On Heartbreak and Healing..

I just want to post this beautiful writing about healing. Sometimes the pain of a break up with a partner or lover can make us vintage-woman-free-clipart-sad-blues-blogbecome bitter and hard. We can close up and put our defenses up and this can affect relationships into the future. We can pull away and retreat from the world or throw ourselves back into it with so much gusto we can try and “fuck the pain away.”  The pain can be so overwhelming that we can self medicate ourselves with drugs and alcohol. Sometimes we have put so much pressure on ourselves to find “the one” that we feel like we can’t live without this person. Life feels strange and alien to us without them.

Depression and anxiety can result from a break up. It can be a huge challenge to cope with life after a break up. Imagine trying to hit a tennis ball with your non dominant hand and how strange that can feel. However, we can adjust.  I can help you adjust your irrational thoughts after a break up (“I will never find anyone else and walk the earth alone“) and I can help you get over someone that you might be pining away for.  Our mind is powerful and can trick us. We believe what we tell ourselves over and over again, but with my help you can start telling yourself the right things.

Research into victims of domestic violence who were still in love with their violent partners showed that they all thought about their ex in a very particular way. They glossed over the negatives and continually kept focussing on the positives of the relationship. Like a movie in our head, we tell ourselves the stories that we want to hear. I can help you change those stories. We can re-program your thinking. Imagination, memory, the unconscious and stories are powerful things to harness to move you in the right direction and heal your broken heart. 

I loved the metaphor of the tree in the writing below. It helps us to know that in dark times like this we are changing and transforming.  I do a lot of art therapy and meditation sessions with clients where we visualise a tree or a plant and how parts of their life are unfolding.

“On Healing…

callous
the strangest thing about a heartbreak is the emptiness that takes temporary residence in your body: gut, spine, taste, touch, smell, even your thoughts fall into an empty or bland blank. but what will fill them? what will slowly seep into that time and the attempt to forget where and how someone made their way into your almost everything day by day? what kind of ruin will take place? what kind of mangled growth will follow suit? will you have to wade through a post-apocalyptic jungle? will you start singing lullabies in your mother’s tongue? will you have to scrape your insides with fingers and mouths and dig and dig and dig? what exactly will you find there: bones? a dead body? a silent whisper? rot? and who and what will eventually take it’s place? will they be just as temporary, just as fleeting, yet just as stubborn and solid? will they ever get as deep and dark as that person did? will you trust them to enter into you like that, to make love and way? will opening your legs be the same as opening your heart? or does it all become shallow breath from then onwards? does it all become a small step and a terrible, cavity laden void they will never fill? can anyone ever swim there? will they know how to? will the doves come or will all that be left crows coming to feast on that which never made it out alive?

sometimes our bodies are like trees. we focus so much on what blossming and blooming looks like, we forget the most important parts of us: the root. today i begged my body back into the ground. there are always two ways to grow.

( from inbetweenlove.tumblr.com)”

  The seed cannot sprout upwards without simultaneously sending roots into the ground,” says an Egyptian proverb.

“Keep that thought in mind as you head into your next phase of growth. What part of you needs to deepen as you rise up? What growth needs to unfold in the hidden places as you gravitate toward the light? How can you go about balancing and stabilizing your ascension with a downward penetration?”  Rob Brezsny

Before you rush off into your next relationship (perhaps too fast to try to not deal with the pain-rebound is another word for this), let’s get you healed and happy on your own  first so that you will attract the right person into your life.  Too often people rush into new relationships after break ups because they don’t want to deal with the pain or examine what went wrong. It can be very beneficial spending some time on your own, sorting yourself out, learning from the lessons of the past and working out what it is you are looking for in a future partner.   Let’s work on getting you empowered and then you can invite the right person into your life from a grounded and healed place.  Starting a new relationship for all the wrong reasons can become very messy.

Setting up my new therapy room!

