Anxiety usually starts with a thought about the future. We are presented with a new situation, and when we think about it we start having thoughts about what could go wrong, what could hurt us. When we have these kinds of thoughts some sensations are generated in our body, and we feel emotions like fear, anxiousness, on edge & worry.
If you look very carefully, it’s normally not the thought itself which bothers us, but how it makes us feel when we have it. “Normally” thoughts come and go, and it is both natural and important that we are able to feel concern about things, it comes with having a balanced view on the world, if you suffer from anxiety you are most likely suffering from the fact that these thoughts emotions and feelings just don’t go away.
Why is this happening? Because of the reaction our body has to the thoughts, you see the thought which triggers the anxiety can pass rather quickly, but we are left with the uncomfortable feeling, with a feeling of fear that is not connected to anything. And then our wonderful mind which tries to understand the world from the moment we are born does the thing it is accustomed to do, it finds a reason why you are feeling the way you are feeling, a thought, an idea. An idea which might not at all be connected to why you started to feel the way you do, it just finds any thought that fits into the role, something that also produces fear and anxiety. And guess what happens now? This new thought creates more uncomfortable feelings and sensations and the cycle continues.
Anxiety can come in multiple ‘flavors’ each one of them having a slightly different mechanisms acting inside us. Sometimes these are called “Anxiety Disorders”, but I have to admit to you that I don’t like this type of “put you in a box” definitions, I find each individual to be a world onto themselves, and though we may find that we suffer from one or another form of anxiety, it does not need to define who we are.
Some people want anxiety medicine, and others don’t. Whatever you want, just know there are options. I myself am a staunch believer in allowing the healing to come from inside. At the same time I do believe that at times, when our brain goes out of balance medications can be used to bring the balance, and the therapy can help us maintain that balance in the long run. If you wish to take medications in parallel to the therapy I can work with your physician or psychiatrist to make sure that all your healing efforts are happening in unison.
– Peter Levine
Trauma is a psychological response a person may have to terrible events that they endured, this can be an attack, a natural disaster, an accident, or anything that was “too much” for us at the moment. Trauma can be caused from a single intense event, or from many small events.
Trauma is not about what happened in itself, it is about what it has caused inside of us. There is no measuring stick to trauma, the same event may affect different people in different ways. It’s more about how we feel after the event, what kind of support we received.
PTSD stands for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, this is the name given to the condition in which a person is suffering from the above symptoms. It is the reaction of our body and mind to the traumatic events. PTSD is usually related to one traumatic event, and complex PTSD to several events.
I want to explain how trauma is formed, because through understanding that some of the experiences you’ve had might receive an explanation, and won’t look weird anymore. It will also be helpful in your healing process.
Trauma happens when our nervous system gets overwhelmed, I’m talking about the nervous system and not about who you are, because it really has to do something with the biology of every human brain. I’ve found it helps when we understand that our reactions were determined by something organic and not by something that is wrong with who we are. This also shows us that the wound we carry can be healed exactly like a physical cut heals.
In face of danger our body’s first reaction is to run away. I say the body because the impulse comes from the body, not the mind, that is why it might be hard for us to accept how we reacted to a certain situation, we might want to do one thing, and the body decides otherwise, it’s organic, evolutionary and beyond our control.
In most cases, if there is a way for us to escape the body will demand our mind to do so, escape can be accomplished by talking down an aggressor, calling for help or literally running away. If we do not manage to escape properly we will be left with symptoms
When we are not able to run away, maybe we literally have our back against the wall, or we realize or feel that it is not possible to outrun our aggressor. Or maybe we know that someone dear to us will be hurt if we run away. In all of these cases we switch from flight to fight.
If we can, we will fight, both our aggressor, and simultaneously our own flight impulse. During both the flight response and the Fight response our adrenaline will spike, and we will be very active. If we are able to run away or fight trauma can be avoided.
If we can neither run away, nor fight and win, our nervous system pulls an old trick out of its pages, the “Freeze” response. This is a natural method for the brain to protect us, it got programmed into us genetically millions of years ago.
You might have heard how often a gazelle plays dead and is left unharmed by a leopard that had just caught it. In extreme situations our brain does the same, It doesn’t ask us. It just shuts everything down, taking this last effort at survival where all else did not work. and in case we cannot survive at least we will not suffer so much.
This “Freeze Response” can manifest as “going numb”, “feeling out of the body”, feeling like “I wasn’t there”, sometimes it will involve loosing consciousness, or not remembering what had happened.
