Your Hosts
Where & When
I am delighted to welcome Felt Sense Teacher and /Focusing Oriented Therapist, Joya DCruz. Joya will share with us in our September Meet Up Connecting to Self without Going Inward a much needed embodied practice of grounding without attending to internal bodily sensations. Sometimes we forget that our trauma and addicted clients have survived by NOT paying attention to the body. Polyvagal theory teaches us that through the process of neuroception, we dissociate from the the body when we feel unsafe. Together we will explore ways to help our clients begin the journey of embodied safety by orienting outwards.
Joya will guide us in the practice and then I will lead a discussion as we explore this work through a polyvagal lens.
Jan Winhall
Event description
Sometimes, trauma makes us feel unsafe to bring our awareness into our bodies. Felt sensing and our sense of connection with our resources offers us the capacity to safely connect with ourselves and our life issues without re-experiencing trauma.
In this experiential workshop we will understand in a simple way how trauma works in our human systems. We will learn ways to connect with our bodies, without focusing on the internal bodily experiences. We will also learn how to always stay in charge of our own process, while we befriend ourselves in a safe way at a pace that feels just right.
Joya DCruz bio
Joya DCruz was born and raised in India, and has lived in Singapore and in various places in the North Americas. Her life and work as has been influenced by colonization, immigration, and her formal education.
She is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Michigan and a Certified Focusing Oriented Therapist, with Masters degrees in Social Psychology and Counseling. She is trained in the first level of Sensorimotor Processing and in The Gottman method of Couple Therapy. Her work with clients is strongly influenced by Indigenous Focusing Oriented Therapy for Complex Trauma.
She has taught Mindfulness based Meditation with the Prison Mindfulness Institute in Windsor, Ontario; in a Women’s Prison in Michigan, USA and in her local community in Ypsilanti, Michigan.