The Hollow Path Experiential Therapy
Bringing therapy to where you are in mind, body, and space. Home-Based, Clinic-Based, or Adventure-Based.
Experiential Therapy: A Genuine Offer to Explore
These activities are for ALL ages – we are all moving backward and forward on the spectrum from child to adult. Choosing a therapy is a matter of Goodness of Fit between your style of being and my style of working.
Designed individually for kids, teens, college students or adults who are curious about using therapy in an experiential way or anyone who knows somewhere inside that they love to run, walk, build, draw, play, create, paint, play sports, be with animals, play music, dance, sit in nature, move, doodle, swim, climb, write, journal, act, sew, knit, meditate or just plain sit.
It’s a therapy that meets you where you are and where you want or need to be in movement or stillness.
Treatment Modalities
Recreational Therapy, Expressive Art Therapy, Animal-Assisted Psychotherapy, and General Therapy with a Social Work Strengths-Based-Systems Approach. Individual, Group, Family and Animal-Related.
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Individual and Group Therapy
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Home-Based, In my Office, or Outside in Nature
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Family Experiential Therapy and Activities as an Adjunct to Family Therapy You are Already Doing
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Couples Experiential Therapy as an Adjunct to Current Couples Therapy
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Animal Assisted Psychotherapy
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Grief Therapy for Loss of Pets
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Recreational Therapy
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Adventure-Based Therapy
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Play Therapy
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Expressive Arts- Art, Movement, and Music
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Sand Tray
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Authentic Movement
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Therapeutic Orienteering or as I call it Reorienteering
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Adaptive English Therapy - Learning English with a therapeutic touch for learning-related traumas
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School-Related Trauma work for Students and Teachers
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Mindmapping
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Recording the Israel or Aliyah Experience; creative efficient journaling; an expanding and yet efficient way of capturing the enormity of the experience in a dimensional journal
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Body-Based Somatic Work
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TRE - Trauma Release Exercises
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EFT - Emotional Freedom Technique; also known as Tapping
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EMDR- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing for traumas and Trauma
Recreational Therapy
Makes a practice out of the idea that play, recreation, and leisure are an important part of being human
Quality of life includes access to leisure experiences and opportunities for self-development and self-expression. With stress and traumas, our playfulness and participation in the lighter side of life can be inhibited, denied, or abandoned as survival energy takes over. Sometimes we just don’t have access to the resources to explore our interests. We all have innate hobbies and interests and talents to create, play and explore. Recreational Therapy takes the therapeutic value of these activities and uses them with the intention for healing and restoration. It is about using activities for their innate therapeutic value in the context of a therapeutic process.
Therapeutic Recreation is adaptive and aims to take any activity and craft it to allow for satisfying participation of everyone involved. Like wheelchair ramps into buildings, any activity can be adapted to allow access. For those shy, anxious, tired or restricted in any way, sometimes it just takes a thoughtful adapting of an activity to provide access and a good reconnect to what makes you happy, calm, and alive. Restoring a sense of belonging, mastery, independence, and generosity is the right of each and every human being. To enjoy life is a human gift.
If you were given free time and your access to your own pure free will and open resources, what would you do with your time?
Therapeutic Recreation works with the foundations of Experiential Education, Multiple Intelligences, and Multisensory learning. It satisfies the crafter and the athlete and explorer who wants to use these qualities to explore within.
Adventure-Based Therapy is part of this and uses its wonderful concept of Challenge by Choice. You will see many ways that I use these notions of challenge and choice.
Clinical Social Work
When I studied Social Work at the graduate level I learned that the essence of Social Work and its Strengths Perspective was to mobilize your strengths and use them in the service of achieving your goals and visions so that you will have a better quality of life – on your terms. (This is paraphrased from a book on the Resources page). This perspective is the essence of what makes Clinical Social Work different from other forms of therapy. It’s a dedicated search for strengths and then figuring out how to use them well. Look for what worked and figure out how to do it again. It’s not so simple. Look to the Systems and circles around the person – to the environment – to gain information and insight. Look with a wide lens. Each of us is intimately influenced by what surrounds us that either supports or inhibits our sense of being. The Strengths and Systems essences of Social Work really seeped into my bones as a way of honoring the whole of a person’s experiences in the world and seeing the diagnosis as one informational part of the strong and resourceful person who entered the room for a chance at the therapeutic process. I’m in the life is messy camp and I believe that we need to come into therapy with our messes and our stories …. as well as our strengths. It’s the interaction between our wounds and our resources that makes healing possible. Sometimes we have access to the wounds. Sometimes we marvel only in the mind. Sometimes we lose connection with the innate wisdom of the human spirit. The trauma-informed Clinical Social Work that I practice will honor the past, present, future, environment, wounds, diagnosis, and the ever-present strengths that are waiting to serve you.
