Services
Empowering your balanced, fulfilling life.
Where creativity, connection, and meaning meet
Therapy, workshops, speaking, and consultation rooted in relational, creative practice.
Therapy and learning that support growth through relationship and imagination.
Creative, relational work for individuals, communities, and helping professionals.
Spaces for reflection, integration, and shared humanity.
Consulting Services
Types of consulting services:
For Therapists: Creative strategy for making the work sustainable, effective, and healing for the helper
For Church Leaders: Religious trauma recovery for individuals and groups, storytelling circles for spiritual healing
For Communities of Care: Trauma recovery and self-EMDR, storytelling circles for connection and healing
For Everybody: Self-EMDR for trauma recovery, memoir writing and creative strategies for healing and community building, storytelling circles
FOR THERAPISTS
“I support therapists in developing creative practices that can grow and sustain them over time.”
My work with therapists and helping professionals is best understood as mentoring—and more. Those of us who work with trauma every day need practices that sustain and energize us, not just our clients. Through reflective consultation and creative exploration, I help clinicians develop ways of working that feel both empirically grounded and genuinely their own—so methods, language, and presence remain alive rather than rigid.
This work aligns closely with the spirit of ReConceive podcast: an invitation to reimagine practice as something relational, creative, and inhabitable. We attend not only to interventions, but to the spaces in which healing happens. Offices matter. Light, color, texture, layout, and objects all communicate safety, authority, and invitation long before a word is spoken. Together, we explore how your physical space can become an extension of your clinical values rather than a neutral backdrop.
The goal is not to move away from evidence-based care, but to inhabit it fully—to allow empirically supported methods to become personal, embodied, and sustainable. This collaborative work supports clinicians in shaping practices that reflect who they are, how they work, and what they need in order to keep doing this work with depth, integrity, and vitality over time.
“This work gives language and form to something many clinicians are quietly longing for.”
FOR CHURCH LEADERS
Healthy spiritual development often requires tending to what people have carried silently for years. Many congregants arrive with unresolved fear, shame, or relational wounds shaped by earlier religious experiences—sometimes from within the same tradition, sometimes elsewhere. My work with church leaders supports the understanding that processing trauma is not a threat to faith, but often a prerequisite for deeper spiritual maturity. These gatherings offer frameworks and practices that help communities hold difficult emotional material with care, clarity, and containment—reducing polarization while increasing trust, connection, and resilience within the congregation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this about deconstruction or changing beliefs?
No. This work focuses on emotional and relational healing rather than belief revision. Participants are invited to explore how faith has been experienced in the body and nervous system—not what they should or should not believe.
Why include trauma-informed psychology in spiritual settings?
Because many spiritual struggles are rooted not in theology, but in unresolved fear, shame, or attachment injury. Addressing trauma supports spiritual growth by restoring emotional safety and relational trust.
Will this undermine church leadership?
On the contrary. When leaders understand how trauma impacts behavior, belief, and belonging, they are better equipped to foster stability, compassion, and healthy community dynamics.
Is this therapy?
No. These gatherings are educational and reflective, not clinical treatment. Clear boundaries are maintained, and participation is always voluntary and choice-based.
Why is trauma processing part of spiritual development?
Spiritual development often involves integrating earlier experiences that shaped how individuals relate to authority, belonging, and the sacred. When fear-based patterns are acknowledged and healed, faith can move toward greater depth, trust, and relational openness.
FOR COMMUNITIES OF CARE
Storytelling Circles
I facilitate storytelling circles that help communities engage difficult or pressing issues through attentive listening rather than debate. Rooted in the work of the Austin Story Project and shaped by trauma-informed, relational principles, these circles create structured spaces where lived experience is honored and connection can grow. Especially within churches, therapist groups, and other communities navigating change or tension, storytelling shifts the focus from persuasion to presence. When people are invited to speak and listen in this way, what feels polarized often becomes human—and communities rediscover their capacity for trust and belonging.
