to episode 135 of the Therapy Chat Podcast with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C. This week, we have a very interesting guest in Dr. Natalie Feinblatt who speaks to us all about cults and how they work. Dr. Natalie Feinblatt is a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice. She is based in Santa Monica & specializes in addiction. Natalie's goal is to empower her clients to live their lives with as much passion & purpose as possible. If you're willing to make changes to live a better life, then she is happy to help you do so every step of the way. If you're struggling to get sober, you're scared about the impact sobriety might have on your creative abilities (and life in general). If you're in early sobriety, you're working to gain your footing in a new landscape. If you're a trauma survivor, you're wondering why your sensitivity & insight aren't helping you get to that light at the end of the tunnel. What do you do if your pain is too great to handle on

Welcome to episode 134 of the Therapy Chat Podcast with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C. This week, we’re delighted to welcome back Hilary Jacobs Hendel, LCSW. In this episode, Hilary speaks to me all about her amazing new book “It’s Not Always Depression”. Hilary grew up in New York City in a culture of "mind over matter." Raised by a psychiatrist and a guidance counselor, family time included analyzing her thoughts and dreams. Feelings were rarely mentioned (except perhaps to discuss how to get rid of them!) She thought she had total control over my emotions. Now she wants to share what she (and many psychotherapists and researchers) know about the new science of emotions. She wants others to learn what she had the good fortune to learn: that core emotions provide a path to physical and psychological well-being. Resources http://www.hilaryjacobshendel.com https://www.facebook.com/AuthorHilaryJacobsHendel Become a member of Therapy Chat by joining me on Patreon: https://patreon.com/TherapyChat  Register no

Welcome back to Therapy Chat! In today’s episode, as we lead up to the next Daring Way, Laura Reagan, LCSW-C re-visits her interview with Charlotte Hiler Easley, LCSW. Charlotte is a psychotherapist in private practice who specializes in working with survivors of trauma using equine-assisted psychotherapy (EAP). Charlotte discusses her work using Equine Assisted Survivors of Trauma Therapy, a method she developed in collaboration with a rape crisis center when she was in grad school. Charlotte talks about how horses are able to read our body language and react to our emotional experience. She explains what equine assisted psychotherapy is – hint: you don’t have to touch a saddle. She describes how survivors of trauma working with horses are able to learn and practice new ways of being in a relationship; setting boundaries; making a mind-body connection; feeling what safety feels like – because the work is all experiential. Thanks for listening to Therapy Chat. Please get in touch and let host Laura Reagan kno

Welcome to this special Sexual Assault Awareness Month Episode! I'm sharing two episodes from early in Therapy Chat's life on the issue of sexual assault. After the #MeToo movement, founded by Tarana Burke, ignited on social media over the past year, the general public began to understand what most women and many men already knew: sexual violence can affect anyone, and its effects are deep and longlasting. This is a problem in our culture which can be ended, but not without everyone gaining awareness. Statistics indicate that one in four women and one in six men will be sexually assaulted during their lifetime. April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, a great time to learn more about this important issue. Here's an article from the New York Times about why Tarana Burke started this movement: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/us/me-too-movement-tarana-burke.html What you’ll hear in this episode: Two types of sexual assault are Childhood Sexual Abuse (to be covered in a later episode) and Sexual

Welcome to episode 131 of the Therapy Chat Podcast with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C. This week’s guest features Anna Seewald who talks about why parenting is so hard.   Anna Seewald is the founder of Authentic Parenting®. She is a speaker, author and a parent educator. She also has a popular Podcast on iTunes called Authentic Moments. She is a mom to a vibrant 9-year-old who doesn’t approve of her fashion choices. As a child she survived through a severe earthquake. She lost her young mom. She has been through trauma, pain, and a lot suffering. With a strong passion helping children Anna dedicated her life working with abused, neglected, orphaned, institutionalized children and juvenile delinquents. After nearly 20 years she realized that it is through helping parents she can help children. Today she is supporting parents around the world by moving from traditional ways of parenting into more peaceful, conscious ways by making sense of their past life experiences, healing from trauma, building effective communi

