Safety and Presence in the Therapeutic Space with Bonnie Badenoch
Bonnie Badenoch is a therapist, mentor, teacher, author, and has spent the last fifteen years integrating the discoveries of relational neuroscience into her therapy practice. She's the co-founder of the nonprofit agency Nurturing the Heart with the Brain in Mind. For twenty-five years, she has worked with trauma survivors to reshape their neural landscape to support a life of meaning and resilience.
Through exploration of her own developmental trauma, Bonnie was able to receive the support that she needed and was inspired to help others.
Bonnie reflects on the importance of true safety, true presence, and connection as essential elements for healing — and she believes it's vital for therapists to do their own work in order for them to be healthy enough to be present, safe, and connected to themselves and their clients in the therapeutic space.
Bonnie’s approach, similar to NARM, is grounded in a therapist’s capacity for humility, which has to do with the way therapists meet their clients with openness and curiosity, and not as experts or being focused on “fixing their clients”. Bonnie gives a couple examples of clients and the growth that they have experienced due to the relational focus in their therapy.
Safety, curiosity, and space for clients to connect to their own inner wisdom - which in NARM is part of the agency process - can lead to profound healing and transformation. Bonnie reflects on the power of the therapist “really respecting space and trusting the wisdom inside the person — and if we can just sit together and keep holding space, what needs to come forward will come forward, and it'll come forward at a pace that's manageable for the person.”
Bonnie reflects on what gives her hope amidst all the fear and devastation that goes on in the world and between one another. She believes that who we are inherently yearns to orient towards connection and health.
To read the full show notes and discover more resources visit http://www.narmtraining.com/podcast
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The NARM Training Institute provides tools for transforming complex trauma through: in-person and online trainings for mental health care professionals; in-person and online workshops on complex trauma and how it interplays with areas like addiction, parenting, and cultural trauma; an online self-paced learning program, the NARM Inner Circle; and other trauma-informed learning resources.
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