Storytelling Circles Are Especially Helpful When:
- A church or community is navigating change, transition, or leadership shifts
- Conversations around faith, identity, or belonging feel tense or polarized
- A group wants to address difficult issues without debate or persuasion
- Therapists, clergy, or other helping professionals are experiencing burnout, disconnection, or isolation
- A community is integrating grief, collective stress, or shared trauma
- Leaders sense that something important is unspoken—but aren’t sure how to surface it safely
- A group desires deeper connection but needs a structure for honest, respectful sharing
Members long to be heard as whole people rather than as positions or roles
FOR EVERYBODY
Self-EMDR for Trauma Recovery
All of us experience trauma but only some of us have access to a trauma therapist, trained in EMDR, who can guide us through the process of healing from our worst memories. Enter self-EMDR, and my book series, starting with The Art of Self-EMDR for Trauma Recovery. Originally, when Francine Shapiro began teaching therapists how to use her method, she wrote about self-help aspects of EMDR. This is where ordinary non-therapists can learn to focus bilateral stimulation on areas of stress and pain – and also use it to strengthen happy thoughts and feelings.
Consultation for self-EMDR is extra help for anyone working with my books: therapists (yes, even EMDR-trained therapists), parents, memoir writers (Book 2), coaches, group facilitators, and anyone who wants to feel better. It’s not therapy, but guidance to help you become more therapeutic in your work with others or yourself.
Therapy
Relational, trauma-informed therapy that integrates EMDR, attachment work, and creative expression to support regulation, connection, and repair.
Workshops & Speaking
Experiential learning spaces that use art, movement, music, and reflection to help people engage healing and growth together.
Deep-Dive Talks & Guided Processing (Book-Based)
These sessions are designed for audiences seeking depth, reflection, and guided processing—not just information.
The Art of Self-EMDR: A Guided Deep Dive
Processing trauma with creativity, structure, and choice
An experiential presentation designed to help participants work with the material—not just learn it. Drawing from The Art of Self-EMDR series, this talk offers guided reflection, gentle bilateral stimulation options, and creative exercises that support safe, contained processing. Participants leave with a clearer understanding of how to engage healing without overwhelm or isolation.
Attachment After Religious Trauma
Healing relational patterns shaped by fear, control, and compliance
A focused exploration of attachment wounds formed in authoritarian or abusive religious environments. This talk helps participants recognize survival-based relational strategies, understand how they developed, and begin cultivating safer, more flexible patterns of connection—with themselves, others, and the sacred.
From Compliance to Connection
Relearning attachment after coercive faith systems
Grounded in trauma psychology and attachment theory, this deep dive helps participants differentiate obedience from safety, submission from connection, and certainty from trust. Drawing from Deborah’s clinical work and writing, the session supports participants in loosening inherited relational patterns while preserving personal agency and dignity.
Working With Your Story
Guided processing for readers of The Art of Self-EMDR Writing
Designed for book groups, retreats, and recovery programs, this session helps participants slow down and metabolize traumatic memories through the use of guided memoir writing and self-EMDR exercises. Deborah offers structured prompts, attachment-informed guidance, and relational framing to help readers engage deeply with the material while maintaining nervous system safety.
Wife Material: Processing the Story Beneath the Story
Attachment, identity, and spiritual development after fundamentalism
Using Wife Material as a shared text, this talk supports participants in reflecting on their own stories of identity formation, belonging, and loss. The focus is not on critique, but on meaning-making, relational repair, and forward movement after rigid belief systems.
Healing Attachment Wounds Without Losing Who You Are
Repair after religious trauma
This talk addresses the fear many survivors carry—that healing requires erasing who they once were. Drawing from Deborah’s clinical and creative work, the session focuses on honoring adaptive survival strategies while gently reshaping attachment patterns toward greater safety and connection.
Consultation
Reflective, creative consultation and coaching for therapists and helping professionals seeking sustainable, inhabitable ways of practicing.
Retreats
Immersive, trauma-informed experiences for faith communities and groups, designed to support integration, connection, and spiritual development.