Trauma happens when we are not able to run away, or are unable to fight, and when we don’t get the time and support to overcome the freeze response. Normally after a traumatic event our brain flips back to normal, and we then integrate the experience, but if the event is too much to handle, then we stay frozen, the parts of the brain that got triggered and were trying to protect us during the trauma never cease to work. This is why even years after we might be haunted by the memories. This is why certain reactions to the trauma can linger until we heal them. A part of our brain is literally stuck in the past.
I want to explain how trauma is formed, because through understanding that some of the experiences you’ve had might receive an explanation, and won’t look weird anymore. It will also be helpful in your healing process.
Trauma happens when our nervous system gets overwhelmed, I’m talking about the nervous system and not about who you are, because it really has to do something with the biology of every human brain. I’ve found it helps when we understand that our reactions were determined by something organic and not by something that is wrong with who we are. This also shows us that the wound we carry can be healed exactly like a physical cut heals.
In face of danger our body’s first reaction is to run away. I say the body because the impulse comes from the body, not the mind, that is why it might be hard for us to accept how we reacted to a certain situation, we might want to do one thing, and the body decides otherwise, it’s organic, evolutionary and beyond our control.
In most cases, if there is a way for us to escape the body will demand our mind to do so, escape can be accomplished by talking down an aggressor, calling for help or literally running away. If we do not manage to escape properly we will be left with symptoms
When we are not able to run away, maybe we literally have our back against the wall, or we realize or feel that it is not possible to outrun our aggressor. Or maybe we know that someone dear to us will be hurt if we run away. In all of these cases we switch from flight to fight.
If we can, we will fight, both our aggressor, and simultaneously our own flight impulse. During both the flight response and the Fight response our adrenaline will spike, and we will be very active. If we are able to run away or fight trauma can be avoided.
If we can neither run away, nor fight and win, our nervous system pulls an old trick out of its pages, the “Freeze” response. This is a natural method for the brain to protect us, it got programmed into us genetically millions of years ago.
You might have heard how often a gazelle plays dead and is left unharmed by a leopard that had just caught it. In extreme situations our brain does the same, It doesn’t ask us. It just shuts everything down, taking this last effort at survival where all else did not work. and in case we cannot survive at least we will not suffer so much.
This “Freeze Response” can manifest as “going numb”, “feeling out of the body”, feeling like “I wasn’t there”, sometimes it will involve loosing consciousness, or not remembering what had happened.
Trauma happens when we are not able to run away, or are unable to fight, and when we don’t get the time and support to overcome the freeze response. Normally after a traumatic event our brain flips back to normal, and we then integrate the experience, but if the event is too much to handle, then we stay frozen, the parts of the brain that got triggered and were trying to protect us during the trauma never cease to work. This is why even years after we might be haunted by the memories. This is why certain reactions to the trauma can linger until we heal them. A part of our brain is literally stuck in the past.
Chronic pain can manifest differently for each person. Here are some symptoms you may be experiencing that will show that your chronic pain has an emotional basis
Chronic pain is real, it is a physical sensation, caused by physical nerves. I want to affirm this to you, because you may have been told “it’s all in your head”. It’s not just in your head, And it’s not just in your body. And if you want to gain relief from these long standing pains I invite you to look with me into the connection between the mind and the body.
I will give you an example of such a connection, so you see this is not a metaphor but a real thing.
A man came to see me because he was having lower back pains. I gave him a bodywork session, where we explored the pain to see where it was coming from.
When we are in pain we normally contract our body, contract the muscles, the muscles do not contract by themselves, it’s something in the brain which makes them contract.
When we release such contractions in the session we can uncover the unconscious thoughts and emotions that are connected to this contraction.
In this guy’s case we uncovered that the back pain was caused by a muscled the iliopsoas, which was pulling his lower vertebrae forward causing the pain. When we released this muscle, the hidden emotions, thoughts and memories surfaced. He suffered a great loss as a child, and he was carrying it with him all these years, The effect on his back accumulated over many years.
With this the back pain subsided, and we began to work on the emotional content that came up, identifying many other aspects of life that these memories were connected to that he was not aware of. Today he is pain free, and his heart more open, he has come to terms with the past and feels he has healed these childhood wounds.
For years, I have helped many people overcome the inner content that is causing them to feel chronic pain. I have listened to countless men and women describe the pain they feel. More importantly, I’ve helped those men and women find the roots of their chronic pain and resolve both the emotional content as well as the physiological symptoms that they experience.
As a therapist, it’s a great feeling to see the clients I’ve worked with start to feel happy, healthy, self-assured & pain free. I want that for you, too.
