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Sundown Healing Arts

Intuitive, compassionate bodywork for trauma

Articles

Topic: Hard Times, Abuse

A Harvest of Understanding

Take a couple of slow breaths, and notice where you are right now on the range from calm to anxious, settled to frantic. With kind eyes, look back at this pandemic year. Unevenly distributed In April 2021, the worldwide Covid pandemic continues to be unevenly distributed. India is undergoing a devastating surge with a horrific… Read More

May 1, 2021 sonia

Topic: Acceptance

Respect Your Reservoir of Pain

Whether our pain is physical or emotional, chronic or acute, we encounter suspicion that we did something to deserve it or have not done enough to fix it, and if we just corrected our course the pain would disappear. Pain signals a problem Pain is the brain’s way of signaling a problem. The problem could… Read More

April 1, 2021 sonia

Topic: Wider Narratives

Embodying Hope: Introduction

Embodying Hope: Living in Difficult Times with a Difficult Past offers you respite and replenishment, support and affirmation in these hard times. You did all this personal healing work so you could have a happier life, and now look! We have ongoing white supremacy and climate change, manifesting as destructive leaders, militarized police, escalating wildfires,… Read More

March 1, 2021 sonia

Topic: Wider Narratives

Prefer Narratives with Hope, Updated

In her presentation for Write/Speak/Code 2016, Naomi Ceder (@naomiceder) describes how our narrative about a situation controls the options we have. When she was young, the narrative she saw about trans people was one of sickness, wrongness, and absence of hope. The only way to transition was to renounce contact with all current family and… Read More

February 1, 2021 sonia

Topic: Hard Times, Abuse

Within Sight of Relief, Pause

Have you noticed people driving fast out there? Maybe you are one of those fast drivers, in a hurry to get to your destination and away from where you came from. It seems like everyone is vibrating with stress and the need to get out and away. Now that we are past the solstice, longer… Read More

January 1, 2021 sonia

Topic: Wider Narratives

The “Good Person” Badge

Thanks to each of you for pausing for a moment, putting down your struggle, taking a breath, and hearing that you are okay just as you are right now. Thanks to each of you who leaves behind the numbing blanket of denial to explore your individual history of abuse and trauma. Thank you for stepping… Read More

December 1, 2020 sonia

Topic: Relating

Kindness, Not Contempt

Contempt is regarding something or someone as inferior, vile, or worthless. Reserve this potent weapon for extreme cases of causing harm for selfish ends. Contempt hurts Whether hidden or overt, contempt hurts. We are social beings who care about the approval of people around us. Contempt from anyone erodes our sense of worthiness. Contempt from… Read More

November 1, 2020 sonia

Topic: Emotions

Anchor Terror in Time

Terror is part of the body’s basic survival mechanisms. It says, “I sense something that threatens my life, and I want to live!” As unpleasant as it feels, terror is not an enemy in itself. It is a blaring alarm. There are so many reasons to feel terror these days. World-wide pandemic. Wildfires. Police murdering… Read More

October 1, 2020 sonia

Topic: Hard Times, Abuse

Rock the Boat About Racism

This article discusses racism and white supremacy as seen in the US, and is applicable in the rest of the white-dominated world as well. Notice your inner responses as you read. Do you feel numb and bored? Do you feel angry and defensive? Do you feel relief because someone is naming your experience? When you… Read More

September 1, 2020 sonia

Topic: Hard Times, Abuse

Wear a Mask to Belong

Many survivors of childhood abuse and neglect have an ongoing ache to belong, an unassuaged longing for the warmth of secure attachment. We develop strategies both to hide our vulnerable hearts and to reach out for connection. We hide our core self to be acceptable and we expose our rawness to be visible. Belong right… Read More

August 1, 2020 sonia

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This practice is closed. Thank you to all the clients who have come in over the years. I appreciate your courage and trust. Click here for practitioner referral list. I am returning to my previous career of computer programming, and my previous home of Oakland, CA.

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Josh Hill

Sonia Connolly is an amazing healer who has helped me through many difficult times over the past year. She has been very patient, intuitive, knowledgeable and professional during every visit. Continue Reading (click twice)

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