Elizabeth Anne : Transformation Doula
I have experienced a handful of initiatory cycles throughout my life, each of which has shepherded me deeper into the role of healer and holder of transformational space.
I have always been driven by the journey of liberation, from paradigms that restrain and restrict the healthy evolutionary flow of life, and into more regenerative models. This passion for regeneration took shape in various arenas through childhood and young adulthood, including rites of passage, spiritual pilgrimages, studies in sociology, philosophy & systems of oppression, travels abroad with a special interest in indigenous regions, earth based ritual practices, interpretation & translation across languages & cultures, the creative & expressive arts, ancestral & nature-based skills, and outdoor mindfulness-based education for youth.
I began to experience and study the healing arts more directly in my 20's after travels abroad led to challenging gut issues including parasitism. I found answers through approaches that addressed both the physical and the energetic, and while supporting my gut through diet, I studied energy healing and shamanism. It was when I was ready to address developmental and family of origin wounding that I found Somatic Experiencing, which helped me integrate my understanding and experience of soul retrieval with science. After two years as a client, I began applying some of Peter Levine's principles in session with my energy healing clients with success, and was then guided by a mentor to get formal education as a trauma-safe somatic practitioner to gain clinical skills as a container for my work.
In 2018 I enrolled in the four-year Human Empowerment And Resiliency Training, and became certified as a Trauma Safe™ Post-Trauma-Growth coach through the Organic Intelligence® (O.I.) school of trauma education, which is both a living community and an integrative modality that combines leading-edge neuroscience with mindfulness and integrates several schools of therapy, including hypnotherapy, somatics, & psychological developmental models, among others. O.I. is also embedded in layers of understanding relationships and resources, from the level of the biology of an individual, to family dynamics, to cultural systems, to the experience of the human species, to interdependency with nature/planet and beyond to the cosmological and the mystical. It is based in Systems Theory, which ties together the myriad environments which shape and are shaped by our lives. Studying in this school provided the perfect container in which to apply my intuition to clinical protocols, and to receive support to continue my personal healing journey as well.
During the final year of the O.I. training, I underwent the most intense initiation of my life to date, after a vaccine injury turned my health on its head overnight, resulting in near death and onset of a several-months-long disabling autoimmune illness, while in the midst of sudden familial loss of life, relationship ruptures, loss of ability to work or to care for basic needs without assistance, and an overall loss of core identities I had taken for granted throughout my life. Later I came to see that I experienced a form of shamanic dismemberment or a dark night of the soul, that, while profoundly hellish and incredibly disorienting, eventually led me to a much clearer vision of what matters, a more profound level of confidence in the resilience of life, and a more nuanced understanding of how to follow the breadcrumbs to pick up the pieces and emerge anew.
As a result of experiencing such severe health challenges, I had the opportunity to add new healing tools to my basket, including ancestral nutrition for microbiome and immune system regeneration, lifestyle and biohacking techniques for healthy cellular metabolism and energy production, detoxification practices for both physical and emotional toxicity, and more focused meditation and limbic practices to rewrite stories of powerlessness into reclamation of personal power and vitality. Additionally, what had felt like a sudden severance of my spiritual tether and innate intuition was rebuilt anew, with greater strength and clarity than before. The transformation that ensued convinced me at an even deeper level of the power we each have to alchemize and re-create our life from the ashes.
In my work with clients, I use my training to observe that same innate intelligence in you, and to reflect it back in a way that supports your body and mind to harness its unique healing and growth capacity. It is certified Trauma Safe™ because we work to balance the two primary agendas of any organism: safety and growth. So this work is as stabilizing as it is expansive. It is slow and gentle because it is integrative, based in positive reinforcement, and it shifts the most primal foundations. We might work in various channels including imagery, somatic & body-based sensations, present moment sensory awareness & mindfulness, or cognitive & emotional processes, following the thread that will weave together the just-right-sized next step toward wholeness for you. This work is about sustainability, based in the rhythms of the nervous system, and is as much about re-setting the mechanism of healing as it is about the content that presents. It is about setting the conditions for post-trauma growth, where challenges can become stepping stones toward a more meaningful life.
Currently I offer sessions online via Telehealth for both adults and children and have clients from around the world.
Elizabeth is a guide. A compass that allows beings to navigate their inner layers. She does it without conscious effort. And that is quite a gift. The difference between now and three months ago is that the pain has a purpose. It also acts as a compass. I have thought about her often and I feel that she has opened a portal for me somehow. A portal of understanding. I could say to her, "Keep doing what you're doing," but I think the best thing to say is, "Just keep being. You being is enough to flick a switch in someone's consciousness."
~Cat Bernardes, Writer, Traveler
