Individual therapy is important, but it is not everything on your healing path.
On this page I would like to introduce you to some methods, tools and resources which can support you on your healing path. Some of them are completely free.
Furthermore, I made two pages with recommendations about
5 Pillars of Trauma Healing
I developed a model of “5 pillars of trauma healing” – no matter if you are on a healing path because of a physical symptom or because of psychological challenges.
The 5 pillars:
1. individual therapy
2. group work
3. honesty in relationships
4. meditation
5. energy work (nutrition, movement, supplements)
Pillar 1: Individual Therapy
Ideally 1-on-1-therapy is at the core of your healing path. Methodologically I recommend trauma therapeutic approaches (NARM, Somatic Experiencing, Person Centered Trauma Therapy). Unfortunately most of these approaches are not covered by public health insurance. Nevertheless: There is no better investment (which really pays off!) than into your health and mental wellbeing!
If it is important to you to find a therapist who is covered by your insurance, I’d like to give you some orientation and point out which aspects are important to make therapy efficient:
- The connection between you and the therapist
Healing requires connection. Connection requires honesty. Only when you feel seen and in contact in therapy, a deeper healing is possible. If you have the feeling that you cannot be radically honesty and you don’t feel seen or valued, then address this with you therapist and try to strengthen the relationship with your therapist! If you don’t find yourself feeling connected after a couple of sessions, it might be a good idea to try a different therapist. In case you don’t feel connected with anybody, then this is the first topic to address. In that case pick a therapist where you feel the points 2 and 3 match. - The competence of the therapist
The competence of the therapist is definitely less important than the personal connection you feel with him / her. Isolation and disconnection are at the core of every traumatic experience. If you feel connected in therapy, then this can already be a crucial healing experience. Nevertheless, the competence of the therapist can support you in understanding your internal dynamics, integrate emotions and reconnect to your agency. - The efficacy of the method of the therapist
This aspect is again way less important than points 1 and 2. That is why it is possible that you have very good therapeutic success with methods which might statistically not show up as very efficient in scientific research.
With most health insurances you can take a couple of test sessions with a therapist. You can also call your health insurance and ask them to find therapists with availability in your area!
Pillar 2: Group Work
Human beings have developed in groups over hundreds of millions of years. For our ancestors it has always been natural to be around groups, express emotions spontaneously and be seen in emotional states. One of the evolution biological reasons why mammals developed emotions was – apart from the aspect of getting in touch with our needs – to communicate other individuals about my current state.
If you imagine a tribe of mammals, monkeys, horses or cows: You can immediately recognize which individuals are emotionally activated – they make themselves seen or heard. This explains why our brain is so much fast willing to relax an emotion and relax when we were noticed by a group of other human beings. I have experienced this mechanisms myself hundreds of times and I experience it again and again with my clients and participants of the Deep Honesty group work: Issues which I have looked at in therapy relax so much faster if I process them in a group.
When I discovered the group work of Radical Honesty® in 2019, I totally dove into that work and participated in as many retreats and workshops as possible for a couple of years. In my Deep Honesty group work I combine the principles of Radical Honesty® with the methods and principles of trauma therapies like NARM® and other modalities. Click here for upcoming Deep Honesty events!
If you don’t want to work with me, I recommend to you to try out Radical Honesty® – you can watch some videos of the different trainers and see where you feel resonance. Some of the trainers are also trauma therapists. Alltogether Radical Honesty® is emotionally a little more challenging than Deep Honesty. Here you find the worldwide Radical Honesty events calendar.
A very careful and usually free way of getting in touch with group work is “Honest Sharing”, a group process developed by the German trauma therapist Gopal. There are local groups world wide, where you can easily join. A lot of these groups also meet online. Here you can find more information about “Honest Sharing”.
If you are looking for a group process paid by health insurance, you can also look for group therapy options. What happens in group therapy is very much dependent on the therapist who leads it, but very often I judge group therapy to be more efficient than individual therapy paid by health insurance – mainly because you experience group attention there which is so important as I laid out before. You can ask your health insurance for group therapy options in your area!
Pillar 3: Honesty in Relationships
The state of our relationships is always corresponding to our inner degree of healing. You cannot heal if you don’t live deep relationships – and they can be friendship or romantic relationships. Without honesty a relationship cannot go deep as you will not feel connected or seen if you don’t showyourself with everything you are. Thus honesty is a requirement for healing.
The main thing about pillar 3 is to bring all the stuff you learned in pillar 1 and 2 into your life: Show yourself, express emotions and vulnerability and experience connection – or maybe first start building relationships.
With the principles of Radical Honesty®, a few communication tools and the willingness to feel you can turn any of your friends into your therapist. Ideally you can do partner meditations like “Dyads” or “Honest Sharing” with your friends or partners.
I opened a WhatsApp and a Telegram group, where you can find partners for Dyads or Honest Sharing very easily. This is also a great resource to get in touch with people. Usually it take only a couple of minutes to find partners spontaneously:
I advice you to do Dyads and Honest Sharing as often as possible – the more you arrive in the moment, the more transformative it gets – and it is completely free!
Pillar 4: Meditation
Apart from the above mentioned partner meditations, I advice you to meditate for yourself regularly. Especially traumatized nervous system tend to have difficulties to regulate (=relax). It is helpful to have tools how to relax yourself consciously. There are as many meditation forms as types of sport – I am certain that there is one form which suits you. Buddhist Meditation, Yoga, Tai-Chi, Joe Dispenza-Meditations, breathing exercises by Patrick McKeown – you find an abundance of options on YouTube or Apps like Insight-Timer or Headspace. Endless options for free!
If you are on a spiritual path or feel a calling for spiritual development, I advice you to check out these teachers and see who touches your heart (most of them from Advaita Vedanta=Non-Duality-Lineage): Rupert Spira, Gangaji, Eli-Jaxon Bear, Eckhart Tolle, Mooji, Christian Meyer. All of them have tons of material on YouTube – get an impression and see where you feel resonance!
Pillar 5: Energy Work
A healthy body is a great resource which will help you to deal with all the emotions which can come up in pillar 1-4. Apart from movement, a balanced, dairy-free healthy nutrition (I neither recommend extremes like vegan nor carnivore), I recommend you these supplements.
Find a sport, which you can practice at least 3 times per week or go for walks daily or practice yoga. If you like to do cardio work, try to implement at least 3 little peaks into each training sessions where you bring your cardiovascular system to a comfortable maximum – it is through these peaks that the brain releases a high dose of endorphines (=happy hormones) after the workout.
Dance: Put a playlist together with songs which will make you dance under any circumstances! If ever you are lacking energy and can’t get off the couch, such a playlist can do miracles.
I also recommend you to do breath work on a regular basis like Wim Hoff, Holotropic Breathing, trance dance, Dispenza breathing meditations or similar.