Psychotherapist's Journal - Thoughts and Tools to Inspire Wellness in Mind and Body - by Karen Gorrin

Mindfulness Meditation and Healthcare Reform

This one brought joy to my heart. Representative Tim Ryan, a Congressman from Ohio, who earned his JD from Franklin Pierce Law Center, practices meditation. Not only this, he seems to grasp the critical role meditation and stress management plays in overall health, wellbeing, and disease prevention. And - he has brought these issues to the attention of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for consideration in healthcare reform. Listen to his pitch here.

What are your thoughts? Do you believe meditation and other forms of relaxation and stress management should play a role in healthcare reform? Do you believe we should emphasis such prevention strategies when we know stress is a major player in the development of disease and chronic illness? I do!

Lifespan Integration Therapy Heals Deeply and Completely without Re-Traumatizing

About three years ago I began to incorporate a new method of therapy into my practice called Lifespan Integration. Lifespan Integration, or "LI" has proven to be a very valuable tool in helping my clients heal trauma and childhood neglect without the need to directly talk about past events and -- it really works!

I have found Lifespan Integration to be a gentle yet profound therapeutic modality. I'm deeply grateful for the rapid healing Lifespan Integration has helped me facilitate in the lives of my clients.

The brilliance of Lifespan Integration is that it works by relying on the innate ability of the body-mind to heal itself. From the client's perspective, Lifespan Integration feels like a guided imagery/visualization or hypnotherapy session, although what's actually happening is a targeted neural integration process that convinces the body-mind system that time has passed and the triggering event or circumstances are over. Lifespan Integration uses a timeline of memories to help the client heal events from the past and then bring their full healthy selves forward in time to the present. Lifespan Integration also works with clients who have difficulty remembering their past. People with memory gaps are eventually able to connect the pieces of their lives together into a coherent whole. It's a beautiful thing!

Typically, Lifespan Integration works faster and more completely than "talk therapy" methods alone. I have witnessed Lifespan Integration effectively treat anxiety and post traumatic distress disorder, attachment disorders, eating disorders, somatic disorders, and dissociative disorders. These are BIG words that all refer to a range of labels given to the distress people may have in response to traumatic life experiences or/and childhood neglect. 

Because of my focus in mind-body medicine, many of my clients seek support with anxiety or somatic complaints (when our emotions are expressed in our bodies) or when an unexpected life-changing event or health diagnosis has caused them significant emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual distress. Lifespan Integration Therapy together with relaxation training modalities like meditation or/and biofeedback physiotherapy have worked great. I have successfully used Lifespan Integration Therapy with clients moving through loss and grief, living with a cancer diagnosis, with fibromyalgia and other autoimmune disease, digestive and irritable bowel complaints, and others seeking to better manage work/life demands and increase fulfillment in intimate relationships.

To learn more about Lifespan Integration Therapy I encourage you to visit the Lifespan Integration website or contact me for a free telephone introduction. Lifespan Integration was created by psychotherapist Peggy Pace.

Day of Wellness Retreat: Cultivating Stillness July 20

  Join a group of amazing women for a Day of Wellness Retreat at beautiful Kelkari in Issaquah on Monday, July 20 from 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM (an organic lunch is included)!

Our special topic is Cultivating Stillness and we'll look at the latest research in mind-body medicine about the health benefits of stillness, or quiet, peaceful listening. We'll also explore ways to enrich our sense of wellbeing with personal practices that support stillness in our lives. You'll leave with a sense of stillness in your heart, new tools to enhance your relaxation practice, having met an amazing group of wise women who like yourself, seek greater stillness at this time in their lives, and you'll gain insight and confidence about how to more deeply connect with the most important person in your life - you!

Our time together will include: small group discussion, journal writing, meditation, guided imagery and visualization, gentle movement, and lots of inspiration for taking the next step towards transforming our lives.

This Day of Wellness Retreat will be held on the beautiful grounds of Kelkeri in Issaquah, nestled next to Cabin Creek with 100 miles of nearby hiking trails. An organic box lunch is included. Facilitated by psychotherapist Karen Gorrin of Olive Tree Healing Arts in Bellevue.

Cost is $60 when paid by July 6, and $75 thereafter. No registrations shall be accepted after July 16. No walk-ins, please. To register or for questions click here to email

The Arts and the Human Spirit

Last night's American Theatre Wing (Tony Award) winner for Best Lead Actress in a Musical, Alice Ripley, for her role in Next to Normal, ever so eloquently reminded us of President John F. Kennedy's words posted at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC: "I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we too, will be remembered not for our victories or defeats in battle or in politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit." Watch her acceptance speech below, and consider using this quote as a springboard to your journal entry today. What do thes words stir or inspire in you?

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The Sand Dancer Teaches Impermanence

What a magnificent story I stumbled upon this morning at CBS News: "As the morning tide recedes at a beach near Christchurch, New Zealand, Peter Donnelly arrives to go to work. Peter the Sand Dancer, with a simple stick and a rake (and a not-so-simple gift of vision), paints elaborate works of art in the sand while hundreds watch in awe and appreciation" reports Phil Keoghan.

This story reminds me of the delicate beauty of life. We are born, we grow moment by moment into our wonderfulness, and then we melt away. Impermanence. My heart jumped into my throat when I watch this video, and I could not help but think about my mother, an art gallery owner who died earlier this year. This will be the first Mother's Day without her. You know, I would have sent her this link and she would have LOVED this story. Now I tell her about the sand dancer in my heart, and she knows. She knows about the beauty that can exists one minute, and then be gone in the next. Correction: it's not gone, it just transitions to another form of existence. Just like she did.