my approach and who i will work with
My commitment to everyone who walks into my office is to both 1) listen to why they are coming in, what they are struggling with and 2) understand their values and the healthy behaviors in their life that support those values that represent on the deepest level who they truly are as a person. Individuals are not their issues! They are disconnected from themselves by their issues. Psychotherapy, as I practice it, is a process where two high functioning adults work together with intention, conversation, and experience to reconnect to their true self in a manner that allows them to move past the presenting problem as they develop an approach to living in the present moment that is both connected and "true to self", connected to their resources and thus"generative" (not reactive) to the world of experience that lives within them and outside of them.
Along with the clinical skills and experience I bring to the session, I also teach practices , skills, and approaches that the client can use to expand their psychological repertoire of responses, and work within the client's "generative process" to develop with the client new practices and approaches to living based on being true to self and who they are "becoming"!
- After the initial intake session, all sessions are guided by the intention of the treatment plan that the client and I create. There is never any doubt about what we are doing and how we are working towards the client's goals for treatment.
All people are welcome in my practice! What I expect of you in exchange for that openness is that you have intention, are willing to come in and work, and that you have a bias towards living in a manner that "promotes life" and well being. The rest we will figure out together.
I was raised by Fred and Jeanne Beck who I still live in awe of today. So yes I work with my elders and people on fixed incomes. I run a business and that guides all of my decisions. Life is a conversation. If you want to work with me - start the conversation and we will see where it goes!
AN OPEN LETTER TO MY CLEINTS
Greeting Everyone!
I hope this writing finds you well and in the company of Good Spirits!
I have an announcement to make! I am shifting aspects of how I am conducting my psychotherapy practice.
I started working in mental health in 1976. In 1984 I opened my private practice.
Fortunately, I have been successful in that endeavor and have continued to evolve as a practitioner over time.
Now is again one of those times when I am making a significant shift/addition to how I will be practicing moving forward
and I am excited to tell you about it.
In 1984 I defined myself as a practitioner of Ericksonian psychotherapy and hypnotherapy in the tradition of the seminal work of Milton Erickson the master hypnotist and innovator whose work is the foundation of so many of todays modern therapy approaches including short and brief therapy, NLP, and strategic, systemic, and paradoxical family therapy approaches, including parts work. From Erickson we got the practices of utilization, ideodynamacism, the symptom as part of the solution, the reverent
embrace of the individual who comes into therapy- without protest and connecting to their experience and pacing and leading them as they explore their therapy and naturalistically move towards a solution to the problem they came to therapy to solve.
Consistent with that approach I also began embracing Gregory Bateson's work on making distinctions as a means of not moving away from one's self in the present moment and Carl Jung's idea of a "generative self" in which each human being has a souls that lives within them
and lives outside of them (a collective soul), whether that is the environment they live in, the archetypes that live in the outer realm, or the realm of the Spirits and Ancestors that live in those out realms, and so much more.
In 1983 I also started training with Stephen Gilligan. a student of Erickson and later the originator of Self Relations Psychotherapy in the book THE COURAGE TO LOVE whose basic premises are:
1) An indestructible "tender soft spot" exist at the core of each person.
2) Life moves through you, except when it doesn't.
3) Life is great but sometimes it hurts like hell.
4) There are two of you: Relationship is the basic unit.
5) An intelligence greater than you exist in the world.
6) Your path is yours alone: You are an incurable deviant.
This approach set up a structure where two connected individuals could work together in a "phenomenological" manner in present time - in the fresh experience of the client moving towards health and thus incorporating the aspects and tenants noted above of Erickson, Jung, Bateson, and the existential couple and family work of Carl Whitaker MD.
In the 1995 I added EMDR. In 2000 started training in energy psychology and redefined myself as an energy practitioner in 2004. Little did I know then that when one changes their "energy signature"
that perceptual and experiential fields of perceptions change, intuitive abilities expand, and Spirits start to show up. So in 2005 I started training in shamanism under the mentorship at different times
of Jan Engles-Smith, Betsy Bergstrom, and Christina Pratt.
