Jan Bergstrom, LMHC

When you decide to work with me, I start to map out and help you understand your family of origin experience. The purpose of reviewing what happened is NOT to stay in the past, it is to understand how those patterns or woundings show up in your present life and relationships today. Everyone has some type of trauma and grows up in a “less than nurturing family” and needs to get their “story straight” on how you adapted in your family of origin. Once there is clarity on how you adapted, I help to educate you on what is functional and use experiential processes that deepen the work and healing. 

I stress the importance of using breath, and finding resources for developing a centering, grounding and mindful practice that supports your healing. I use specific body-based interventions which allow you to pause and slow down. These interventions help the release of stored up energy that has been stuck in the body and allows more capacity to develop in the nervous system.

By using a blended model approach of the Core Issues work by Pia Mellody, I assess the states of immaturity or lack of development you received in these six areas: Self Esteem (how were you valued), Boundaries (how were you protected physically and emotionally), Reality (how you were validated in your sense of self), Self-Care (how you had your needs met or not), Moderation (how limits were set and enforced in your family) and Attachment ( how you relationally attached with caregivers and others). Ultimately, I teach the Six Core Skills of loving the self, protecting the self (through use of internal boundaries), creating and knowing the self, taking care of the self, containing and moderating the self and handling your needs and wants with other interdependently. These skills create the foundational practice that supports your healing, growth, and renewal. 

Another essential part of the treatment is to begin to understand how “parts of self” were created to survive your family system. These parts of self are wounded and adaptive states and show up in your adult life currently. So, the process of therapy begins by cultivating a more functional self to intervene with these states and re-parent them. Strengthening and growing a functional adult self is essential for successful relationships and a satisfying life today. I incorporate in all stages of treatment the concept of bringing a more “functioning” self-on-board.

This 8–10 month treatment program requires working with me twice a month in hourly sessions, attending an in person 3-day intensive workshop then, following up twice a month in hourly sessions to integrate the work done throughout the program. The three-day workshop uses body-based interventions, mindfulness, dialoguing with parts of self and empty chair work. Through this experiential process of treatment, the functional adult self is cultivated and allows you to “live out” of your wiser self and significantly improve your relationships. This workshop is called “Healing Your Childhood Trauma.” I conduct these workshops along with my colleague Laura Blundo in my private practice usually 4 -6 times a year.