Retreat Overview
Healing, Connection, and Spiritual Development
This retreat offers a spacious, trauma-informed approach to spiritual growth—one that honors both faith and the emotional lives of the people who carry it. Designed for church communities and faith-based groups, the experience weaves together psychology, creativity, and reflective spiritual practice to support healing from fear-based religious experiences while fostering deeper relational connection.
Participants engage in a thoughtfully paced sequence of art sessions, music, gentle movement, and guided writing prompts, each designed to support nervous system regulation and meaning-making without pressure to disclose or perform healing. These creative practices are accessible to all—no artistic or musical background required—and emphasize curiosity, choice, and self-attunement.
Throughout the retreat, participants are invited into small-group sharing that prioritizes safety, listening, and respect. Sharing is always optional and guided by clear relational boundaries, allowing connection to emerge without emotional overwhelm. Brief, mini self-EMDR exercises are introduced as optional tools to help participants gently process emotional material and restore a sense of internal balance. These practices are carefully framed for educational and spiritual reflection—not therapy—and are adaptable to a wide range of comfort levels.
Rather than focusing on belief change, the retreat supports spiritual development through integration—helping participants differentiate fear from reverence, compliance from trust, and isolation from belonging. The overall tone is grounded, compassionate, and quietly hopeful, offering space for grief, insight, and renewal while strengthening the relational fabric of the community.
A Retreat for Healing, Connection & Spiritual Growth
An invitational, trauma-informed experience for faith communities and communities of care:
This retreat is designed for people who want to explore spiritual growth in ways that feel safe, grounded, and relational. It offers space to reflect on faith, emotion, and connection—especially for those who have been shaped by fear-based or overly rigid religious environments.
You do not need to be in crisis.
You do not need to share your story.
You do not need to have answers.
You are invited to come as you are.
What This Retreat Is
This retreat weaves together psychological insight, creativity, and gentle spiritual reflection. Rather than focusing on belief change, the emphasis is on integration—helping participants understand how faith has been experienced in the body, emotions, and relationships, and how healing supports deeper spiritual maturity.
Throughout the retreat, participants will be guided through a sequence of experiences that support nervous system regulation, reflection, and connection—always at their own pace.
What We’ll Do Together
Participants will be invited into a variety of optional, accessible practices, including:
- Art sessions using color, shape, and simple materials (no artistic skill required)
- Music and sound for grounding, reflection, and emotional regulation
- Gentle movement to support presence and embodiment
- Guided writing prompts for personal meaning-making
- Small-group reflection focused on listening and respect, not fixing or advising
- Mini self-EMDR exercises, offered as brief, optional tools for calming and integration
All activities are designed to be contained, respectful, and choice-based. Participants are always free to adapt, observe, or opt out of any exercise.
What This Is Not
To help set clear expectations, this retreat is:
- Not therapy
- Not a deconstruction workshop
- Not a space for debate or persuasion
- Not emotionally confrontational or cathartic by design
This is an educational and reflective experience, grounded in psychological safety and spiritual respect.
About Mini Self-EMDR Exercises
Mini self-EMDR practices are brief, guided exercises drawn from trauma-informed psychology. In this retreat, they are used solely for grounding, reflection, and nervous system support, not for deep trauma processing. Participation is always optional, and exercises are adapted for group and spiritual settings.
STORYTELLING GROUPS & RETREATS
Storytelling Circles
Informed by my facilitator training with the Austin Story Project—rooted in the work of Mark Yaconelli and in partnership with Austin Seminary—I offer storytelling circles as a way for communities to engage pressing issues through presence rather than debate. These circles create structured, spacious environments where participants share lived experience instead of arguments, allowing connection to form through attentive listening and mutual respect. Particularly within church communities, groups of therapists, or other settings navigating tension, transition, or collective stress, storytelling helps shift the emotional tone from polarization to relational understanding. The process is gently guided, trauma-informed, and grounded in clear boundaries, making space for vulnerability without pressure. When people are invited to tell and hear stories in this way, communities often discover that what felt divisive begins to feel human—and that deeper connection becomes possible.
Books
Accessible, art-infused resources that bring trauma-informed healing and creative practice into everyday life—especially for religious trauma recovery.