• Over-the-ear Headphones (non-noise canceling)

  Examples here and here

• Laptop with reliable internet access

• Zoom account

• Smartphone

• Possibly an adapter for your headphone jack Examples here and here

• Unyte-ILS App on Smartphone:

  Google Play | Apple Store

You might also like to have some supportive tools with you while you listen. I’ll share potential tools in your welcome materials.

The SSP group offers more opportunities for co-regulation, learning from others and the power of healing and tending in community. You will be witnessed, supported and gently challenged as we learn and grow together.

Traversing the somatic terrain can be uncharted territory for many! As a participant of a small group (3-6 people), you’ll have the chance to learn from others, which can help you notice things about yourself that you may not have if engaging in a solo SSP experience.

Though everyone will be listening individually and on their own journey, there is dedicated time to share and connect about emergent experiences, as well as integration time built in each week.

Having both similar and different experiences within a group can be a reparative experience in and of itself.

Sharing this virtual SSP space with others provides each participant a somatic playground to practice and deepen Authentic Connection with self and others.

There is also a financial component to consider. The SSP Group is a more economical choice than individual sessions with the SSP.

Dr. Stephen Porges has described the SSP as a “potent” intervention. Many people experience stronger emotions for a short time as their defense mechanisms lower and evolve.

There are some indications that the Safe & Sound Protocol is not an appropriate intervention if the following is occurring:

• Living in a home or work situation that is not currently safe, or isn’t ‘safe enough’

• Current life upheaval, illness, surgeries without additional support

• Trauma that has never been addressed in any type of therapy; no support in place for processing trauma

• Ongoing/current substance abuse

• Current self-harm and/or suicidal ideation

If one or more of these are true for you, the SSP, whether individually or in a group, isn’t a great fit at this time.

One way trauma can be described is: “Too much, too fast, too soon, OR, not enough for too long.”

The antidote is what we might refer to ‘Goldilocks Therapy’: just enough, at the right pace, in the right time.

Learning to honor the pace of your body, your nervous system - it takes time. The pace of the body is nearly always slower than the pace of the mind!

Which is why we do this work together BBQ style: low and slow - so that your body is able to learn (and unlearn) at a sustainable and integrative rate.

This experience is not meant to replicate another “quick hit”, instant gratification, or a promise of being “fixed”, or finding “the answer.”

In a time of “go, go, go,” stolen focus, disconnection and intensity, we need spaces we can settle into, decompress, expand in, and learn to slow down enough to hear ourselves.

This is why ‘Authentic Connection’ has been structured to take place over months, and not days or weeks.

This is a valid reservation! I understand that many folks work online, and/or already spend many hours per week in front of a computer. It makes sense to wonder if a virtual offering feels like a good fit.

During the listening portions of our time together each week, I encourage everyone to go off camera and explore their environment.

This might be: laying in bed, looking out the window, going outside, making faces in the mirror, being on the floor engaging in some movement, lying still covered in blankets, or at a table exploring different art mediums… or anything else you/we can think of that might support your listening experience that doesn’t involve being onscreen.

During our check-ins, I encourage participants to honor their bodies needs. This might be going off camera when you need to and only sharing your voice. This might be taking your eyes off screen and resting. It might be experimenting with pulling your attention inward and noticing how other participants shares are landing in your system.

There’s many ways for us to explore how to ‘authentically connect’ AND ‘authentically disconnect.’

Your task during this experience is to listen to and tend to the needs of your body, not to take care of anyone else.

Probably not. But, I don’t think you’re broken.

I can bet, however, that your nervous system is working really really hard, and maybe has been for a long time… for some, maybe even always.

This time isn’t set up to “fix” anyone. This time together is set up so that you can deepen your relationship with yourself, learn to work a little less hard, learn to slow down enough to hear yourself and your bodies wisdom, and learn how to suffer better (yes that’s possible).

This time together, utilizing the SSP, is about nurturing your resilience and your capacity, tending to yourself in new and nuanced ways that (hopefully) feels like attuned self care.

Yes, indeed.

One of my favorite questions! And perhaps best discussed together so we can really explore the nuance of this one.

Reach out if you’d like to connect and discuss during a complimentary 30 minute consultation over zoom.