There are so many modalities to healing and I often hear people ask: which one is best for me?
They have read about Brainspotting, Equine Assisted Therapy, Quantum Healing Hypnosis Technique (QHHT), and Energy Healing using the Body Code, Emotion Code, and Belief Code and they can feel that something here is meant for them, but they cannot tell which one is still best for them.
So I want to try to answer that in this article, and I want to start with the thing that makes the question a little easier than it looks. Everything that I do from holistic talk therapy, to energy work, Brainspotting, equine assisted psychotherapy, and quantum healing, it's all under the same umbrella. It's all about accessing the subconscious. That's where all the good news is.
Our subconscious holds everything that has ever happened to us, and oftentimes it is what is kind of driving everything for us, whether we know it or not. We don't know what we don't know until we know it. What's in the brain is in the body, and what's in the body is in the brain– it's all connected and we are all inherently wired to heal. Every one of these approaches is just a different way of tapping into that ability. So you are not choosing between right and wrong answers here. You are choosing which way and which modality feels most like you.
And it's not one size fits all. For example, some people know the minute they read about Gemma and our Equine Assisted Therapy sessions. Some people need to talk it through first. Both are completely fine.
If You Want to Talk: Holistic Counseling
I am a licensed professional counselor, and I have not left that behind. There's a purpose for talk therapy like learning skills, mindfulness-type techniques, having someone help you understand what is happening and why. All of this is incorporated into my holistic therapy approach. Even in my other work, a great deal of healing happens simply in the conversation. What I find as a thread that runs through many sessions is that so many people have never had anybody hold that sacred space for them to express openly and safely.
If what you want right now is someone to sit with, think with, and work through something alongside you over time, that is a very good place to start. And if we find along the way that something is sitting deeper than the talking reaches, we then have other doors we can open together, without you having to go find someone new.
If You Don't Want to Tell the Story Again: Brainspotting
This is the healing modality I often use for people who have already talked about it, sometimes for years, and understand it completely, and it still has not moved.
The nice thing about Brainspotting is that people don't have to relive anything. They don't have to talk about it if they don't want to talk about it. Their nervous system is going through the process and doing the healing work. We find where what we are focused on lives in the body, and we trust the client's brain to lead us through the session. The brain and the nervous system know exactly what they are doing. A lot of people think there is not much happening because we are not doing a lot of talking, but a great deal is happening. And we don't have to have context for it. You don't have to know what it is to know that something is happening and therefore changing.
Brainspotting can be helpful for all kinds of things whether it be a larger life event trauma or a triggering moment in everyday life. Some people are triggered all the time by different things. Others have one acute experience — a car accident, something they witnessed. And for some it is simply that they never felt heard, or there were friendship or relationship wounds that stayed with them. People come with physical pain that has an acute onset, as well. You can use Brainspotting for just about anything. As Brainspotting is just the framework for setting up the healing process. .
It is wonderful with kids as well. With children I often use art. I have them draw, and listen to bilateral sound. They process so quickly, because they don't have an accumulation of a lot of stuff yet. It's great for parents, too.
Brainspotting can also help with hard decisions. When someone feels pulled two ways, we can hold both, and they begin to feel in their body which one feels better. We call this a felt sense and the clarity comes from there.
You can come for a regular session, or, if you are ready to go all the way in on something big, an intensive. I wrote about how to choose between those in [Brainspotting Intensive or Regular Session?], and about what Brainspotting is in [What Is Brainspotting?].
If Words Aren't Your Way In: Equine Therapy with Gemma
Some people are simply not going to get there by talking, and my horse is that bridge.
When we work out at the barn, I don't do much talking, other than a debriefing of the experience. As Gemma, my horse is always communicating with me and the client. The beautiful thing about working with a horse that many clients feel deeply is that the horse is not judging you. They are merely the mirror or window into you for the time together. There is such a vulnerability that opens up with sessions with my horse Gemma that people are surprised by. It’s so beautiful to be a part of that.
You do not need to know anything about horses for equine therapy. Sometimes the very first exercise is as simple as going out into the pasture to bring her in, with nothing but a halter in your hand and no directions. This is just one example but there are so many ways to work with Gemma.
Many of my clients who come out have been through trauma of their own, and they can really relate to Gemma and her story, because they can see that she has come full circle. You can meet her in Meet Gemma and read about what we actually do together in What Happens in Equine Therapy.
If You Want to Go Deep, All at Once: QHHT
Quantum Healing Hypnosis Technique is for the person who is ready for a longer, deeper conversation with their own subconscious.
Usually the people who are drawn to it are more open and willing to such an experience, or have heard about it from other people who have experienced it. They may have already done a lot of healing work and they are still curious about the process. Maybe there are three things in your life you have always been challenged with, or patterns and habits you keep bumping up against. You know what you want to do to stop it, but for some reason it is just not completely going away.
It is not a quick session. I always say plan on the whole day, but usually the sessions last for four to five hours. And it takes as long as it needs to take. We meet in my office, and you leave with the recording. And if you are wondering what everyone wonders, what if I can't be hypnotized — everybody can be hypnotized. We are just getting that analytical part of the mind out of the way for the subconscious to come forward.
I will say gently that the subconscious does not always answer everything completely, because there may still be something you need to learn, and that what you hear only changes your life if you put action toward it. The answers from a QHHT session are yours to live. [What Is QHHT?] walks through a session from start to finish.
If Something Physical Won't Resolve: Emotion Code, Body Code, and Belief Code
Most people who come to me for this come in with something physical. Something they have been trying to deal with that just doesn't seem to be getting resolved. Often after going through the medical system, or alongside it as a complement to what their doctor is already doing.
It is a very gentle healing modality. You don't have to go through things over again. To give a small window into a session, I ask questions, do muscle testing, and we release things gently. I'm not touching you. It can be done virtually and remotely. You can be across the room or across the country. It doesn’t matter because this is all done via proxy which also makes it a gentle approach for children, and for our animals too.
Emotion Code, Body Code, and Belief Code explains how the three fit together, and What Happens in a Body Code Session walks through a real session.
When the Answer Is More Than One
In practice, these do not stay in their separate boxes, and I would not want them to.
I have clients I have seen for years where we are Brainspotting and they will say, could we just clear those emotions? They want to go even deeper with their curiosity leading the way and we wind up using multiple modalities in tandem. Out at the barn, sometimes we bring Brainspotting in, and Gemma, my horse, just stands by while the client finds a spot and lets their nervous system unwind. She holds a coherent healing space, so it is double-layered with my horse and myself holding space for the client.
So if you are drawn to two of these modalities, that may be exactly the shape your healing wants to take.
If You Still Aren't Sure
That is completely all right. You don't have to arrive with the answer.
Read what pulls at you. Everything I would talk to you about is written out in these articles, and I think the one you keep coming back to is telling you something. We need to learn to trust what we gravitate toward, because that is your subconscious already leading the way.
And if you would like to talk it through, we can have a conversation before you ever come in. Ask anything you want to ask. There's nothing off limits. Book a phone consultation with me here.