The view from the therapy roomI’ve been working hard setting up my new therapy space today. I’m consciously creating a harmonious space that is perfect for transformation, healing and growth. It’s part counselling space/part art therapy studio and part bushland retreat! I can spread out all my art and clay therapy materials out, and I can burn a candle or oils for meditation exercises to create the perfect peaceful atmosphere for my clients. It is a truly healing space for clients that have suffered trauma, abuse or any upheavals. The sounds of Nature and the birds in the trees are the perfect backdrop for art therapy exercises and meditations.

Do you think you would find this a relaxiCat O'Dowd's therapy roomng space to work on healing and transforming yourself?  I find Nature very healing and relaxing and the view of the National Park out the wrap around windows creates such a soothing atmosphere. I’ve put bunches of fresh flowers throughout the space and burnt some sage. It feels like a sacred space and I’m ready to see my clients here. I’m just sp excited to start using this space tomorrow!

I see my clients in a clinic in Sydney’s CBD, Rozelle and now in this beautiful bushland retreat on Sydney’s north shore. Please get in touch if you would like to book a session with me and change your life.

What I’ve been up to. More Art Therapy workshops..

I’ve just spent an incredible and intense four days of full time workshops and lectures learning hands on more and more about art therapy and transpersonal counselling.
In order to learn best what will work for our clients we have to do all the exercises on ourselves and each other. It is always a very life changing few days!

 

We studied symbol, myth and healing in art therapy. We explored  the structure and dynamics of the psyche. We got to explore and compare the similarities and differences between psychoanalytic traditions and ancient shamanic practices.  I love learning about the overlaps between Freud and ancient Shamanism. It’s quite fascinating!

I learnt some wonderful new exercies to help my client and I’m so excited to share them! I’ve also learnt some powerful exercises for clients who have suffered trauma and abuse or have body image and eating disorders. We learnt some more clay therapy exercises and worked with transformational masks and body masks. We were trained in specific Gestalt practices to help clients communicate at a deeper level with their inner selves and their body or their mind. Too often we can be too trapped in our mind and have cut ourselves off from our body. I can help you get back in your body with different art therapy and meditation exercises. Sometimes we can be stuck in our body and cut ourselves off from our mind. I can also help with this.

I’ve just attached a little picture I took of our materials before we started a big exercise… I’m exploding with inspiration and knowledge and can’t wait to implement it all! Our lecturer was so inspiring, she works as a counsellor and art therapist in her own private practice and her knowledge and experience taught me so much.

Thank you for your support!

My private practice is growing from strength to strength thanks to you wonderful, courageous people who are willing to invest in changing, healing and transforming yourselves.
I feel especially delighted that so many clients are coming to me who have never seen a therapist or counsellor before until they heard about me and felt like my message resonated with them. I’m also humbled by the clients I’m getting coming to me that were disenchanted with more mainstream psychologists and their approach. Finding a therapist that is right for you is a very individual thing. If you are investing time and money into yourself and your relationship then you want to find someone who you can relate to. So, thank you!

Thanks for believing in me! This is truly a wonderful journey and I’m so honoured to get to work with such incredible people. It is so rewarding to help people and see them reach moments of realisation and insight and go on to transform their lives for the better. My clients are brave and strong people. Thank you all so much for your support.

You can get in touch with me here, https://creativesexpression.com/book-a-session/

We deserve ecstatic bliss and intimate connection.

I truly believe this. This quote sums up my work beautifully and why I do what I do.

Sexuality is an undeniable aspect of ourselves. We deserve ecstatic bliss. This all begins with ourselves. We can chase it in others, but we will find that true ecstacy or mind blowing proportions once we have worked on ourselves.

“Your sexuality is an integral aspect of life. Ecstasy is your birthright. Intimate connection is foundational to health and happiness, beginning with your connection with yourself.”
S. Winston

So if you don’t think you deserve ecstatic bliss and incredible sex, why is that?

Channeling the fierce feminine..

