Carissa Rodgers in Bundaberg, Queensland | Psychotherapist

Carissa Rodgers

Locality: Bundaberg, Queensland

Phone: +61 401 174 953

Address: Room 16B, Enterprise Building, Corner of Quay and Tantitha Street 4670 Bundaberg, QLD, Australia

Website: http://carissarodgers.com

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24.01.2022 Novembers Healing Newsletter and practice update. https://mailchi.mp/81dad12/healing-newsletter-november-2020

23.01.2022 wear your past with grace present with care and future with delight nothing gleams better when three of them... are carefully combined noor unnahar - poetry from ‘yesterday i was the moon’

23.01.2022 There’s something about doing the hard healing work to come back amd find out all along that there was a place that exists inside of us that has ever been wounded. Some call this place Self, some call it Love, I will usually refer to it as Essence

23.01.2022 Trauma occurs when our capacity to process emotional and somatic experience is overwhelmed. One of the things we’ve learned about trauma is that it’s not so much what happens that causes an experience to be embodied as trauma, but how it comes to be organized in the nervous system. What is most impactful is whether there is an empathic other who can help us to hold and metabolize what would otherwise be fragmenting. The nature of this other is of the mystery and can take ...inner and outer forms. The journey is inside the neural network which is holding the unprocessed soul-material, and to infuse it with qualities and experiences not previously available: trust, courage, companionship, validation, love. But more than anything, the network is updated by way of an embodied, felt sense of safety. We might see trauma as involving two core components: overwhelming experience, on the one hand, and the felt experience of aloneness on the other. Not only do we have these very unworkable, terrifying flooding images, feelings, and sensations, but at some very basic level we’re alone with all that. Perhaps it is the aloneness, in the end, that is so devastating to us as sensitive, relational human beings. As an act of mercy and compassion, we are asked to take care of that frozen, confused one who has become stuck in the time machine of trauma and implicit memory, to ensure that he or she is not alone. That we’ll listen to them, be there for them, and hold them so they’re able to feel felt and understood, and more than anything to know that they are safe now, perhaps for the first time ever. To invite the shattered one into a safe field where he or she can be seen and known. To bear witness to their untold story as it unfolds across verbal, somatic, and autonomic narratives: Yes, I hear you, I see you, I want to know you, hold you, care for you, listen to you. I will not forget you. I will not forsake you. You are no longer alone. You are safe now. Matt Licata Photo by serenestarts

21.01.2022 It's so beautiful to watch the next Sacred Embodiment Healing mentorship slowly fill up. A beautiful gathering of women coming together to take their healing journey through 2021. I haven't done email lists and barely any posts or marketing this year, and a group of souls have found their way to the mentorship. We are nearly full and we start mid-April this year to Mid December. At the same time as new women begin, last years mentorship graduates will now start to meet in mo...nthly healing circles to deepen into the next part of their journey. We are going to be exploring some deep and intimate themes in our circles for the mentorship graduates such as shame and despair, grief and death, sexuality and sensuality, heartbreak and heartache, embodied touch, reclaiming the wounded child, shadow and light, self-compassion, trust and betrayal, vulnerability and worthiness, safety and belonging, beyond trauma - connecting with our essence, awe, gratitude and wonder, and many more relevant themes to our human existence and these times we are living in. If you are thinking you might like to join the Healing Mentorship of 2021 please reach out. The mentorship doors will close soon. Link for more information in comments.