Welcome to episode 130 of the Therapy Chat Podcast with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C. This week’s guest features Lanie Smith who talks about spirituality as burnout prevention using eco-art therapy. Lanie Smith, MPS, ATR, a registered art therapist, has worked in a variety of settings for several years. Her work began with the Nat'l Institute of Health, researching the efficacy of art therapy with war-affected youth in N. Uganda, followed by two publications. Lanie developed environmental art therapy for sustainable practice at numerous sites in the Phoenix area. She provides art therapy to others to support the prevention of burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma. Lanie also supervises and trains on the ethical considerations regarding the use of art in therapy. Resources https://www.laniesmithcoaching.com Register now for the next Daring Way™ and Relational Equine Assisted Learning retreat: https://laurareaganlcswc.com/retreat Therapists! Would you like to get a free month of service with Bright

Welcome to episode 129 of the Therapy Chat Podcast with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C. This week’s guest features Xanthia Johnson. She is the founder of Urban Playogoly in Washington, DC. Urban Playology provides psychotherapy services to children, adolescents, individuals, couples and families. During defining transitions, she provides a safe place for you to be who you are. Whether you are 2 years old or 85 years young, you will enjoy a transformative experience. Her clinical areas of specialization and interest include but are not limited to: Women & Women of Color Issues, Urban Play Therapy, Expressive Arts, Sandtray Therapy, Grief & Loss, LGBTIQ Folk, TF-CBT, Broad Spectrum Couples & Family Work At Urban Playology, they utilize an Integrative therapy model with emphasis on advocacy and social justice for all clients. This approach helps them provide optimal support and sustainable nurturing for all clients. They offer professional training, clinical supervision, and clinical consultation on advoc

Welcome to episode 128 of the Therapy Chat Podcast with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C. Today Laura speaks to David Treleaven, PhD. David's book is Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness. David Treleaven, PhD, is a writer, educator, and trauma professional whose work focuses on the intersection of mindfulness, trauma, and social justice. He received his master’s in counseling psychology at the University of British Columbia, and a doctorate in East-West psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies. This year he'll be offering workshops on trauma-sensitive mindfulness at the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at UMass Medical School, Omega Institute's Mindfulness and Education Conference, and True North Insight in Montréal, Canada. He is a senior teacher with Strozzi Institute, which helps leaders embody skillful action, and with generative somatics, an organization that integrates personal and social transformation. Resources: https://www.davidtreleaven.com https://www.

Welcome to episode 127 of the Therapy Chat Podcast with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C. Today Laura speaks to Lynn Fraser about mindfulness & somatic work in healing trauma.   Lynn Fraser is a senior meditation and yoga teacher in the Himalayan Yoga Meditation tradition; and a Senior Facilitator of the Living Inquiries and Natural Rest. She brings the depth and richness of twenty years experience teaching meditation and yoga philosophy to her work. She specializes in holding a safe and trusted space for healing trauma in her private Living Inquiries online sessions with individuals. Lynn lives near family, the ocean and forest in Nova Scotia Canada where she also plays flute in a jazz band. Lynn is a student and teaches within the Himalayan Tradition  of  Swami Rama as taught by Swami Veda Bharati. She is certified through the Association of Himalayan Yoga Meditation Societies (AHYMSIN) and the Yoga Center of Calgary. She was a founding member of the organizing committee for the AHYMSIN teacher training progra

Welcome to episode 126 of the Therapy Chat Podcast with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C. Today Laura speaks to Dr. Maelisa Hall about how much is too much for a therapist to share in a session? Dr. Maelisa Hall is a licensed clinical psychologist and her passion is to help therapists create rock-solid documentation so they can spend more time with their clients and less time worrying about paperwork.  After eight years working in mental health agencies, she started her own company to help therapists learn how to make documentation flow naturally, decrease their workload and be confident in all their paperwork. She shows clinicians that paperwork is a valuable part of therapy and that it doesn’t have to be slow and painful! You’ll have more time to work with clients because you’ll know you can take on the paperwork no problem. Maelisa consults with psychotherapists in private practice, agencies and group practices to teach them things like how to write great notes, what to consider if insurance is involved, how to d

