• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Welcome
  • Work With Me >
    • Signs of Trauma
    • Benefits
    • Fees and Policies
    • Frequent Questions
    • Online Sessions
    • Types of Bodywork >
      • Bodywork sessions
      • Reiki
      • Massage
      • CranioSacral Therapy
      • Somatic Experiencing
      • Other Bodywork
  • People Say
  • Articles >
    • Articles by Topic
    • Articles by Date
  • Books >
    • Wellspring of Compassion
    • Presence After Trauma
  • About >
    • About Sonia Connolly, LMT
    • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Nav Widget Area

Sundown Healing Arts

Intuitive, compassionate bodywork for trauma

Articles

Topic: Healing Tools

Elements of Refuge

Unresolved trauma acts like an internal abrasive, leaving the survivor’s nervous system feeling raw. After trauma ruptures both emotional and physical boundaries, the survivor feels exposed and endangered. Each change in the environment has to be evaluated as a possible threat. Healing practitioners can provide a calm refuge for overwhelmed survivors by offering a stable… Read More

December 1, 2018 sonia

Topic: Healing Tools

When Help Means Rescue

While survivors of childhood abuse are often wary of receiving help, we also long for rescue. Dreams of rescue Children growing up in abusive or neglectful homes dream of their “real” parents sweeping in and scooping them up, or running away and finding a better home somewhere else, or being careful and quiet and good… Read More

November 1, 2018 sonia

Topic: Trauma Effects, PTSD

When Help Means Danger

For survivors of childhood abuse, there are both internal and external barriers to getting help (therapy, bodywork, medical care, etc.) with their healing process. Neglect and abuse cause invisible losses, skills and experiences that simply did not happen. For example, a bodily sense of safety from being tended and held with gentle hands. A deep… Read More

October 1, 2018 sonia

Topic: Relating

Grow Away from Enmeshment

In an emotionally enmeshed relationship, there are two people, but only one point of view. All kinds of relationships can be enmeshed: parent and child, siblings, a romantic couple, close friends, coworkers, etc. Enmeshment is different from interdependence, where two people support and care about each other, but still maintain separate selves. Usually there is… Read More

September 1, 2018 sonia

Topic: Relating

The Right Distance from Family

Most parents have the deep instinct to protect small vulnerable beings, especially their own children. Some parents don’t. Some parents are too overwhelmed, unskilled, or caught up in their own point of view to notice when they are causing pain in someone else. Some parents enjoy causing pain. Many people say we “should” remain connected… Read More

August 1, 2018 sonia

Topic: Self-Trust

Balance for Your Inner Guardian

When I check in with a new client about how their body feels about being on the table, they often report that they feel tense, guarded, wary. Their body is still gathering information about whether this new environment is safe, and they are not yet ready to trust my good intentions. For some clients, it… Read More

July 1, 2018 sonia

Topic: Acceptance

Resonate With Loneliness

In her book Your Resonant Self, Sarah Peyton makes the extraordinary assertion that some people’s default inner voice gives them ongoing emotional warmth. For those of us who did not have emotionally warm parents in the past, nor an emotionally warm partner in the present, it would be wonderful to be able to access emotional… Read More

June 1, 2018 sonia

Topic: Healing Tools

Practice Kind Language

Content Note: Ableist language used as negative examples. As we walked along, my friend tripped over a raised bit of sidewalk. “Pick up your feet!” she scolded herself. I could imagine her four-year-old self being dragged by the hand as her mother scolded her in exactly those words a half-century earlier. Oppression by default We… Read More

May 1, 2018 sonia

Topic: Relating

Offer a Collaborative Story

Jacinta realized she was angry about not being heard. She said to her friend Reya, “I’m mad about our translation project. I still think this idiom isn’t quite right.” Reya said flatly, “I disagree.” Jacinta took a deep breath and tried again. “I really appreciate that you did this translation. Your technical Spanish is much… Read More

April 1, 2018 sonia

Topic: Trauma Effects, PTSD

Depression: Natural Response to Trauma

A heavy reluctance to get up in the morning. A weight presses down all day, makes it hard to move, squeezes the joy out of everything. Voices inside say, “Worthless. Shameful. Failure.” Tears, sadness, grief, despair. Emptiness. Hopelessness. A common narrative says that depression is caused by a malfunction of the body and brain, leading… Read More

March 1, 2018 sonia

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 13
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Work with me

BODYWORK PRACTICE SUSPENDED due to COVID-19. Online sessions available.
Contact Sonia Connolly to schedule your appointment or free phone consultation in Portland, Oregon.
sonia@TraumaHealed.com
503-334-6434
My office is fragrance-free.

Quick Links

  • Signs of Trauma
  • Testimonials
  • Bodywork Services
  • Frequent Questions
  • Healing Resources
  • Subscribe!

Latest Articles

  • Elements of Refuge
  • When Help Means Rescue
  • When Help Means Danger

Buy the books

Wellspring of Compassion book coverPresence After Trauma book cover

Popular Articles

Sorry. No data so far.

Trauma Healing Topics

  • Acceptance
  • Body
  • Boundaries
  • Find Support
  • Hard Times
  • Healing Tools
  • Relating
  • Self-Trust
  • Survival Tools
  • Trauma Effects, PTSD

Archives

  • Articles by Topic

What I’m reading

Curious, Healing

Free Monthly Healing Articles

Please wait

Footer

People Say

Tora the Explorer

I have Wellspring of Compassion perpetually open on my iPad. I love the chapters about what to do when you're triggered right now and you need emotional support. But really, every chapter is a winner. Continue Reading (click twice)

Read More Testimonials

You are welcome

Sundown Healing Arts is size-friendly, diversity-friendly, queer-friendly, and trans-friendly. Persons of any body size, color, sexual orientation, and gender are welcome.
  • Sundown Healing Arts
  • Bodywork
  • Articles
  • Resources
  • About
  • Contact

Sonia Connolly, LMT #12475    503-334-6434    2833 NE 8th Ave, Portland, Oregon 97212

Copyright © 2005-2021 Sonia Connolly