21.01.2022 Let’s see how I can transform this space into art and beauty for a 3 day women’s healing retreat. After photos to come soon

20.01.2022 Dear all, Just letting you know I am currently on leave from the practice. I am doing my best to respond to enquiries, however, response times will be slower as I am home with my 3 children. I am yet to respond to all those waiting on session times as I need space to be able to do this. My admin also left just before Xmas so I'm juggling everything that comes in on my own. due to having so many channels of contact - 3 x emails, Facebook business page and personal page, text and calls it can sometimes take me a bit to try and track everything. I will respond as I can. Big Love

19.01.2022 Compassion Circle - Soul Tending Date - Sunday, October the 10th. Compassion Circles are for women craving deeper connection, spirituality and presence and who are ready to receive a whole lot more beauty and joy into their everyday lives.... Join us in sacred circle as we anchor our bodies and calm our minds through deeply nourishing embodiment practices, movement, music, creative expression, depth enquiry, sharing and gentle therapeutic touch. At the heart of Compassion Circles, we practice Relational Embodiment how to rest deeply in our own embodiment whilst being connected in relationship with others. In doing this we can come back to our core and find safety once again in connection. SOUL TENDING In circle we are going to be exploring how we care for, and connect with and tend to our soul life. Just as we would tend to our emotional, mental and physical selves, our souls are always communicating to us below the surface of our consciousness. We will be exploring ways Soul speaks to us, how we listen, and how we move in greater depth throughout our lives. Soul is often loudest in our darkest and melancholy moments. We will take time to honour the darkness that has come into our lives to show us where Soul lives. We will draw upon the work of Jung and Michael Meade in our understanding of Soul

18.01.2022 Thankyou for being a part of my 2020. For all its lessons and adversity I have collected many gifts along the way. The gift of slowing down, the gift of deepening my ongoing practice, the gift of offering service, the gift of deepening connections and the gift of remembering and reconnecting with what truly matters. I hope you too can find the gifts through adversity that 2020 has brought you. I look forward to connecting either in person or online in 2021. ... Many blessings, Carissa x "Before you get all busy and serious about your new year resolutions, take a moment to tune into that force which beats your heart, which grows the leaves on the trees, which creates and tears down, everything. Tune into the hot rhythm of evolution that is already unfolding, and dance your way into your holy calling. The whole universe is dancing with you" Chameli Ardagh

17.01.2022 Emotions people feel, but can’t explain

17.01.2022 REFRAME OF THIS MEME: Agreeing to things to keep the peace is a safety response. It’s called Fawning whereby agreeing and pleasing is used as to not disrupt the attachment connection. It’s a very intelligent response. Those who fawn often later in life have to learn how to say NO and have boundaries. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple to take up space, use your voice and say no. If it doesn’t disrupt the patterns of connection already formed (which it usually does) there’s u...sually some internal backlash that can be excruciating when one comes out full force with boundaries. The remedy is to go slow. Often fear and guilt come up as a result of beginning to find your own voice. Find places where you can practice. Start small. Say NO to benign things just for practice. Repetition, support and inner work around changing patterns is the remedy needed to move out of fawn behaviour. (Oh and stop believing memes that try to make it out as things can happen in an instant when you have a trauma history )

16.01.2022 Exploration sessions conducted in December for the next round of the Sacred Embodiment Healing mentorship. The program filled up in 2020. In 2021 I am taking a smaller group through due to my training schedule. There are just a few no-obligation exploration sessions left. these sessions give you a taste of how I work and what I can offer. If it feels right for both of us to work together in this format you will get sent an invite to the program. So What is the Sacred Embodi...ment Healing Mentorship exactly This is an embodiment program. It’s about coming home to yourself, to what resides within you so you can reconnect with your body in a whole new way after too long being numb, disconnected and shutdown. In this program you will learn how to:

15.01.2022 Courage has been a close ally in my life. It has been what has gotten me through. Its what underpins my work in the world, my relationships with others, and everything I have stood my truth in. It hasn't been confidence, and it's certainly not fearlessness. It's courage. Its courage that took my by the hand some 20 years ago and said "this way, not that way". And every day since courage has helped me grow, love, create and stand with shaking knees facing the world offering m...y gifts. Courage has helped me face shame, and continues to do so. Courage helps me stay when I want to run. Courage is what nudges me to reach out when I'm at my edge and crying "I cant do this anymore". When confidence hasn't been a great friend, courage has always been there. Courage nurses my self doubt and whispers always "You got this".