Welcome to episode 125 of the Therapy Chat Podcast with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C. Today Laura speaks to Dr. Loretta Pyles about her work and new book “Healing Justice”. Loretta came to mind-body healing practices in 1999, after leaving a difficult long-term relationship and becoming burnt out from her social services and social change work. She found herself anxious, grief-ridden, and disconnected from her body, mind and spirit. Over the years, she has committed herself to a journey toward wholeness, presence, and compassion. The realizations that she later found in meditation and yoga deepened her ability to understand the ways in which oppression and undigested experiences rest in the mind-body continuum.  To learn more about these parts of herself and to experience life more fully, she practices a range of modalities including mindfulness, lovingkindness, breath work, physical poses, devotional mantra, group support, and self-inquiry. Loretta’s sensibility about transformative social change was formed dur

Welcome to episode 124 of the Therapy Chat Podcast with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C. Today Laura welcomes back Dr. Leslie Korn.   Dr. Leslie Korn has had a bi-lingual (Eng/Span) clinical practice since 1977 and providing over 50,000 hours of integrative health care to people with a diverse range of health problems in both urban and rural settings. She is the author of 4 books; Nutritional Essentials for Mental Health, (Norton, 2015), Cultural Competency Workbook, (Premiere Publishing , 2015) Rhythms of Recovery Trauma Nature and the Body (Routledge, 2013), and Preventing and Treating Diabetes Naturally, The Native Way, (DayKeeper Press, 2009) and her latest book The Good Mood Kitchen will be out in 2017. Dr. Korn consults to clinicians and advises clients who want to people to reduce or eliminate pharmaceutical use and in particular psychotropic medications. She works with people who want to integrate natural approaches to their health care and she has a specialty practice in mental health nutrition and body or

Welcome to episode 123 of the Therapy Chat Podcast with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C. Today Laura speaks to Julia Alexander, LMSW, M.Ed. For the last decade, Julia has worked to create effective spaces for people to heal. She believes children’s behavior, especially behavior that appears problematic, often meets an important need. Using a compassionate and flexible treatment approach, grounded in the neurobiology of trauma, Julia aims to support children and caregivers in understanding the purpose of current behaviors in order to eventually develop more adaptive coping strategies. She knows that the most effective treatment involves a recognition of children, caregiver and system strengths and needs with a focus on connected, attuned relationships. Julia was trained by leading experts in intergroup dialogue facilitation and social justice curriculum design. She has extensive training in the Attachment, Regulation and Competency Trauma Treatment model and has attended trainings in Sensory Motor Arousal Regulation

Welcome to episode 122 of the Therapy Chat Podcast with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C. Today Laura has a deeper discussion about intimate partner violence. Resources: 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE) National Domestic Violence Hotline https://nnedv.org/ https://www.techsafety.org/resources/ www.ncadv.org I talked about the HBO series “Big Little Lies” https://cops.usdoj.gov/Default.asp?Item=2881 Leave me a message via Speakpipe by going to https://therapychatpodcast.com and clicking on the green Speakpipe button. Thank you for listening to Therapy Chat! Please be sure to go to iTunes and leave a rating and review, subscribe and download episodes. You can also download the Therapy Chat app on iTunes by clicking here. Visit Therapy Chat website at Http://therapychatpodcast.com and send host Laura Reagan a voice message letting her know what you think of Therapy Chat! Did you like this episode? Did you dislike it? Let her know!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Hey all! I'm not releasing a new episode the week of February 1, because I'm busy working on my Q&A episode series which will start next week with Elizabeth's question about my interview with Tamara Hill on Trauma Bonding.  I'll miss you but please join us in the Therapy Chat Facebook group! To join, request to join on FB here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TherapyChat/  and then sign up for the Therapy Chat e-mail list! You'll then be added to the group. Talk to you soon! New episode February 8th!  Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Welcome to episode 121 of the Therapy Chat Podcast with host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C. Today Laura speaks about bottom-up processing using sensorimotor psychotherapy with Dr. Pat Ogden. SPI is a professional educational organization that designs and provides the highest-level trainings and services to serve a global network of mental health practitioners, and for the public at large. Seeking to enhance human relationships, our paradigm is substantiated by interpersonal neurobiology and impelled by mindfulness applied in interactive contexts. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy draws from somatic therapies, neuroscience, attachment theory, and cognitive approaches, as well as from the Hakomi Method. Since the first course in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy was offered in the early 1980’s, it has gained international acclaim. The first book on Sensorimotor Psychotherapy®, Trauma and the Body: A Sensorimotor Approach to Psychotherapy, published in the Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology in 2006 gained international acclai