The Modern Therapist's Survival Guide with Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy The Neuroscience of Stress
A LIVE interview with Celisa Flores, Psy.D. – Curt and Katie talk with Celisa about what stress does to you and your body and what therapists can do to take better care of their bodies, their brains, and their mental health. Celisa also delves into burnout AND the benefits of yoga and meditation.
It’s time to reimagine therapy and what it means to be a therapist. We are human beings who can now present ourselves as whole people, with authenticity, purpose, and connection. Especially now, when therapists must develop a personal brand to market their practices.
To support you as a whole person and a therapist, your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy talk about how to approach the role of therapist in the modern age.
Interview with Celisa Flores, Psy.D.
Since obtaining a master’s degree in Counseling in 2007 at CSU Fresno and a PsyD in Clinical Psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology in 2013, Dr. Flores worked as a therapist in a wide variety of mental health treatment settings, with emphasis on Eating Disorders, Mindfulness and women’s issues. Now proudly with Center for Discovery, providing clinical outreach for Ventura County and the Central California region.
With a history of providing individual, group, family, and couples counseling services, as well as therapeutic yoga services, Dr. Flores has focused on evidence-based practices, providing guidance and support in Mindfulness in Recovery, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), and other self-empowerment strategies. In addition to training as a therapist, she is a Certified Yoga Teacher, also trained in Mindful Stress Reduction. By integrating a variety of holistic tools into recovery and wellness, she works to create a long-lasting, sustainable wellness plan.
Dr. Flores also provides consultation, teaching and training for students, professionals, and community groups, which have included youth conferences, the CSU school systems, international speaking and NASA. In effort to support other therapists and community members with understanding eating disorders and treatment, she is always open to consider future speaking and training opportunities.
In this episode we talk about:
- How (and why) our bodies store trauma
- The use of yoga (both poses and principles)
- How the fight or flight response (when we don’t fight or flee) impacts our bodies
- How our brain has evolved, and how we respond to stressors that are not literally life or death.
- Yoga – joining body and breath – to calm the fight or flight nervous system
- The importance of the breath in how we feel
- Diaphragmatic breathing
- The importance of getting out of a narrow view AND in getting out of Fight or Flight in order to be best able to support our clients
- Approachable strategies that make small moments of self-care possible
- Distress tolerance corners (and activities that are especially good for distress tolerance)
- Proactively planning for self-care and distress tolerance coping
- What the real consequences of poor self-care are (including rapid aging and current dangers)
- Some yoga stretches that you can use in your office (and Curt’s desire to be a yoga therapist)
- How to remind yourself that yourself to self-care and how to hold yourself accountable
- How meditation changes your brain and how to make it approachable
Resources mentioned:
We’ve pulled together any resources mentioned in this episode and put together some handy-dandy links.
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
Find Celisa online: her website Linked In
Her email: celisa.flores@centerfordiscovery.com
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