15.01.2022 My gorgeous Hubby is modelling the new colours of weighted blankets that have come in. This batch has been sold but the next batch won’t be far away. This year I have sold so many of these fabulous products to clients. I’m very lucky to now have secured a sewer to continue making them to put into my online healing store that will open up on my website next year. For now you can PM If you are interested. Great for both therapists to use in session with their clients and for ...clients to use at home. Weighted products are great to help with dissociation patterns, feeling the body, grounding, support, comfort, down regulating stress responses, soothing and settling. The weighted lap pad is velvet so is also a sensory experience. Somatic therapists will find this useful in helping clients open up to exploring different sensations through the material. Clients find the velvet incredibly soothing and these products can be a beautiful aid in grief and trauma work. See more

13.01.2022 Decembers Circle Embodying the Light of your Future Self is full. We have 16 women coming together on the auspicious evening of December the 21st. The time is now to anchor into our own Light, for ourselves, for each other, our communities and the planet. here are what some are saying about this significant date: "On December 21, 2020 a Magnificent Celestial Stargate will open in the Heavens which marks the Dawn of the NEW AGE of Aquarius and the 1st day of the Satya Yuga ...of Central Sunlight. A 20-year Jupiter / Saturn Great Conjunction that Falls on the most significant Solar day of the year the December Solstice" "The 21st December is also a moment of astrological importance with numerous pivotal shifts of energy occurring. These energetic and celestial changes will alter the way we live our lives. The connective power available to us as we honour this sacred day will be immense" We will have a Labyrinth facilitator attending ready to guide us to the centre of our own light through the Labyrinth. For those attending emails about the event will come out within the next week. Unfortunately, I had to cap the event at 16 for space reasons however I will run a future self journey again for those who missed out.

13.01.2022 Our bodies hold the stories of our past. Somatic flashbacks are really a thing, although not spoken about much in our current ideas in the mental health model. The dread that arises on waking, the shortness of breath during the day, a heart that starts beating too fast - these are common examples of somatic flashbacks that can only be rewired through working directly with the somatic system.

12.01.2022 Super excited to get 'Carissa's Couch' out into the world where I will answer any questions about mental, emotional, spiritual health for women in business in Her Umbrella magazine. A must follow magazine for women in business

12.01.2022 This year I included The Safe & Sound Protocol (SSP) into my practice with clients after doing the training last year and studying with Ana De Volle in Colarado in January. I have found the SSP protocol to be a very helpful adjunct with therapy. I have used it many times myself this year and have seen incredible benefits for my nervous system. This years mentorship program got the SSP protocol as a bonus when they joined the program. because i have noticed the value in repea...ting the SSP next years mentorship will include 3 series of the protocol over the 9 months. Clients have reported incredible yet subtle and powerful changes in their own nervous system after completing the protocol. WHAT IS THE SSP The Safe and Sound protocol is based on over 20 years of research into the nervous system. It is an acoustic intervention developed by Dr Stephen Porges. It is a passive intervention that supports the nervous system to move from a defensive response (stress state) to a state of calm and safety. It is based on Dr Porges’ work on the ‘polyvagal theory’. The polyvagal theory tells us that there is part of our autonomic nervous system which is responsible for social connection and it is this part of the nervous system that processes the intonation of the human voice through the middle ear. SSP essentially involves putting cues of safety into the nervous system to regulate our state by stimulating the vagus nerve. Listening is a functional exercise, even though a passive task. The listening pathway can change the neural state. The SSP listening system has embedded in the music the optimal tone of the human voice that our nervous system responds to. It is not sound healing as such, or frequency healing and the SSP is not a stand-alone therapy but rather it is used in the beginning process of therapy as a doorway into working more deeply with the autonomic nervous system and its stress responses. The SSP is always administered and overseen by a practitioner who has done training in the protocol.

