We are living during a tumultuous time. This year, a presidential election takes place in our country. We are four years into a global pandemic, with surges still taking place. In the world of mental health, we are currently witnessing an increase in difficulties, both for our clients and our communities.
Depending on who you are, different words will ring true for your current circumstances – scared, tired, exhausted, over-stimulated, collapsed, depressed. We hear every permutation of these expressed in the therapy room. And we, like you, also crave different words and to have different experiences that define us as individuals and societies at large.
Our founder Dr. Julie Lopez recently sat down with therapist and healer, Claudia Cauterucci. They shared a compassionate conversation on depression, how individual healing impacts community/family healing, and so much more. You can check out the whole conversation here and read below for some key takeaways.
Feeling Stuck
It is imperative to have different language surrounding mental health. This is what we are all about at The Viva View. The diagnostic model of healthcare requires providers to label clients in order for them to receive financial support for our services.
We know that understanding a struggle through diagnosis can be a form of empowerment. Naming can also provide energetic relief, through making the invisible visible. For those who have felt the effects of stigmas, owning themselves in the context of a diagnosis can help them reframe and reclaim. Claudia and Julie discuss this in episode three.
“Naming something, because of the impact it has on the nervous system, feels like meditation. It can be a beautiful way of becoming an observer.” – Claudia Cauterucci
At the same time, a diagnosis can become a box. No singular human essence can be contained by a box. This is, in part, why many people feel stuck in their healing. For clinicians as well, if the framework is established by working with “a depressed client,” the strategy is to manage depression symptoms. In this situation, “nothing is moving, there is no expanding,” as Claudia remarked.
We believe there is another way.
Stay Curious
A diagnosis is not a statement of finality. Whether you live with depression, have loved ones who are impacted, or work as a clinician, we invite you to see this diagnosis as an entryway not a destination. Stay curious.
Ask what predated this diagnosis. Is there a family history of depression? Or a family trauma that is being expressed in this way, and therefore repeated, that could be healed? For more, see our conversation with Lauren Boone on Transgenerational Therapy.
Set goals and invite clients to set goals. For many, depression can feel like a cage. We are not in the practice of “colluding with clients who may already feel stuck” as Julie so poignantly shared. We want to help them call forth the experiences they want to have. To hold those hopeful possibilities in the room with them.
Expand Beyond Depression
Depression is felt, physiologically within the body, as heaviness. It is dense. This truth is stated both in the diagnostic criteria and is something we witness, in ourselves and with our clients. Part of being trauma-informed is involving the whole body in the healing process.
This can entail “looking at our feelings through an energetic scale,” as Claudia shared. “The denser the feelings, like depression or apathy, versus fear which have more bubbles moving….Applying emotions to an energetic scale, as you get lighter, you move up.”
Trauma-informed yoga, somatic techniques, and meditation are a few ways of moving through dense energy. With any of these, we know that being present in the body is not safe for everyone. If this is you, please engage with these healing practices while also supported by ongoing therapy.
In this podcast episode, Claudia also shares about her Dynamic Meditation Model, which is a self-healing, emotional regulation system. One beautiful thing about this approach is its accessibility and everyday use. Tools for healing are needed every single day. So that we can stay well and respond to common stressors in a way that expands planetary healing.
Fluidity
“How do we start swaying in the wind, as opposed to being so rigid that we’ll break at anything?” – Claudia Cauterucci
This is the ultimate question. As we witness our culture struggle with the grief, loss, and distress of the times we are living in, how can we embody mental health and invite others into the conversations surrounding it?
As Claudia shared, “the small is in the all and the all is in the small.” Everyday supportive practices (exercise, nervous system tending, rest), are how we do our own part to create a world empowered to heal.
If this blog post and the conversation between Claudia and Julie resonated with you, but you’re having trouble getting there on your own, remember: you’re not meant to do it alone. Healing occurs through connection. Reach out to Claudia Cauterucci or contact our team at info@vivapartnership.com.
About the Authors
Mary Grace Comber
The Client Specialist at The Viva Center. She supports our clients and clinicians through administrative and intake processes. She also organizes our Holistic Presentations for Growth workshop series and other community offerings.