Matthew Cohen – What Can I Expect

trees The therapeutic process is greater than the sum of its parts—meaning that the value of our work is more than a description of what might emerge in any particular session, however, profound.

It's a feeling of finally dislodging a longtime pain...a getting underneath a problem you have been so embedded in so long that you couldn't imagine being without it. It's a feeling of that which has made you uncomfortable or ashamed your whole life now making so much sense, that you can only feel enormous love and respect for the part of you that valiantly suffered this troublesome pattern in order to survive. It's feeling seen and understood in the company of a Friendly Other in a way that it's hard to know which one of you is sourcing the compassion. It's feeling freer and more whole with less and less need for perfection. That's the larger picture, and I invite you to want this for yourself, even if you don't think it could happen or don't know how to get there.

Speaking more practically, we move towards the larger picture through thoughtful talk and thoughtful touch. Your habitual, and often contracted ways of reacting are replaced with fresher, more spontaneous responses. Living more from what is organically arising in you, you feel a justified confidence and greater trust that you are seen, without having to effort to make it happen. You are more emotionally available to others, and, at the same time, having sturdier boundaries, are less likely to merge with other people’s agendas. Whereas before, living in the present sounded like a wonderful idea, it becomes a fundamental reality repeatedly and happily experienced. From this new seat of Being, rather than holding you back, earlier wounding becomes an un-scary avenue for continuous growth and integration. Self-judgment leaves more quickly, now that you've discovered your internal gyroscope of unwavering self-acceptance.

With this new appreciation of mind-body wholeness, our work will likely leave you with a truly felt-sense of Self. Where you were dissociated, you are now embodied. The Presence you experience in our sessions is yours to take, with your own particular vision, into the world.