It Wasn’t Only Back Pain: How Helen Beynon Found Somatic Experiencing And IFS

Sonya Brewer is a trauma specialist and relationship expert who specializes in creative life and relationship design for overachieving trauma survivors and their partners. She helps trauma survivors feel more alive, connected and authentic so they can create the lives and relationships they truly want. In this conversation Sonya shares vulnerably about doing her own deep work, including the processes she went through to heal her childhood emotional neglect and other traumas. She also talks about how her own healing has changed her work as a therapist and healer. Here's some of what we talked about: Discovering Breath Work and somatics Finding the right therapist and sticking with her for decades! Becoming a healer and leaving corporate behind Healing and retrieving young parts of herself Understanding and healing from emotional neglect Feeling the help, love and healing of her ancestors The limits of talk therapy in accessing some of our deepest healing Insights on Couples and Complex PTSD (and an upcoming book!) Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/250

You’re going to hear some courageous and vulnerable stuff right now. My guest today is a therapist who uses two methods to help her clients heal trauma. Her own healing journey started in an unexpected way. Helen Beynon is a somatic therapist and IFS-informed practitioner. She loves working with folks to transform trauma and build their capacity to navigate a tumultuous world. I met her when she was a teacher in my IFS learning. She’s based in British Columbia. Here's some of what we talked about: How she found Somatic Experiencing as a client Doing deep emotional and physical healing she didn’t expect Her personal experiences that led her to learn both IFS and Somatic Experiencing as a practitioner How she integrates the 2 methods How she now listens to and uses her anger rather than pushing it away Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/249

Before I jump in, I want to share a workshop I’ll be running for people who are estranged or distant from their parent or caregiver and are needing support while they work to create a beautiful life and heal. This is a judgment free zone where you’ll be with people who get it, and you’ll learn tools to truly show up for yourself. Join me on Friday, August 1st. Go to https://anniezam.com/ to learn more and sign up. I can’t wait to see you. On to today’s interview! Today’s guest shares deeply and vulnerably how she’s done her own healing through big stuff, including childhood sexual abuse, realizing she’s a lesbian while married to a man, and the death of her father. You’ll hear about the beautiful process she guides people through, why she took a sabbatical recently, and why she’s working with a shaman now. Meet Samantha Fox. As a sexuality coach, she works with women around the world to support them as they discover that they are not as straight as they might have thought. She’s developed an experiential method called Unbox Your Sexuality that creates a monumental transformation. She’s also an LMFT in New York. Here's some of what we talked about: How therapy failed her at one point Healing from childhood trauma Uncovering her lesbian sexuality Becoming a guide for other women in their coming out journeys Coping and growing in the loss of her father Taking a sabbatical Why she’s working with a Shaman How she changed her work to feel more right for her The power of IFS and why she uses it with her clients Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/248

This podcast is changing because my work is changing! I’m still offering business coaching, and you can find out how I help therapists and healers with their businesses at rebeltherapist.me. AND I’ve stepped back into working with clients as a healer. I have been on a HUGE healing journey of my own that started with a guided psychedelic journey in January of 2023. I then received Brainspotting, first from my friend, Alicia Taverner. Hire her if you can. She’s at *https://www.ranchocounseling.com/.* Then I received some parts work. I have gotten so much help from these modalities. They really get to the root of my trauma in a way that nothing else has. I felt this magnetic pull to learn these modalities myself and to start working as a healer again. I work with people who are estranged from a parent or caregiver and other folks who want to do some big healing. I also have a workshop coming up later this summer for people who are estranged from a parent or caregiver and are working to build their most beautiful life. If you’re interested in checking out any of that, find it at AnnieZam.com. Let’s get to today’s amazing therapist guest who I adore. My favorite kind of practitioner is the kind that wouldn’t ask their client to do anything they don’t do themselves. I’m SO excited to introduce Jaclyn Tyson, a therapist and spiritual companion who helps people reconnect with their inner wisdom through spirituality, creativity, and healing practices. She weaves together approaches like Brainspotting, parts work, energy healing, and expressive arts to support personal and collective transformation. In our conversation, you’ll hear about how she uses these modalities with her clients AND how they’re central to her own growth and healing. Here's some of what we talked about: How Jaclyn processed her grief after her father passed and she knew she needed something beyond the tools she already had Jaclyn’s mentorship with a Shaman How she brings Reiki, Brainspotting and IFS together all at once with her clients The rituals she does before and after sessions Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/247

My 2 guests today created and will co-facilitate The Hour Before Dawn A Program for Inheritors of Wealth with Family Ties to the Nazi Regime who want to take ancestral responsibility and create a more just world. (https://www.irisbrilliant.com/the-hour-before-dawn) Iris Brilliant is a money coach based in Berlin, Germany. She guides wealthy people who are confused or conflicted about what to do with their money to create a deeply liberating vision and plan for their wealth. She has recently shaped her career to fight fascism globally. Justine Epstein is a facilitator and mentor for people with inherited wealth who want to examine the histories of their ancestors and money, and take meaningful action to address these legacies. Her approach combines ancestral research, contextual history, political education, wealth redistribution and divestment, with embodied mindfulness, ritual, connection to the natural world, and creative expression. They both come from wealthy families. You’re about to hear how they’ve done intense personal work AND justice work. I’m swooning on that combination and it’s a combination of work I aspire to do. You’ll hear me ask them some challenging questions. You know, the stuff people who have wealth don’t usually talk about in public? They talk about that stuff with a ton of transparency. I think it’s courageous. Here's some of what we talked about: Iris and Justine’s journeys with generational examination and healing around wealth Navigating wealth and relationships Shame, guilt, and transformative healing and action Building their collaborative partnership Creating and facilitating their program: The Hour Before Dawn Addressing the Palestinian genocide Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/246