All of this is great except- that I don't do woo woo or magic! My job as a psychotherapist is to empower the person with whom I am working and allow them to develop skills to move forward in a manner that is connected and true to who they are in the present moment. So my solution to this dilemma of pulling all of these practice approaches together was to redefine myself as an EMDR practitioner in 2012 - as it is an
evidence based approach that has a "standard of practice" that incorporates all of these other dynamics and it really, really works!
As many of you know, over the last 8 years I have been interested in developing approaches to clearing intergenerational and Ancestral influences that move through people, as it became increasingly clear that while the trauma in many clients had cleared there were still influences moving through them that were keeping them in old patterns on conscious, unconscious, and physical levels that had no clear explanation in present time.
To this end I have studied ancestral approaches with Christina Pratt which are useful but a lot of work for me and often out of the realm of doing by the client - and left me feeling unsatisfied as I was venturing very close to the land of woo woo and magic and into a slightly one up position with the client and away from the value of empowering them.
Yet Christina's work is inspiring and I have stuck with those practices and over the last year began to bring the practices of yoga, mantra, meditation and merge them the other energetic and psychotherapeutic practices I utilize and have begun to weave them into a treatment delivery system that clients can utilize on a daily basis - with good results!
While a more in-depth explanation of the approach you can find elsewhere on this website the training has brought into my experience and grasp four well articulated dimensions that have eluded me over the years and that can clearly take me in my work to the level of clearing the intergeneration and ancestral influences - as I have experienced it in my own personal work and am experiencing it as I work with clients.
First, this offers a solid, conversationally based approach to intentionally clearing trauma that sets up a structure consistent with good therapy/trauma practices and Self Relations Psychotherapy that promotes a "generative" context to move
the work forward in a manner consistent with the clients needs, abilities, and experience to clearing trauma on the conscious, emotional, body, energetic, awareness, and bliss levels of experience.
Second, it introduces energetic and Spiritual practices of breath, mantra, yoga, meditation, intention, forgiveness and love/vibration that are consitent with modern neuroscience and in a manner that creates new healthy neuropathways
over a course of 60 to 90 days- which I am growing to understand is key to clearing intergenerational influences.
Third, this work is done, in part, by calling in high vibrational energy that promotes Love - call it frequency, the Sacred Heart, Violet Flame, Devine Ancestors, Ascended Masters, the good of heart. It is this vibration called in
that, in part, does the work.
Fourth, this approach promotes soul retrievals- the return of one's true soul essence!
As they say in Self Relations: an intelligence greater than you exist in the world - that moves beyond dualism where true interbeing is possible!
You know my standards are high. I have been handed the tools integrate spirituality, energy psychology, and neuroscience into my practice approach and I am fully embracing it.
If you are an existing client these practices and ways of working will be integrated into our treatment approach. If you are a new client we will develop a treatment plan in manner
consistent with this approach.
I have also found that the combining energetics, neuroscience, and Spiritual approaches/presence also works compatibly with EMDR and the other trauma approaches I use so I will also be offering a treatment offering that reflects this union.
When I was younger I would have never thought in my adult years that there would be a yoga industry, a mini bundt cake industry, or electric cars. Indeed they are a reality!
The coupling of neuroscience and Spirituality/Energetics/Elementals in the promoting of health and the clearing of trauma has now been substantiated and is indeed a reality and I am embracing it in all of my practice endeavors from this moment forward!
Of course all of this will be done in conversation with you my clients - in the spirit of good care and promoting the best healing relationship to promote your wellness and happy, fulfilled life!
Warmly,
Stephen
Learning To Do Inner Work..... and Live in the Outside World!
Is there a thought, belief, physical sensation, or memory from your past that you can't seem to shake or get past?
Is your daily experience run by "what you can't shake" as opposed to your heart and mind leading the way towards the life that you are dreaming up?
Have you tried therapy, counseling, or your own faith and spiritual practices only to find that you end up in that place that you don't want to experience?
Then perhaps Leanring To Do Inner Work.... is a good place to begin to make that change that you desire!