Animal Assisted Therapy and Grief over the Loss of a Pet
Our pets are our companions and our comfort. They are also an expression of how we live our lives and who we might be if the bounds were off. They share our joys and our burdens and sometimes our carrots. They also reflect parts of ourselves back to us, as the outer world often does, but in the special lovable way that only animals can. A dear dog companion can fill so many places in the heart that it’s hard to imagine. Cats free to roam remind us of the agile movers we all have within us. All the ferrets and guinea pigs and chinchillas in our homes and our hearts serve a very significant purpose in our lives.
Our animals can also play a very essential and helpful part of getting the most out of a therapeutic moment. Animal-assisted therapy can take many forms. Their simple presence in a therapy session alters the warmth in the room. Animals can connect us to lost parts of ourselves in a way that only nature can. They remind us of our impulses and our instincts. They show us the impeccable way to effectively use the fight, flight and freeze maneuvers that our bodies have given us for our survival – uninhibited by the human thinking mind. They offer the uncomplicated connection, the unconditional experience. Bring your pet, or I’ll bring mine and let’s see why they found you.
Animal Assisted Therapy and Grief over Loss of Pet
Grief When Our Beloved Pet Dies. Our Dogs kelev...are our hearts
הכלבים שלנו... הם הלבבות שלנו
כלבים, חתולים ויצורים אהובים אחרים, חיות המחמד שלנו, יכולים להיות שותפינו לחיים במידה שקשה לרובנו להגדיר. המגע שלהם מעניק לנו סיפוק, והנפש נעשית עליזה בחברתם. הם ממלאים את החללים והמכאובים שגרמו לנו בני אדם ומזכירים לנו להישאר בקשר עם רגעים של חדווה, עם הטבע ועם הלב המעניק בלי תנאים. חיות מחמד מציעים לנו יחסים לא מסובכים. השהות בחברתם יכולה ללמד אותנו לאהוב, לבטוח ופשוט להיות – גם אם החיים מלמדים אותנו אחרת. אין פלא שעם המחלה והמוות שלהם, גם חלק בתוכנו נֵחְלָה ומת.
אנחנו יודעים ומצפים שעם מות אדם קרוב נתמלא יגון. היגון משפיע על מצב רוחנו, גורם לנו להיות רכים יותר, קשים יותר. הוא מערער את האיזון שלנו; זמן רב יעבור עד שמקצב חיינו יחזור לפעום כרגיל. כך הדבר גם כשמתה חיית המחמד שלנו. לפעמים היגון כה עז שקשה לנו להרים את עצמנו ומשום מה איננו מבינים לחלוטין את המקורות לכך. הרי אנחנו יודעים עד כמה חזק היה הקשר שלנו לכלב, ואם כן, מדוע עוצמת הכאב והאובדן שאנחנו חשים כשהם עוזבים או מתים מבלבלת ומפתיעה אותנו כל כך? הערך והעומק של היחסים גלויים לעין והזולת יכול לראות אותם. האובדן הזה, כמו אובדן קשר אנושי, מסב כאב אמיתי, כֵּן ומוצדק.
לעתים מות חיית מחמד מביא איתו חיים שלמים של כאבים שלא הרגשנו. אנחנו חיים בתרבות שמעריכה חוסן ושליטה ברגשותינו – גם אל מול מתח עצום וחוויות טראומטיות. לפתע הכלב מת ומפלס את הדרך ליגון מן העבר, כשלא הרשינו לעצמנו להישבר. לפעמים היגון עם מות כלב נובע גם מן החלל ותהום האכזבה שהנחילו לנו בני אדם, ושאותם מילא בשבילנו; אנחנו מתאבלים על חיית המחמד ועל מה שלא היה לנו גם יחד. אובדן אחד מעלה אובדנים קודמים. זו הסיבה שאנחנו בוכים בלוויות על אנשים שעזבו אותנו מזמן.
ליגון יש דרך להישאר בתוך גופנו עד שניתן לו את יום (או ימי) האבל שהוא זקוק להם. הוא מחכה, כמו מזון לא מעוכל המחכה שנעבד ונשחרר אותו. אבל היגון לעתים קרובות זקוק לעֵד, כמו אצל תרבויות שונות בכל העולם המקדשות טקסים ופולחנים של אבל ציבורי. אלה מבטאים הכרה בכאב ובאובדן ועוזרים לנו לפסוע במשעול העצוב של היגון. הכלבים, החתולים, העזים, החמורים, הציפורים, הזוחלים ויתר היצורים ההולכים שאהבנו. הם בלבנו, בנפשנו ובגופינו, הם באמת חלק מאיתנו, וראוי שנתאבל עליהם כשאנחנו מאבדים אותם. מגיע לכאב שלכם עֵד שיבין ללבכם.
