Meaghan Peckham Psychotherapy

07/07/2022

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07/07/2022

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Learn to regulate your nervous system in my webinar “Regulating Your Nervous System” (link in bio)

05/12/2022

I hear from almost every client that I work with how overwhelmed, overworked and dissatisfied they are with their lives, and yet when we explore what’s contributing to them feeling this way, we discover that there is no joy in their life, and no space created to welcome it. I too struggle with creating space for joy in my life. I have been conditioned, like everyone else, to push, to grind, to achieve, to always be available. It is hard to resist this conditioning when it is constantly being reinforced by the system(s) in which we live. But the consequence, for me and as well as my clients, is chronically activated nervous systems, burnout, unhappiness, depression, and physical health issues. This advice shared by is exactly the reminder I needed to hear today. To schedule joy into my life the way I schedule work and appointments. And I felt like you could use the reminder too. 

Do you schedule joy into your life? What do you do that brings you joy?


04/12/2022

Have you tried Osteopathic Manual Therapy?

"If you are familiar with Osteopathy already, you likely relate Osteopathy to the treatment of physical ailments, such as back pain, joint pain, and digestive issues. Physical ailments, like these, are common reasons why we tend to reach out to manual therapists, like Osteopaths, to provide us relief from pain. However, Osteopathic Manipulative Therapy (aka., Osteopathy) can provide us much, much more.

Our mind and body are an interconnected system, therefore, when we are experiencing emotional and psychological distress and/or dysfunction, we will also experience impacts to our system (body): sympathetic and parasympathetic tone (autonomic nervous system), heart rate variability, gut health and gut-brain communication, and structural functions – resulting in immobility, tension, and pain. In turn, if these functions and pathways in our body are not restored, they will continue to contribute to the persistence of dysfunction in our emotional and psychological health.

Osteopathy embraces the philosophy that the body has an innate or natural ability to self-regulate and to heal itself (Collebrusco et al., 2018). Osteopathic manipulative therapy (OMT) is characterized as a holistic, hands-on therapy emphasizing that the body systems are interconnected and function as a single unit. The musculoskeletal system has been viewed as having a vital influence on overall body system health and functioning, with impaired mobility of the body potentially disrupting an individual's overall health and contributing to disease, including mental illness (Dixon et al., 2020).

Osteopathic philosophy recognizes that treating one area of the body or system can ultimately affect another (Dixon, et al., 2020). Osteopathic Manual Practitioners understand that each compromised state, such as, impaired digestion, increased pain, disturbed sleep-wake cycles, inhibited immune function, and increased muscle tension, can affect or induce another compromised state. Each dysfunctional state can also activate the HPA axis (the interaction between the hypothalamus, pituitary gland and adrenal glands) and ultimately influence the brain and the person’s emotional response. Osteopathic manipulative therapy serves to address the physical tension in the body in an effort to reduce the neural feedback processes that are causing dysregulated emotional responses (Dixon, et al., 2020)".

Read more about the benefits of Osteopathic Manual Therapy your nervous system and mental health over on our Clinic's blog:

If you are familiar with Osteopathy already, you likely relate Osteopathy to the treatment of physical ailments, such as back pain, joint pain, and digestive issues. Physical ailments, like these, are common reasons why we tend to reach out to manual therapists, like Osteopaths, to provide us relief

04/02/2022

ANNOUNCEMENT!

I had the incredible privilege of writing a chapter ("Self-care and Grounding") in the book, 'Looking at Trauma: A Toolkit for Clinicians', published by Penn State University Press, and edited by 2 of my brilliant colleagues and friends, Lesley Jonker & Abby Hershler.

About the book:

'Looking at Trauma: A Toolkit for Clinicians' is an easy-to-use, engaging resource designed to address the challenges health care professionals face in providing much-needed trauma psycho-education to clients with histories of childhood trauma.

The models help clinicians provide practical information about the impacts of trauma to their clients—and support those clients in understanding and managing their distressing symptoms.

Topics covered include complex post-traumatic stress disorder, emotion regulation, memory, relationship patterns, and self-care. Each chapter features step-by-step instructions on how to use the treatment models with clients; practical educational tips from experienced clinicians in the field of childhood trauma; interactive trauma education comics; a foundational framework focused on care for the provider; and references for further study.

Intended for use in therapeutic, clinical, and classroom settings, this book is a valuable resource for all healthcare workers. In particular, social workers, psychotherapists, spiritual care providers, nurses, occupational therapists, psychologists, primary care physicians, and psychiatrists will find this tool kit indispensable.

To read more about the book:
https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-09207-2.html

Save 30% with discount code NR21 if purchased through Penn State University Press. Also available at Caversham Booksellers, and Amazon.

04/02/2022

The “Window of Tolerance” is a model that I use very often in my work with clients, to provide an explanation for many common experiences such as, triggers, depression, anxiety, and the impacts of stress. The Window of Tolerance was originally developed by Dr. Dan Siegel (1999), and has been adapted many times by other trauma researchers and therapists since.
This model describes what happens when provides a way to understand how we organize and manage incoming information and what happens when it becomes unmanageable; another way to understand our nervous system responses to our environment and our lives.��Below is a 5 minute clip about my explanation about the Window of Tolerance, and how hyperaroused and hypoaroused states are felt in the body. This clip is from my 1-hour webinar, “Regulating Your Nervous System”, which provides:
* Comprehensive psycho-education about the neurobiology and neurophysiology of the nervous system, using the frameworks of Polyvagal Theory, the Triune Brain, and Window of Tolerance�
* An understanding of neurobiology to explain how past trauma, ongoing stress and uncertainty, and oppression impacts the nervous system’s optimal functioning, resulting in the diminished ability to function and cope.�
* Psycho-education about the importance of supporting the nervous system through stimulating the Vagus Nerve and other body based practices, and through self-care and self-nurturing practices, ensuring the ‘Window’ is wide as possible – increasing our capacity, and helping our amygdala’s interpret incoming information accurately and without being overwhelmed by it, and, �
* Strategies to regulate hyperarousal (activated) and hypoarousal (shut down) states -- supporting the nervous system to reinstate balance.�
This webinar will provide a better understanding of the neurobiology of the nervous system and the impacts of trauma on the nervous system, and provide you with psycho-education about the Window of Tolerance, Triune Brain and Polyvagal Theory’s understanding of the physiological responses to stress, as well as suggestions for helping you regulate their nervous system, and respond to activated and shut down states.

This webinar contains information that can be helpful to anyone, especially today, where we are continuing to live through a global pandemic, and experiencing increasing political unrest.

Link in bio to watch the full webinar!