11.01.2022 We all need witnesses. The most painful thing is when pain was inflicted upon somebody and this is not seen. We all need to be seen where the pain is. We all need that somebody sees and recognizes our pain. If not we are our only witnesses, and our movies keep running internally, because there is no outside in which they can be anchored

09.01.2022 A few years ago after I had done significant healing on my own nervous system I started to recognise the power of dance and movement for healing, particularly those who have had trauma. I went and studied some different movement and dance modalities which was super fun and dance became deep soul nourishment for myself as a therapist. I ran some classes and held a large dance circle at a retreat but I was too busy in practice to keep the classes going. There was also another ...thing that came to my attention with those beginning to move their bodies after trauma, is that when someone is in a freeze shutdown state moving freely after so much constriction can reinforce this survival state. To move freely requires a less inhibited state of being. For those where freeze has been their way to survive coming out of that quickly is not helpful and can often bring up a lot of self consciousness and too much of the high energy state that sits under the freeze. In trauma treatment we use this concept of titration. Which is going slow and working with small pieces at a time. I've been searching for a training that aligns well with this concept and is not just another dissociated dance practice. I've stumbled across some incredible work in the area of movement - one being the work of Susan Harper and continuum which is based on connecting back into our fluid and Ocean element which helps restore our inherent rhythm, and now more recently I'm looking forward to studying with Peter from Netherlands in his Movingness training which combines elements that fit nicely with SE work around developing interoception using movement. Feeling safe enough to move freely and fluidly is so deeply healing for those who have had trauma (and incredibly nourishing for my own self care practice as a therapist)

09.01.2022 Exploration sessions are conducted from now until December 18th for the next years Healing Mentorship to begin March 2021. There are just a few spaces left for an exploration sessions before this year is out. please reach out if you think you might be interested in taking the mentorship and making 2021 your year of Healing. https://carissarodgers.com/sacred-embodiment/

09.01.2022 Fresh flowers for the practice make me happy

08.01.2022 Over the last decade working with my clients, I’ve noticed that we are all essentially looking for the exact same thing: to be seen, to be heard, to be held. These longings live within us, hidden so well we often don’t realise we have them. Traditional, individual therapy could never replace this deeper longing for connection with others. In order to heal, we need to come back together.... That’s why I’m so passionate about creating safe healing spaces for women to share experiences, stories, thoughts, ideas and prayers. In tapping into the rich, collective generational wisdom, the circle itself becomes our greatest teacher and healer. Our Compassion Circle for December is full however I will run the "Embodying the Light of your Future Self" again In January/February. We also hope to see "Circles Online" early in the year as well. Please PM me to secure your place. Our Last circle filled up within a week and half.

08.01.2022 Our symptoms will show us where we are locked into survival states. We could break this down even further to the exact state the nervous system is expressing, but often its not even that clear as we express mixed states all the time. In my client work I find its helpful in the beginning to just know what being locked into survival looks and feels like, and what having sufficient safety on board looks and feels like. With the popularity of nervous system and trauma work of la...te I'm noticing a trend of almost demonising our survival states of fight/flight/freeze. But its important to know that we really want these states of being! They helped us to survive difficult experiences and will continue to do so. Its when we get locked into them where things go awry. What we are aiming to do in healing trauma is to invite back in enough felt sense of safety and to restore our ability to accurately express what is needed in the moment. You will see this shown by the outside ring connecting with the middle ring. For example, yesterday I really needed a fight response. And a big one at that! Someone had overcrossed my boundaries in a really big way and my fight response is what helped me to have a boundary big enough to end contact with that person. When we aren't locked into survival from previous traumatic experiences, and we have enough safety on board, we get access to appropriate and accurate responses that help us in the moment. A nervous system that works well, and is not full of highly charged experiences from the past, is our great friend. This is a slide from a Women's healing weekend where explore all things Nervous system.