Ferocity | Jodi Lobozzo Aman

“She is the Black Panther, the Tigress, the Lioness – chasing, stalking, threatening, striking, pouncing. She is unpredictably wild. She is sensual and passionate. She loves an adventure. She is assertive, aggressive, and holds her power with strength and grace. She brings about needed conflict and change. She is protective, guarding against injustice and cruelty. She is a feminine force not to be messed with. But if we surrender to her, she has the medicine to heal our wounds.

angels_wild_women_01

She is Fierce.

From a young age, girls are taught not to know their anger. To be “Good Girls”, we learn that our tempers must be reigned in, controlled, and contained – lest we seem unladylike, unfeminine, unattractive, unbecoming, or ugly. Following in the footsteps of our mothers, their mothers, and the mothers before them, we may even find ourselves teaching the next generation of daughters to contain this unacceptable aspect of our humanity, hiding it from being seen or heard.

After years of strict concealment, these unwelcomed feelings are pushed down deep so that regardless of what is going on inside, all appears peaceful, placid and calm on the outside.

…The tension of holding it all in may become so great that we have sudden, uncontrollable outbursts where the darkness within us barrels forward, spewing out onto everything and everyone around us. Our anger becomes a dichotomized force: dulled out and silenced, or out-of-control and destructive. In either case, we feel shame. But in denying our anger, what else has been denied?

“Just as physical pain tells us to take our hand off the hot stove, the pain of our anger preserves the very integrity of our self. Our anger can motivate us to say ‘no’ to the ways in which we are defined by others and ‘yes’ to the dictates of our inner self.” ~Harriet Lerner

Co-mingling with the many other feelings that emerged when I began to speak my truth and make significant changes in my life and lifestyle, I realized there was a world of feelings within me that had been relegated to the shadows, now slowly revealing itself as I re-define what is healthy, balanced, and whole. I cannot be a whole person if part of me is cut off. At some point, I have to face all that is mine.

…Unchecked and ignored anger can be destructive. It can cause hurt, suffering, and wreak havoc in our relationships and on our lives. But if we are willing to work with it, live with it, feel it, observe it, explore it, and name it without restrictions and rules, we will meet something new. It is a protection against harm, a warning, and stealth in maneuvering conflict or threat. It can be fiery, edgy, and powerfully strong. It helps us say “No”, develop good boundaries, stand up for our truth, and defend what is important and valued. It reveals a more accurate picture of all that we are.”

From www.thespiritthatmovesme.blogspot.com

Orgasms are better for your brain than crosswords..

Well, well, well. I love it when a study proves what I’ve always thought! Orgasms are incredibly good for your mind!!

In America, Barry Komisaruk and Nan Wise, (the aptly named “human pleasure researchers”) did a big call out for women who were willing to masturbate themselves to orgasm while lying in a MRI machine. Now I applaud the women who did this, because I would personally find that claustrophobic MRI machine slightly offputting for some good ‘ole self loving, or maybe the confined space  aided the experience? Anyway, I digress..

There was a reason for this self loving in a MRI machine though. The machine actually measured blood flow to different parts of the brain and the researchers wanted to see what happened at the point of orgasm.  We already knew that mental exercises like crosswords, increase brain activity but they only do this in fairly specific areas of the brain. This study found that orgasm activates the whole brain. Orgasm brings nutrients and oxygenation to the brain and increase blood flow to all parts of the brain.

Orgasms can also decrease stress, ease depression and increase your life expectancy. You don’t need a partner for orgasm, you can indulge in some healthy self-loving! It’s good for you! The aforementioned human pleasure researchers are  also starting new research on how orgasms can block pain. The perfect way to get rid of that headache!

Science proves that if a man acts hard to get, it increases a woman’s interest.

What a fascinating study.. Science has actually backed up the “playing hard to get” phrase. Now I’m not advocating you play any games when dating, but this study does reveal that if a man holds back his true feelings a little at the beginning then a woman is bound to be more interested.

