Lifespan Integration

Areas of practice:

I draw from a variety of therapy styles including:

  • Adlerian Therapy
  • Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
  • EMDR Therapy
  • Lifespan Integration
  • Mindfulness Approaches
  • Gottman Method
  • Nonviolent Communication

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Lifespan Integration

Lifespan Integration (LI) is a special therapy technique for processing past traumas.

Emotions & Memory

Emotions impact how memories are stored in the brain. So when something unexpected or distressing happens, it’s not stored in the same way as other experiences.

Children are much less empowered, capable and responsible, which is why we need caretakers.

Early childhood experiences shape our development and our belief system.

Negative childhood experiences can leave a sort of imprint on the nervous system. That’s why when you’re an adult, some responses might remind you of when you were little. Have you ever felt small?

The Self

This diagram represents a lack of solid connections in a life story. This results in a fragmented sense of self.

Overwhelming, sudden and traumatic experiences become a bit fragmented in memory. They don’t seem to connect to our life story. Do you have any experiences that feel like “a whole other lifetime?” If you’ve ever had difficulty remembering parts of your past, or told a story out of order, it’s likely fragmented in your mind.

Lifespan Integration helps to connect your experience and also reminds your nervous system that you are now an adult. This can help to unfreeze any stuck memories, change your nervous system responses. and link your life stories to your sense of self today.

This diagram represents solid connections in a life story and a solid sense of self.

Lifespan Integration Therapy

LI can be used to process recent traumas and trauma responses from within the past 5 years, and memories as far back as preverbal experiences. This can include (and isn’t limited to): break ups, sudden job loss, traumatic birth as a newborn, pandemic grief, grief & loss, friendship break ups, etc.

Lifespan Integration can result in the rapid healing of attachment and can help repair negative beliefs.

The process involves reviewing your life Time Line. This can bring up strong emotions in session, but rest assured that you’ll feel grounded before the session ends.

LI Therapy steps:

  1. Recollection – creating a time line of memory cues
  2. Repetition – repetitions of the cues
  3. Integration – feeling an integrated sense of self

For folks familiar with EMDR, Lifespan Integration is EMDR-adjacent and it works in a similar way. A main difference is that there any eye movements with LI, and sometimes people experience relief faster with LI.

Resources

www.lifespanintegration.com/sverige/neuroscience-lifespan-integration-therapy/

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