Kathleen Dunbar Psychotherapy

Nonordinary states of consciousness which call for integration and support include:

◎Spiritual emergency
◎Trauma
◎Big life events (death of loved ones, birth of a child)
◎Near death experiences
◎Psychedelic experiences

• Have you had experiences in which you found your goals, values, identity, and the meaning you have previously made of life called into profound question? 
• Did you have experiences which have given you poignant insights calling out for changes in your life and you want support to embody a new and richer way of being? 
• Did you experience the cosmic oneness of creation and now wonder what is the point of doing the dishes?  
• Was your world turned upside down? Was the rug pulled out from under you? Did you visit the black abyss and had your foundation cracked? 

Integration as a Healing Path: 

• Nonordinary states of consciousness can shift your understanding of yourself and the world in profound ways. 
• You may experience a nonordinary state of consciousness spontaneously arising out of spiritual emergency, trauma, a big life event such as the death of a loved one, or the birth of a child, or your own near death experience. Psychedelics are another way that people experience nonordinary states of consciousness.
• Integration work involves healing and grounding practices and the synthesis of insights and experiences following a nonordinary state of consciousness.
• Integration work helps you return to a grounded sense of body-mind-spirit in your daily life in a keepable, deepening way in which you live from your Wise Self.

Support for Big Experiences.

I offer integration work for clients . . . 

• . . . who have had poignant experiences arising from a spiritual emergency, a big life event, or a psychedelic experience and are seeking to enrich and expand their lives. 
• . . . who are trying to make sense of an intense or an overwhelming (good or bad) experience arising from a spiritual emergency, a big life event, or a psychedelic experience. 
• . . . following psychedelic work with legally established and licensed professionals and clinics. NOTE: This work is not for clients who wish to self-prescribe and self-administer psychedelics. 

My Experience

I have over twenty five years’ experience helping people integrate big experiences of all kinds. I came to this work from having powerful insights and big experiences through shamanic practices and intuitive processes.

I’ll help you find your sense of groundedness, purpose, life force, joy and resiliency as you make sense out of experiences that were perhaps more than you bargained for. Big experiences ask us to work ourselves, and when we do, we emerge on the other side with a larger sense of life, love, understanding and being here in the present moment than we ever could have imagined. But our souls do ask us to do the work, and to find support. 

My Palette

I offer a large palette of modalities that are not only suited to, but essential for working with the integration of expanded and nonordinary consciousness experiences: 

• Somatic practices provide groundedness, healing, pleasure, presence and accountability. 
• Mindfulness practices ground experience and optimally balance the brain. 
• Trauma work heals repetitive states of trauma response. If our nervous system is over-activated, we can’t process what has happened to us. Trauma work specifically helps the body and nervous system find completion for overwhelming experiences and brings peace and resiliency. 
• Wise Self/Parts Work (similar to IFS) provides a practical and felt sense map of what Part you are in (including Feet-No-Longer-On-The-Ground or Dark-Dweller-In-The-Chasm) and how to shift out of it and to come back home to your Wise Self who feels connection and love and purpose while also taking responsibility and stewardship. 
• Archetypal and Spirit Energy Work helps us to grow when we have voluntary or involuntary experiences of openness and expansion, of great light, or great darkness. Archetypal and Spirit Energy work involves grounded practices to help us heal ourselves and offer healing from what we have learned for the community. It means completing the Hero/Heroine’s Journey Cycle which at its core means doing the One Thing One Is Most Afraid To Do in order to gain access to one’s Wise Self. The “One Thing” includes acts like finally loving oneself, learning to say no, using one’s voice, being vulnerable, etc. It may seem simple on the surface but it can also feel like the scariest thing ever, such that it may feel impossible. Nevertheless, this is the doorway to freedom and the Wise Self and is a noble pursuit. Archetypal and Spirit Energy practices include presence-practices, soul retrieval, power animals, and shadow work. 
• Hakomi and Attachment work are great modalities to help you find meaning in your relationships. When we change, our relationships change. I will help you find your way into deepening your relationship with yourself and others. 
• Symbolic Work. Jung said humankind heals through symbols. Basically the symbols we are drawn to or which come to us are mirrors showing us our life force and where our work is. I will help you find ways to engage with your symbols and archetypes to support your growth. 
• Biodynamic Cranial Touch and The Tamura Method are among a number of methods that address grounding the body and involve energy work, chakras and boundaries. We are composed of body-mind-spirit and we can learn how to become aware of and to choose to channel the energy that is our life force. 
• Visualizations by their creative nature shift us out of fear brain into creativity and groundedness and healing. 

Reach out and give me a call. The consult is free. 415/668-5130

Let me help you find the path of transformation and growth arising out of big life events.

Find ecstasy in life. The mere sense of living is joy enough. 
-Emily Dickinson

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
-Anais Nin

You must give birth to your images. They are the future waiting to be born. Fear not the strangeness you feel. The future must enter you long before it happens. Just wait for the birth, for the hour of the new clarity.
-Rainer Maria Rilke