Reorienteering: Reorienting Trauma Using Orienteering
התמצאות מחדש זה קונספט שפיתחתי תוך התבססות על ניסיוני המקצועי המגוון כעובדת סוציאלית קלינית ומטפלת בפעילויות פנאי שונות. אני מציעה פעילות ניווט הנעזרת במיטב שמציעים מדע הנוירולוגיה, חכמת חיות הבר, פעילויות פנאי וטיפול המודע לטראומה. זאת, במסגרת פעילות מהנה תוך מודעות והקשבה לגוף. זהו מבט סקרן לתהליך ההתמצאות, תוך כדי ניווט.
החיים מפגישים אותנו עם לחצים ואתגרים רבים, והאופן בו המערכת העצבית שלנו תגיב היא שתקבע האם הניסיונות האלה יישארו בגופנו כטראומה או ישתחררו באופן טבעי. המעגל הזה נשען במידה רבה על תגובת ההתמצאות. לכן, לקחתי את האלמנט הקריטי הזה וצירפתי אותו לספורט הניווט. כך יצרתי שיטה לאמן ולדייק יכולת זו. נצא אל השטח, עם מפת ניווט מגניבה ונמצא את דרכנו בינות קווי הגובה והמערות, בעזרת הסמלים שעל המפה ותחושתכם לגבי מקום המצאותכם במרחב שסביבכם.
כל אחד יכול להתנסות בכך. ניתן להתאים לקבוצות שונות בגדלים שונים. ניתן לעשות זאת בכל מקום. זוהי מהותה של תרפיה המבוססת על פנאי ואתם יכולים להתמצא בכל מרחב. אני מסוגלת להתאים את הפעילות לכל מנעד הספקטרום בין הנאה לחינוך לתרפיה. תקוותי היא להעלות מודעות למיומנות יום יומית שיכולה להביא מזור והקלה לטראומה ולחצי היום יום המטלטלים את מערכת העצבים.
אני מאמינה מעומק ליבי שאנחנו יכולים לנווט את דרכנו דרך מערכת העצבים האישית שלנו, ומשם דרך היקום כולו.
Expressive Arts Therapy
I once heard of a tribe that diagnoses illness by asking
"When did you stop dancing and when did you stop singing?"
We all have a natural innate way of expressing anything and everything. The laughing and drawing and dancing and moving that we admire is inside every single one of us. The impulse to express ourselves is what makes us alive and human. If we are lucky, we remember that it came out of us naturally when we were young, before it was scared into withdrawal.
This question, “When did you stop dancing and when did you stop singing?” is very interesting. It points to a time in history when something went into hiding. Some part of you. The point of Expressive Arts Therapy is to give access and output to the inner workings and sensitive hidings of our true selves. It is the use of any form of expression for the release and transformation of emotions held in the body. The body is the container of our life. It holds all our experiences along with our unexpressed sorrows, our unfinished traumas, and our unfinished actions. That’s a lot for the immune system and the nervous system to carry. There has to be a way for release and the proverbial letting go. Actually, pre-verbal experiences are particularly hard to articulate and they need other ways to show expression.
The body naturally expresses itself in movement, and if it were to spit out something on paper it would come in the form of images. Images are a direct expression from the body of what’s inside. Using art and movement and music are very human and very natural ways to let out what went in. We experience life with all of our senses, so it’s logical that we would have to engage those senses to release our experiences. And herein lies the beauty of art, movement, and the expressive arts. It's about expression and then being in relationship to what wanted to be expressed, with curiosity and evolving acceptance. It is not about being an artist. It’s about expressing - and we all do it.
Adaptive English Therapy and Diagnostic Tutoring
Do you have mental blocks for learning English OR just a different way of learning OR major wild resistance to the requirements of learning English for your first or second Degree?
Communication is vital, powerful and understandably hard. Communication in another language can be a strange alteration of sound, character, and expression of one’s self. The actual capacity for communication is a very personal web of skills and life stories that sometimes supports our ability to catch a new language and sometimes blocks it altogether. As kids and adults, we are scared when we do not perceive that we have a safe effective way to get what we need. As a result, people may give up or resort to acting in ways that make them feel strong and not vulnerable. But this isn’t the way to find our true strength or learn a language. Language barriers feel scary deep inside of us. Language becomes deeply emotional as it is our way to effectively or ineffectively be a part of humanity. Language links us together, and as humans - being together at a primary level ensures our survival. So, in pursuit of survival, our use of words becomes a major source of power and control, for good, bad, and ugly. Then hopefully a source for healing.
As we begin to unravel the barriers to learning languages, we are sure to discover personal and fascinating stories of family and survival. With the emotional side of language acquisition given some space and understanding and support the sometimes-long patterns of failure and shame can dissolve and the real capacity for learning can emerge. The division between learning disabilities and emotional blocks will become more clear and the skill building can be more effective and certainly more satisfying.
Particular focus:
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School-age students starting to fall behind or who have unusual resistance or barriers to English
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College Students facing the unavoidable language requirements
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Professionals who want to advance but who didn’t face these barriers earlier in life