Jess Minckley (they/them)

I work toward creating safety and a nonjudgmental place for people to unfold the multiplicity of emotional experiences that come with sexual abuse, assault, and intimate partner violence. Healing from post-traumatic stress disorder necessitates a holistic approach. Fierce compassion, honoring a person's dignity, and stabilizing the nervous system can achieve recovery of lost or abandoned parts of ourselves, so that we can return home to our body as a haven.

Parenting is not only the most challenging job on Earth, but it brings up all of our unfinished business in our family of origin and relationship past. Juggling self-care and caring for another life is an incredibly tall order- especially when they hit puberty! Parenting support and education can alleviate physical symptoms in parents, struggles with learning, and can improve kids' self image. This is a gift that lasts a lifetime.

Many people with adversity in their lives suffer from chronic illness. Counseling people with chronic conditions is a special and delicate process. Many people in this community are woeful misunderstood and have medical trauma as a result. Clinicians who are also spoonies understand and align with the unique challenges to hopefulness, humor, a sense of purpose and identity, and loneliness and isolation. Therapy helps improve quality of life and can also reduce physical symptoms!

Mindfulness-based treatment protocols help us to accept the seemingly unacceptable issues we face in life. It is evidence based in reducing physical illness symptoms and can help people lead more meaningful lives.

Somatic interventions use the body and mind together. Traditional talk therapy is not nearly enough for people whose trauma has been stored in their soma (body). Somatic therapy can be incredibly small gestures and rages all the way to dance medicine. Using the 5 senses, art, music, aromatherapy, and other nontraditional interventions, we solicit the assistance of our right brain in expelling psychological issues from our being.

Art therapy requires no skills or fancy art materials. It can be as simple as playing with kinetic sand while talking. Art resides on the creative hemisphere, our right brain. This non-linguistic side of ourselves is typically underdeveloped in modern society. Igniting our innate wisdom of creativity, imagination, wonder, play, pleasure, and sensory magic can be the missing link to steadfast issues we've been fighting.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is a terrific treatment for trauma.