The process works within your guiding intention, with the best of modern clinical technologies and Spiritual practices, to allow you in the present moment to experience and clear those blockages without slipping into duality or moving away from your whole human experience on the mental, emotional, body, energetic, awareness, and bliss levels as it works with you over the course of 65+ days to establish a healthy enenrgetic signature that creates new neuropathways of experience of your self/soul which are true and devoid of the older patterns and habituations that pulled you back into that older experience/"what you can't shake" allowing you to live in the true frequency of your soul in that is natural, generative, and loving!
As we begin this work we will be utilizing information from several books including Yoga for Transformation and Yoga for Wellness by Gary Kraftsow, Therapeutic Yoga for Trauma Recovery by Arielle Schwartz, Trauma-Informed Yoga by Joanne Spense, Energy Medicine and Energy Medicine for Women by Donna Eden, Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and Connection by Deb Dana, Essential Kundalini by Karna Virginia, Kunalini Awakening by Judith Lawrenece, Aryurveda the Science of Self Healing by Dr. Vasant Lad and an Idiots Guide to Aryuveda by Shahara Rose.
This will allow us to set clear intention for the work, get a clear sense of your Ayurvedic body type and your enniagram personality type ( the structure established before the age of 20 years) and allow us to work to establish the Spiritual and meditative practices that will promote self regulation and staying connected in the present moment, resourced and grounded, while we begin to clear the thoughts and experiences that habitate your mind and body and create the resistance that keeps you moving forward toward the desired outcome you are dreaming up into the life you are living!
Weekly, along with your 90 minute session, you will get handouts and audio and video links to support practices that allow you to deepen the experience of your self as you continue to clear material and strengthen new connections witin you establishing new neauropathways that promote and enhance new ways of being that are true to the nature of your soul.
You commit one hour per day to moving these practices and new experience of your self into motion, into being- intoWhat you commit to is one hour per day becoming true to the life you are intending to live.
Offers One and Two consist of : Session One is a clinical intake and an exploration of what you issue you would like to work on and the establishment of your Destination Vibration; Session Two is a review of Ayurvedic and enniagram questionaires, and an introdcution to breath practices, accupressure tapping, and energetic muscle testing; Session Three continues to sponsor the practices of the first two sessions and introduces grounding and enenrgetic breathwork, rythmic breathwork to unify the chakras, and generative breathwork and practices to promote self regulation in the present moment.
Sessions 4-10 begins, at the ability of your readiness and ability to both self regulate and to be "generative" in the present moment, the work of exploring , unpacking, and clearing resistance, limiting beliefs, and the pain body (Jung would refer to undifferentiated symptom complexes) that activate in the body and keep us locked in fear and reactivity as we move forward towards manifesting the experience of our our self guided by our Destination Vibration and facilitated by the daily practices that begin to manifest new neuropathways over the course of 65+ days of our doing this work together.
Offer Two adds an established trauma protocal of EMDR, HBLU, or Somatic Processing for those with complex and prolonged trauma that suggest a higher level of dissociation, fragmentation, or personality dynamics that require a certain care to promote self regulation and interpersonal unity.
Offer Three is specifically focussed in clearing intergenerational and Ancestral trauma. This offer has a prerequsite of having completed Offer One or Two AND will be at my discretion for you readiness to do the work. Clearing Ancestral trauma by its nature has a implicit responsibility of welcoming the essences of the ancestors freed from the trauma AND the ancestors themselves back into your life in the present moment as you live your life.
To do this respectfully clients will need to construct an alter for their ancestors and understand the basics of tending that alter in present time (don't worry - it is not burdensome but actually a joy and an ease and will bring delight to your daily experience!).
You will need to develop a sense ( with my help) of how to use the elelements of fire, water, air, and earth in the process, and be able to navigate and distinguish the ancestral realm from the present realm cleanly as the Ancestral realm is the realm of the dead and requires both a prccise focus and respect and a clear senses of moving in and out of that realm cleanly and completely, as the work of clearing happens both in the present life realm and in the realm of the the Ancestors, which typically is two separate interventions with the use of crystals and stones as we use ritual and the Inner Alignment protocol to complete the work in present time and develop through our daily practices for 65+ days the new neuropathways that promote the experience of our self in present time and over time moving forward consitent with the returned "good essences" of those who dreamt us up AND in a manner consitent with the essence of our souls truth.