I’ve been regularly creating content to build and nurture my audience for 10 years now. This strategy has worked really well for me. It’s been a huge part of how I’ve drawn people to my work and built their trust. My content has also helped thousands of people who I’ll never have the pleasure of meeting. AND…creating content week after week can be overwhelming. Daniel Fava had me on his podcast, Private Practice Elevation, and we dug into all of my insights about how to create content that matters. I realized this conversation includes a lot of things I haven’t shared with you, and I asked Daniel if I could release it as a Rebel Therapist episode as well. Daniel Fava is the owner of Private Practice Elevation where his team helps therapist with all things website and SEO. He got into this particular niche because his spouse is a therapist. Here’s some of what we talked about: How to figure out what to create content about (and the questions I go back to every week) Finding your voice by using your voice What to do if you’re overwhelmed What to do if you think you’re annoying people with your emails Creating your content ritual My actual process Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/245

When you engage in your own healing, how does your work change? Today I’m talking to Judy Hu. They’ve created a group process to alchemize generational trauma, and in this episode she talks all about her own path to healing and finding this way of working. They also guide me through an unexpected and powerful process during the interview. Judy Hu is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor turned Boundary Coach based in Massachusetts. Judy is the author of bestselling book, The Boundary Revolution: Decolonize Your Relationships and Discover a New Path to Joy, which documents the framework Judy developed to guide her clients through their boundary healing. They’re also a Rebel Therapist grad. Here's some of what we talked about: Transitioning from therapist to boundary coach Developing a group process to alchemize ancestral trauma Bringing playfulness and creativity to their groups How a ketamine journey influenced her path Her big life changes and healing Collective healing and group dynamics Decolonizing our work Why the way Judy works now does not cause them to burn out Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/244

Before I share the replay of this open coaching call I want to tell you… Wednesday, April 2nd is the last day to sign up for Create Your Program in 2025. Do you have a sense of what having your own course or program could do for your career? If you’ve been sitting on an idea for a while, I want to invite you to create your program with me. This is the process where you take your incredible strengths as a therapist or healer and you create a signature program so that you can serve more people, make more money, and get your best ideas out of your head and into a unique container you’ll be able to offer over and over. We go through an 11 week process together step by step so that you are actually launching your program during our time together with my support. I ran a free and open coaching call recently for everyone in our audience, including clients and listeners. We had such great questions that I decided to share the recording with you. Here are some of the questions I answered and expanded on: Can I create my first program with minimal tech? How can I carve out time to work on my program when I’ve got a full private practice? I have a few ideas for programs. How can I choose one? Is it best to wait to do CYP until I have a fully formed program idea, or do plenty of people figure it out along the way? How do you support therapists like me who are constantly taking courses and never creating? How far in advance of my course should I start promoting it? I sometimes think “I have no good ideas.” How do I get past this and tap into an offer I feel clear and confident about? How do you support therapists in being visible. I’m worried how my therapy clients might react if I share more of my personal story in a newsletter. With the economy quickly changing, how do we factor that in as we choose which program to create? Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/243

Got shame? When shame shows up, it’s overwhelming and contagious. My guest has created a process to help therapists transform shame with their clients. You’re about to hear how she created her program, how her process works, and how she transformed her own shame in the process of building her business. Tatra De La Rosa is a therapist and educator with a private practice in Northern California where she provides supervision and training to associate therapists, and teaches graduate students on the path to becoming therapists. She’s been working with clients in her private practice to heal shame at its source and is passionate about teaching other therapists how they can learn to do so as well. She’s also a recent grad of Create Your Program. Here's some of what we talked about: Why we get frustrated when we work with shame protectors How shame gets activated in the therapist, a.k.a. “I’m a terrible therapist!” or imposter syndrome Why shame is actually a misunderstanding The and modules of her program and how she teaches it Using a recorded session of her work as well as live group coaching to teach participants the method How she filled her pilot program Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/242

Sometimes you have to unexpectedly step away from your business. When you return, it’s really helpful to have a program you’ve created that you can dive back into. Having your own program separate from your private practice gives you a way to serve people and make money from anywhere, and you don’t lose that branch of your business, even if you move to a different part of the world. That’s the story of this week’s guest. Kate Ahl is a therapist and coach with over 20 years' experience of working with writers, researchers and academics, in the UK and the US. For many years she was an in-house therapist for faculty and staff at Cambridge University and in her private practice she continues to serve people who live by their brains, struggling with perfectionism, imposter syndrome, and creative block. She’s also a grad of Create Your Program and Rebel Therapist Marketing Intensive. Here's some of what we talked about: Helping people with restless, problem solving minds The challenges and fun parts of working with extremely brainy humans Diving back into her program after months away because of life issues AND a transatlantic move Her feeling of relief that her program was ready for her to pick up and run again Returning to the container and structure she learned in Rebel Therapist programs so she could stay out of overwhelm in her business Dripping curriculum out little by little so that participants don’t get overwhelmed Offering asynchronous as well as live coaching during her program How she’s marketing her program using content and guesting on podcasts Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/241