Background

Conni Olson, RN LCSW-C, Sr. Therapist states, "In my prior nursing experiences I noticed a pattern of chronic functional, psychosomatic or physical illness, covering a spectrum from asthma, to migraine headaches, to TMJ, to chronic backaches to arthritis, all of which were addressed in the biomedical model and symptoms were relieved TEMPORARILY."

Medication doesn't heal when there is unfinished psychological business to grieve. One way to view the process of recovery is that it is like peeling away the layers of an onion. Each layer is a manifestation and consequence of the false or wounded self and our unconscious attachment to that falseness or woundedness.

There are three wounded layers. The first consists of numbness, pain and confusion that are but a part of the many foggy manifestations of the second layer. Until you cut through the nebulous first layer, you are still in Stage Zero recovery---which is no recovery at all.

The second layer that blinds the True Self consists of addictions, compulsions and various other mental disorders. To penetrate any of these, usually takes one year of working in a Stage One full recovery program. (i.e., 12 Step Program)

Under this layer is the third and final layer, adult child wounding and perhaps its major manifestation, codependency. This layer contains a lot of fear, shame and anger, three painful feelings that we deal with in the long and exciting process of Stage Two recovery. Underneath all these layers at the core of our being, lies the goal of recovery---OUR TRUE SELF.

A Time To Heal addresses and helps you heal some of stage one, but our main focus is stage two. Without healing stage two, true recovery is impossible. A Time To Heal believes it is essential for the individual to make connections between current feelings and past unresolved issues that are bound by toxic shame. All therapies, education seminars, and exercises are carefully structured to allow the individual to become aware of these connections, experience these feelings and make a creative and corrective response to the bondage of internalized shame. The goal of such an inward journey is personal and coupleship empowerment through the generation of CHOICES other than the survival roles that emerge from childhood in a shame-based environment.

We focus on original pain work, utilizing the Transformation Model developed by John Bradshaw and Kip Flock when working with codependents. When working with couples we utilize Imago Therapy and PAIRS education. We include such modalities as voice dialogue, neurolinguistic programming, gestalt, transactional analysis, psychodrama, family systems, behavior, cognitive, EMDR, and imagery. By employing our eclectic approach we help heal, reclaim, and champion our wounded inner child and work towards recovery and self-actualization. This paradigm of treatment is successful in treating individuals, couples, families and groups.