Pricing for all three of these offers is based on specific factors, including obligations to my liscensing board, and will be determined on an individual basis. Packages can be purchased in groups of 4 sessions initially with the balance due before session five.
OFFER ONE: 10 SESSION The Learning To Do Package
OFFER TWO: 16 Session Learning To Do Package with EMDR, HBLU, or Somatic Processing
OFFER THREE: 12 Session Package for Clearing Ancestral Trauma
EMDR CONSULTATION
I offer weekly individual and group consultation for clinicians working to fulfill the requirements of their EMDR training. Sessions are 1 hour in length and and are by appointment only. If you wish to participate in a group or schedule an individual session please call me at 503-280-8904 or email me at stephenrbeckpc@gmail.com and I will book your time.
I also work long term with clinician's who wish to become certified EMDR Therapist and EMDR Consultants. This is a much more elaborate process which involves case review around your development as an EMDR Practitioner and you can get the details of what is expected at the EMDRIA website.
My intention in all of thse endeavors is to promote fidelity to the EMDR Model AND to support the integration of all of the other wonderful skills, approaches, and your human presence to your development as an EMDR Clinician.
Fees for group are $35, Individual $80
Current Scheduled Group Dates for January, February, and March are as follows:
All times are noon Pacific, fee is $35 for group...
Please let me know when you plan to attend and I will put you down, as these are not drop in groups
If anyone wants individual time please contact me...
If you need anything else please ask, I am reasonably flexible in supporting your growth...
As always, if you have a question in between sessions please contact me and I will get back to you at no charge.
Monday January 9
Monday January 16th
Monday January 23rd
Friday January 27th
Monday January 30th
Monday February 6th
Monday February 13th
Friday February 17th
Monday February 20th
Monday February 27th
Monday March 6th
Monday March 13th
Friday March 17th
Monday March 20th
Monday March 27th
PORTLAND METRO TRN
The Portland Metro Trauma Recovery Network is organized under the umbrella of The Humanitarian Assitance Program, the not for profit arm of EMDR. Our mission is to develop a team of EMDR practitioners to respond to natural and human made disaasters and offer free onsite emdr based interventions in times of need.
In regular times, we are a group of EMDR practitioners who offer 6-10 pro bono emdr sessions to women who are victims of violent crimes. Specifically, we have aligned with the Family Preservation Project and are delivering services to women being paroled from prison to promote their adjustment and transition into their lives with their children and families.
Clinicians who wish to volunteer in this manner can feel free to contact me and I will direct you how to register with me and then on the HAP Website.
Clinicians will only be expected to see one cleint at a time AND are more than free not to see any clients at all if they so choose, opting to be a a member of the larger emergency response team, as it is simply part of our giveback to the Greater Portland Tri-county community.
LENS NEUROFEEDBACK
LENS, refers to Low Energy Neurofeedback System is an incredibly wonder-full and effective tool to compliment the other therapy approaches that I offer AND is a stand alone intervention in its own right.
Interventions are short, perhaps 2 seconds, as a low energy signal reads the activity at one of 21 cites on the head and offers that site the exact feedback of what it is reading. During the course of a session as different points are treated, the client is simply aksed to notice what they notice and then to notice what they notice over the course of the next 48 hours.
Typical treatments are from 6 to 10 sessions. The LENS maps the changes at each specific site which allows me to adjust aspects of treatment and promotes what is often seen is that the flexibility of each site which manifest as reduction of symptomology and more flexible self regulation of the client in their experinece of day to day living.
Migraine headaches cease, anxiety diminishes, depression lifts, attention and focus increase, Traum'a that caused ongoing severe regulation can be managed to the point that clients can process the trauma material.
And if that was not too good to be true, there is also a program that allows me to treat sites on the body specifically, called the BODy LENS, which greatly promotes calm, self regulation, and pain reduction.