Practice Neela Paulussen
embodiment to spark individual and collective healing
WELCOME
My name is Neela Paulussen
Stress and emotions live in our bodies, that’s where I start. I am deeply curious about the interplay between the body’s signals, emotions, thoughts and consciousness. This interplay makes how we connect to ourselves, to other people and to other nature.
In the sessions that I offer, your question and your physical experience in the here and now guide the learning process. Allowing yourself to take your physical perception serious gives you a richness of information about yourself. It takes curiosity and courage to look at yourself and also to do this together with someone else. I am happy to support you in this. I offer you an honest and safe setting in which you can look at which new steps you want to take. I cannot give you answers, but I can facilitate you in finding your own.
As a citizen and as a therapist I am actively involved in the climate and social justice movement. These challenging times, in which the climate crisis, among other things, is making existential themes more tangible, are also helping many people realize that all life is interconnected. This context and the role that trauma plays in how we live together is increasingly guiding in how I shape my practice. I enjoy working with social changemakers (click here for more info).
WELCOME
My name is Neela Paulussen
Stress and emotions live in our bodies, that’s where I start. I am deeply curious about the interplay between the body’s signals, emotions, thoughts and consciousness. This interplay makes how we connect to ourselves, to other people and to other nature.
In the sessions that I offer, your question and your physical experience in the here and now guide the learning process. Allowing yourself to take your physical perception serious gives you a richness of information about yourself. It takes curiosity and courage to look at yourself and also to do this together with someone else. I am happy to support you in this. I offer you an honest and safe setting in which you can look at which new steps you want to take. I cannot give you answers, but I can facilitate you in finding your own.
As a citizen and as a therapist I am actively involved in the climate and social justice movement. People are not separate from their environment and the time we live in is unbelievably challenging, touches on existential themes and helps us realize that all life is interconnected. This context and the role that trauma plays in how we live together is increasingly guiding in how I shape my practice. I enjoy working with social changemakers (click here for more info).
A body aware approach
because trauma lives in the body
and so does healing
We feel with our bodies. We don’t have to think about laughing, crying, longing, fleeing, fighting, letting go, loving. Although we often do. If our attention is mainly focused on what we think, less attention is paid to our bodies. And so we easily lose contact with your innate ability to move with what we feel.
Thinking about what we feel can lead to understanding. And understanding is the way to acceptance. But thinking is also used to ruminate, fast-forward and control emotions. We judge what we feel, we expect how we are going to feel, we have ideas about how we should feel. This often does not lead to more acceptance, but rather to additional unrest. In my view, bodies are better indicators than our thinking.
In body-oriented sessions, we use the nonverbal intelligence of the body. Through a combination of talking, somatic awareness, and bodywork, we find deeper access to what lies just below the surface. This makes it possible to work with signals of stress and emotion where they live: in the body, in the here and now.
We often don’t realize how much our thoughts, emotions, and actions are influenced by unconscious blueprints of what we and our ancestors have been through. These unconscious memories are not written in words, but in the language of sensations, postures, gestures, and the way we move. And these patterns influence how we experience ourselves, how we are in the world, and limit the quality of our relationships. The body remembers what the conscious mind does not, the body keeps the score.
We can see trauma as unhealed, frozen, numb pain. This disconnects us from our bodies and our intuition. Trauma is more than personal. It is social and lives in relationships between people, in social systems such as families, cultures, politics. Trauma from the generations before us lives on in the present. As a collective, we are used to power relations that undermine equality and humanity. This influences how our identity is shaped as we grow up, it influences relationships between family members, between peers, between partners, between groups of people, between countries, and the relationship we humans have with nature.
Healing is about freeing ourselves. Healing requires rediscovering our vulnerability and our natural response to injustice: our protest. So that we can reconnect with what has become silent, namely the life force with which we protect ourselves and stand up for what is right. So that we can learn to sense boundaries better, navigate conflicts and repair cracks in our relationships with others. We do this not only for ourselves. Healing enables us to contribute to a more compassionate and just world. Therefor healing is also political.
Beneath layers of adaptation lies what is real and wild: our lively, courageous, sensual, embodied self. When we begin to experience our body as a source of pleasure, enjoyment, strength, and resistance to the status quo, space is created to listen. To ourselves and to others. This creates choice, control, and responsibility. And genuine connection.
This is what sessions are about. It is in contact with others that our deepest desires and also our greatest fears become tangible. Sessions are about meeting, which is why I pay a lot of attention to the way we connect. I will use my presence, experience, and curiosity to support you in finding clarity about what is going on inside you.
‘Tell me,
what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?‘
~ Mary Oliver
For who
Practice Neela Paulussen is for people who are looking for personal and collective healing: change makers, idealists, activists, healers, artists, storytellers, community builders, social movement organisers, truthtellers, people for whom a moral compass, ethical awareness and a sense of justice are important. Therefore I work with people who recognize themselves in one of these descriptions:
- you work or study (paid or unpaid) is committed to raising awareness around social justice, human rights, climate and ecological disruption
- you commit to societal and civiv engagement in your work (paid or unpaid) or in your studies
- you want support with emotion and stress regulation and/or with questions of meaning and purpose related to global disruption and/or activism
- you work as, or are in training to become, a mental health professional, facilitator, coach or trainer, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner
I am experienced in working with people with neurodivergent brains (ADHD, ASD, gifted), in working with queer people and I am psychedelics-informed. However, I hold no specialism in navigating issues related to this.
I do not work with people who are unable or unwilling to take responsibility for their behavior and/or make agreements and stick to them, unable or unwilling to guarantee their own safety or that of others, experience difficulties that require more guidance and expertise than can be offered within a one-person practice unless the GGZ is also involved, struggle with serious addiction issues. People in a crisis can always contact their GP or the mental health crisis service (crisisdienst). I do not diagnose based on the DSM. You can contact your GP if you want a diagnostic proces based on the DSM.
Here you’ll find information on signing up and on availability.
Photo: Austin Ban
for who
climate and activism-related issues / stress issues / if your head is loud and you can’t get out of it with thinking / if talking doesn’t help and you don’t know what you feel / emotional challenges such as fear, emptiness, control, anger etc. / if you experience not much energy and flow / relationship issues: are you afraid of love or addicted to it / high sensitivity: do you feel a lot and do you get easily over-stimulated / boundary issues: do you say yes while you mean no / grief and loss: do you want a listening ear / sense making issues
This list is not exclusive, you are welcome with other questions as well.
what effect
more vitality, energy, aliveness / more relaxation / more intuition and inner guidance / more body awareness / more insight into your complaints / more honesty, connection and autonomy in your relationships / more clarity about your boundaries / more courage / more (self) confidence / more resilience / more authenticity / more decisiveness / more grounding (including at HSP) / more surrender / more simplicity / more compassion and acceptance / more freedom / a deeper experienced belonging