Sometimes it feels like whatever it is we try to do we can’t break out of certain cycles, certain habits and certain patterns. We might feel helpless as if external forces are controlling our life. If you feel like this I want you to know that you are not alone. There are many that experience the same.
Many times in our lives we are recreating situations, based on some key moments in our past.
By looking into our life patterns, and then going into the past and finding the key moments which shaped us, we can bring resolution where the Echoes of the past and having front of us and open Future.
It is only by knowing ourselves that we grow.
Together we will look at your life, starting from the present moment, we will understand what is holding you back, what patterns you are living that are not beneficial for you.
Then we will start looking back to see how these patterns have played out in your life, we will look at how they developed, how they took hold inside of you.
We will go back until we find the moment where you learned that pattern, and there we will work. All pattern were once useful, they are coping strategies that have helped us survive or advance in the past but are no longer benefiting us. once we learn why we developed a pattern it starts to loose its hold on us. Then we can find new ways to get what that pattern was supposed to gain us.
In this way we find the roots of the patterns that you are living now, we can then treat those roots to achieve a change straight from your core
I teach all the traditional Hatha Yoga techniques including:
Asana – Posture
Pranayama – Breathing techniques
Bandhas & Mudras – Locks and Gestures
Shat Karma Kriyas – Purification techniques
Kundalini – Traditional techniques for raising kundalini
I combine the teaching based on the traditional texts, and practices that have been transmitted from teacher to disciple, together with modern research to bring a combination of East & West that is both authentic, and adheres to our modern understanding.
If you want to train with me to become yoga teacher you can join me in wonderful Bali to train in the Samasti Yoga TTC. Together with my partners Sean Goldberg and Angela Peres we teach an amazing one month long yoga teacher training.
check it out here: www.samasti-yoga.com
For many years I have been studying tantra, both the modern neo-tantra that deals with sexuality, but especially the traditional non-sexual tantra that deals with:
Mantras – sacred sounds
Yantras – sacred diagrams
Yagnas – fire rituals
Since 2009 I am studying with Guruji Rajkumar Baswar, the head of the Shivoham Tantra Lineage, and teaching his path of tantra.
I offer in person and online meditation teachings, I teach mindfulness meditation, meditation on emptiness, meditations from the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, as well as Buddhist meditations and Nidra yoga.
Awareness is the solvent that dissolves all our worries and fears. It is the nectar that heals all our wounds.
Join me in meditation to develop our non-reactive awareness and bring more joy, happiness and contentment into your life.
Many times we do not know what is the source of our difficulties, which makes them hard to overcome. I see my clients as whole beings that have a physical body, a mental and emotional part as well as a transpersonal aspect.
My therapeutic approach sees our emotional and physical difficulties as a result of how we try to cope with the various tramas and life events that we had gone through, especially in our earlier years. A coping strategy that solidifies into patterns we are mostly unconscious of.
The body remembers. And that is why I start from working with the body, through body-work and breath-work we uncover the deeper causes to our current conditions and the hidden patterns that bring them forth. Then we are able to treat the root of our difficulties and achieve real healing.
Life can feel like a never ending maze of stress, struggle, and confusion, leaving you unsure of where to go for help.
Healing is my passion, I believe that any difficulty can be overcome, and I am a person that likes to look for solutions. Throughout my career, I have sought out the best methods for helping the conditions that I encountered along the way. Nowadays I combine all the methods that I’ve studied offering you a complete path to healing that can address you wholly. And, if the best method I see is not one that I practice I will direct you to those who do.
I enjoy helping people find their inner strength and inner healing, to get to know themselves and overcome old patterns. I’ve seen that many times what you need is someone willing to accept you as you are, and is willing to go with you into your mess, your pains, your shadow without judgment. I believe change comes from self-acceptance, and ultimately self-love, I want to show you the path I learned to find this within.
Trauma doesn’t have to keep messing things up for you. Your past does not need to control your future. You can take your life back. To begin Trauma Recovery Therapy, follow these three steps:
In addition to Trauma treatment, I offer a variety of counseling & guidance services. I offer Therapy for Anxiety & Depression, Therapy for Trauma Recovery, Bodywork and Therapy for Chronic Pain, Life Patterns Analysis, Transpersonal Psychotherapy & Yoga Teachings. If you have questions about the treatments that I offer, please visit my FAQ page. Contact my office to learn more about the ways I can help you or your loved one!
Besides images of myself, all photos on this site are stock photos posed by models.
© 2021 Tomer Weiss · Website by Vasco
Besides images of myself, all photos on this site are stock photos posed by models.
© 2021 Tomer Weiss · Website by Vasco