A recent study found that women were actually more attracted to men if they didn’t know for sure if the men liked them best than men who they knew liked them the most.  Who would’ve thought that keeping someone guessing about your feelings for them might actaully make them think more about you?

Researchers said this came down to the fact that salient information is what massively influences our way of reading our feelings.  Salient information is things you think about all the time, you know, that whole  “I just can’t get him out of my head” thing.  The uncertainty about whether the man was interested or not kept the women guessing about if the man liked them a lot or not. We interpret these frequent thoughts as an indication that we must like him a lot.   Uncertainty interests us because we can’t adapt to it and we don’t know what the outcome will be.

Here’s a quote from Psychology today that explains how the Uncertainty Principle works so well with us humans,

“Prior studies have shown that uncertainty about a positive event often can produce more positive feelings than if the positive event was certain. When the positive event is certain, we experience strong positive feelings, but then we adapt to it. However, when the event is uncertain we spend more time thinking about if the event will occur, trying to interpret it and understand it. The result is that we are unable to adapt to the event because the outcome is undetermined. This could be another reason why uncertainty makes us more interested in something or someone.”

So there you have it guys! Science has just proved that when you first start to date someone, not showing all of your feelings at the very beginning, and thus creating a tad of uncertainty about how much you like her, will make her think more about you.  This means she will like you more.

Please keep in mind that this study only focusses on the very beginning of a relationship, when a man and a woman first meet. There’s no proof saying that playing hard to get throughout a relationship works or helps!

What do women find sexually attractive in men…

 This study made me laugh a little. A recent study from British Columbia found that women were much more attracted to swaggering and brooding men than smiling men. Now, I haven’t read the original study so I’m taking this with a grain of salt, but it still does shed an interesting light on what we see as desirable when it comes to masculinity.
Women said that happiness was the very least attractive quality in a man! I wonder how much of this has to do with all those action movies where the hero is a man who never expresses any emotion and is all chiselled and smouldering deadpan masculinity.
This study did not ask anything about whether women thought they would make a good boyfriend or husband though. The study only asked the women questions based on their initial, gut reactions on carnal and sexual attraction. Do you think this study illuminates why some women always fall for the “bad boy.”
Another recent study found that women found men with bearded faces as less attractive. The majority of women found bearded men to be seen as of a higher social status and possibly more aggressive, however not better looking than non bearded men.

Female Orgasm

I remember in sex education in school never learning anything about the female orgasm, in fact I don’t think the words were even mentioned! I remember the emphasis on male orgasm depositing sperm into the vagina  and that was about  it.  There was never any mention of the clitoris getting erect or the entire labia area become engorged with blood and “puffing out” or how the vagina actually lengthens and changes shape when a woman is turned on.

There’s a lot of ignorance and misinformation about the female orgasm and female pleasure and looking at our sex education is there any wonder why?  A recent study of women in Sweden sheds some light onto women’s experiences with orgasm. The study asked almost one a half thousand women about their experiences with orgasm. The women were predominantly heterosexual and their ages ranged from 18 to 74.

Only 3% of the women surveyed reported never having an orgasm and 57% of the women said they could reach orgasm through penile intercourse alone.  69% of women said that their preferred masturbation technique was clitoral stimulation.  21% of women said they found it hard to reach orgasm a lot of the time. 31% of women surveyed said that having a penis inside their vagina made no difference to the quality of their orgasm.  The average age that women first had sex was 16 years.

63% of women aged 66 to 74 said they experienced their first ever orgasm by having a penis inside their vagina. 46% of women aged 18 to 24 experienced their first ever orgasm through masturbation.

Such a fascinating study that shows the diversity of female experience and differences in female pleasure.. Almost 60% of women achieve orgasm through penis in vagina sex and over 40% of women don’t.  The majority of women have experienced orgasm. So when you are with a woman you can’t make any assumptions about “what women like” because as you can see, we like very different things!  Asking what she likes, is a great way to start…