Neurocepton: Our Personal TSA Agent

NEUROCEPTION: Our Personal TSA Agent. How we feel whether or not a person/place is safe/unsafe. This is the neural process of evaluation of risk without awareness.

In the first class of The Reboot, students will go through an experiential process to learn about Neuroception. In working with clients individually, they are taught about neuroception in the first couple of sessions.

Neuroception is what creates an experience of a person, place, or thing as being safe, dangerous, or a life threat.

And since neuroception is beyond our conscious awareness- it creates unconscious trauma responses of fight, flight, fawn/feign, freeze, collapse/immobilize.

Humans are always on a quest for safety and most of it happens unconsciously. We search the environment and inside our body to know if people/places are safe/unsafe.

Neuroception is greatly influenced by past events. Thus, with a history of trauma and chronic stress we feel less safe in the world, more anxious, more depressed, more dissociated, more numb, and our mind-body-spirit suffers symptoms (classified as diseases and disorders in the medical model).

However, we can heal through listening to our bodies, through mapping our unconscious trauma responses, through co-regulation, resourcing safety cues, and resolving trauma.

-Shannon, The Integrative Counselor

If a group is not your thing- you are invited to consider working with me locally or virtually. Scheduling individual sessions are easy and you can do it at the same link above or my bio link.

All of my services are Trauma-Informed, with Polyvagal, Somatics, and root-cause Integrative Medicine as modalities. Even with energy healing, or spiritual integration, or psychedelic integration services: I will always be guiding you back to your Inner Healer in a Trauma-Informed Way. Because You Are Your Own Guru!

-Shannon (AKA “The Integrative Counselor”)

Trauma Responses Do Not Have Anything to Do With Our Intelligence

Over a recent Somatic training something clicked for me as a teacher explaining Trauma to my clients and how it impacts our physical and mental health.

I recalled just how many times very intelligent clients stated that they waited to reach out for Trauma-Informed Care.

And it was because they cognitively were very smart. And could not understand why they could not think, Talk Therapy their way out of, or read enough books to heal from trauma and chronic stress.

This is because…

Our nervous system responses have nothing to do with our intelligence. Trauma and Stress responses are automatic. This is why we can be very smart & still experience Trauma responses that we do not cognitively choose.

So you may be thinking that you couldn’t have possibly experienced Trauma because and think:

“But I have all these degrees.”

“I am a professional in my field.”

“I am a parent.”

“I have done a lot of talk therapy.”

“I have forgiven this person in my mind.”

And the thing is that our nervous systems run automatically. They are on auto-pilot with past stress and trauma force choosing your responses: physically, mentally, and how you are in the world.

When we bring awareness, co-regulation, support, & experiential trauma resolving practices to your autonomic nervous system–responses: healing starts to become possible.

-Shannon, The Integrative Counselor

Why Talk Therapy May Not Be Working

Talk Therapy may not work for those with Trauma histories because…

It activates the same nervous system pathways associated with Trauma.

This is why Talk Therapy may stress and overwhelm your nervous system.

Some Trauma-Informed therapeutic modalities that I love to educating clients on accessing (that do NOT involve talk therapy are:)

Equine (Horse) Therapy
Play Therapy
Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR)
Sand Tray Therapy
Somatic Experiencing®
Polyvagal Theory
Dance & Movement Therapy
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Brainspotting
Art Therapy

Some modalities that can be modified to become Trauma-Informed AND if guided by a Trauma-Informed Practitioner can also be beneficial are:

Mindfulness
Ecotherapy
Forest Bathing
Nature
Gardening
Breathwork
Singing
Chanting
Humming
Gargling
Rocking
Meditation
Trauma-Informed Massage
Trauma-Sensitive Yoga
Movement
Weight Lifting
Tai Chi
Martial Arts
Rocking
Somatic modalities
Shamanic modalities
Plant Medicine
Vagus Nerve Toning Exercises
Heart Rate Variability
Music
Binaural Beats
Sound Healing
Hydrotherapy (Water as medicine) & Cold Therapy
Art
Theater
Dance
Singing
Creating
Herbal Medicine
Acupuncture
Naturopathy
Functional Medicine
Integrative Medicine
Ancestral Medicine
Reiki and Energy Healing
Healing Touch
Play
Stillness
Rest
Sleep
Laying on Right Side of Body
Grounding- barefoot on grass
Animal Therapy
Pets
Narrative Therapy
Neurofeedback
Biofeedback
Nutrition
Whole Foods
Eating the Brainbow
Probiotics & Prebiotics
Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Spiritual Practices
Bibliotherapy
Community
Social Compassionate Connection
Loving Kindness
Peer Support Groups

Some of the modalities above are woven into my integrative coaching practice.

In my work, in Trauma-Informed + integrative ways, I will guide you safely to uniquely addressing the root causes of imbalances in your mind-body-spirit-energy for Whole Self Healing.

-Shannon, The Integrative Counselor

Trauma-Informed Integration Support May be Necessary with Microdosing for Healing to Occur

🍄Microdosing is super hot right now and a lot is being written as to how microdosing is helping Influencers be more creative.

And I love that.

I also love Trauma-Informed Care and evidence-based clinical research (that is not funded by Big Pharma.)

So while it is super hip for some Influencers to get very creative on magic mushrooms…This is not what I am seeing as a MAPS-Approved Psychedelic Integration Coach who is a Trauma-Informed.

What I am seeing is that for folks with unresolved trauma–microdosing with psychedelics may be making their lived experience harder due to unresolved Trauma being moved from their subconscious to their mind-body-spirit.

Microdosing with Psychedelics Can Start to Unburden Unresolved Trauma--Making Microdosing Difficult for Those Without Trauma-Informed Integration Support

Without proper integration support to heal what is coming up and through our mind-body-spirit the charge of unresolved Trauma moving from the subconscious to conscious awareness becomes stuck, overwhelming, triggering, confusing, fatiguing, and un-integrated.

Depression can be a Trauma expression. Anxiety can be as well. Overworking and perfectionism that brings creative, spiritual, and neurodivergent folks to psychedelics also has Trauma origins.

Clinical research is still being done on the who, what, when, where, and how microdosing is/isn’t beneficial.

And while we wait on research–My biggest suggestion to those still stuck AND microdosing:

Integration, Boo. Integration.💫

-Shannon, The Integrative Counselor

This message was typed on the land of the Sauk, Iowa, and Meskwaki Peoples.