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Sundown Healing Arts

Intuitive, compassionate bodywork for trauma

Wider Narratives

Topic: Wider Narratives

Let Life Flow Forward

Unprocessed trauma stays frozen inside us in fragments of image, sensation, emotion, and movement. The fragments might pop up as if they are happening now, and we might also experience the freeze itself as immobile depression or as an unending emergency. One task of healing is to weave the fragments into a narrative. “First this… Read More

March 1, 2022 sonia

Topic: Wider Narratives

Accessible for This Starfish

A person walking on a beach notices many stranded starfish. She sees someone bending to toss starfish back in the ocean one at a time and says, “Throwing back a few won’t make any difference.” As the person throws another starfish into the water, they say, “It makes a difference to this one!” – brief… Read More

October 1, 2021 sonia

Topic: Wider Narratives

Nestle Into Uncertainty

In June 2021, the United States government added a new national holiday: Juneteenth. The holiday commemorates federal troops landing in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865 to enforce Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation issued two and a half years before. The Civil War had ended two and a half months before. We are usually told that the… Read More

July 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: 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: Wider Narratives

Loosen Inner Deadlock

As we navigate life’s choices, we usually reach a decision by a combination of checking inside ourselves, researching options, asking others for advice, and flipping a coin. Sometimes none of that works and we find ourselves deadlocked, unable to settle on a resolution. An inner deadlock can be an intense battle, with constant internal arguments,… Read More

March 1, 2020 sonia

Topic: Wider Narratives

Good Enough for Mistakes

How do you respond when you make a mistake? Do you take it in stride? Crumple in shame? Panic? What we count as a mistake and how we respond depends on our current resources as well as how mistakes were treated as we grew up. Inexperience Children naturally make a lot of mistakes. As we… Read More

August 1, 2019 sonia

Topic: Wider Narratives

Consider Additional Truths

Ideally, as we grow up we learn to balance consideration for others with consideration for ourselves. We see the adults around us treating others and themselves with care. We experience being treated with care. We are directly taught to lift our attention from our immediate concerns to include the concerns of the people around us…. Read More

July 1, 2019 sonia

Topic: Wider Narratives

Practice Kind Language

Content Note: Ableist language used as negative examples. As we walked along, my friend tripped over a raised bit of sidewalk. “Pick up your feet!” she scolded herself. I could imagine her four-year-old self being dragged by the hand as her mother scolded her in exactly those words a half-century earlier. Oppression by default We… Read More

May 1, 2018 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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Sandy S.

There has been a massive sense of self esteem and discovery of just who I actually am whenever I have received healing work from you. Continue Reading (click twice)

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Sundown Healing Arts is size-friendly, diversity-friendly, queer-friendly, and trans-friendly. Persons of any body size, skin color, sexual orientation, and gender are welcome. Black Lives Matter.

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