07.01.2022 Super excited about my next E-book that’s just been completed in time for the 3-day Mentorship Healing weekend this weekend. The images in this are divine! My admin also has a degree in design and she does the most incredible designs both for my Ebooks and Facebook posts. (Unfortunately for me today she handed in her resignation as she has secured full time work

05.01.2022 She would make them beautiful

05.01.2022 Everyone who studies therapy finds their little niche and passion place amongst so much theory and modalities. After spending 3 years studying Somatic experiencing (and now assisting on the training), where I first learnt about Touch work for trauma. I then went on to do advanced studies as it was so powerful to see how it worked with myself and my clients. These are the 2 places I find my home in therapy and where I work best - in the Somatic and relational space and combini...Continue reading

03.01.2022 Compassion Circle - Soul Tending. Sunday, October 10th. Come join us in women's circle <3

03.01.2022 PRACTICE UPDATE GENERAL Well, what a start to this year! We began by inviting a new group of Women through the Sacred Embodiment Healing Mentorship, which goes for nine months. I love to work closely with Women over time in support of their healing. I also love that the women who are attracted to my work understand that healing is a process that takes time. I do not promote quick-fix therapies for deep healing because it takes time to build new neural and somatic pathways. I ...Continue reading

03.01.2022 Take the time to sign up. for the next day its still free. you can watch the wisdom of trauma movie for free and today there was a great interview with Peter Levine (creator of Somatic Experiencing) and Gabor Mate. If you have had trauma, wondering if your symptoms are related to trauma, or are a practitioner who wants to understand trauma then sign up to get all the interviews. Gabor Mate, Stephen Porges and Peter Levine form the foundation of my somatic healing work for trauma (amongst many others). Well worth watching.

02.01.2022 I’ve been reflecting alot on what makes a space trauma informed versus not trauma informed. Whilst I found these values that capture some of the trauma informed principles that are held in the Healing circles, there are other elements I believe a facilitator needs to hold. Such as having an awareness of what trauma looks like when it shows up, and how to safely resource a person without overwhelming them nor pushing them further into their experience. The other element is h...aving an awareness of the nervous system responses particularly the fawn response. When we sit in circle those that have more of a pleasing type pattern will find it hard to say no or be too embarrassed to go against what the group might be doing as a whole. This leads me to reflect upon this principle of choice in a trauma informed circle and how we safely set up choices that allows those to feel like they have options. A simple yes or no to a practice that might feel uncomfortable is not choice. Particularly for someone who can’t say no. Choice is scaffolded into circle practices as options rather than a yes or no. A trauma informed circle holds all these things in mind in planning, preparation and facilitation.

02.01.2022 If you think back to your childhood, I bet you’ll find that your most painful memories are burned into the core of your being, no matter how much time has passed. 10, 20 or 50 years later you still feel the pain of the past. Even if the memories aren’t clear in your mind, your body is now expressing the emotional pain that is locked within. Perhaps you’ve gone on in life and chosen to look the other way, for to look into the pain in your heart feels too overwhelming. Perhaps,... you can’t understand why things still affect you, and it’s easier to pretend they don’t. Or perhaps, you’ve become so used to living this way, to imagine living any other way seems out of reach. In this process you’ve built a wall around your yourself, it was supposed to protect you from ever being hurt again. In reality this wall has trapped you, has closed down your heart and stopped you from experiencing your authentic and true self. The self that can embrace love, trust people and feel the happiness that is your birthright. Even though time isn’t the greatest healer, we do have something more powerful than time. Within us lives the innate capacity for healing, awakening and growth. As women we are wired for working through emotional pain and traumas of the heart. The wounds of our heart become a gateway to gently enter, rather than a problem to solve. Our trauma work becomes our deep soul work as we find our inner resources, strengths, authenticity and unique gifts. Every woman needs to find her ‘soul space’, so she can attend to her wounds in a tender, new and creative way. And Every woman must ask herself what is the cost of not tending to this soul space?.

01.01.2022 A NOTE TO THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN HARMED BY THERAPY Attachment in Therapy. I've seen many people in the online therapeutic groups I'm in this year make posts about being deeply hurt by therapists. Most of these posts have talked about the pain of abandonment, lack of attunement, and lack of care in things that mattered to them. In some cases, the trauma from this reinforced the original attachment trauma for which these folks were seeking therapy....Continue reading