First of all, I wish you be close to your loved ones and have a good support circle of people with whom you feel safe. 

I will still provide services, provincial regulations allow to keep the studio open.

Availability

Sessions of work with Stress and Trauma are available both in-person and online. 

Systemic and Family Constellation work could be received online and in-person, in one-on-one setting.

Craniosacral Therapy and Integrative Bodywork I continue to offer in my studio in Mile End. 

Please don’t hesitate to call 514-239-65-32 and ask about any of the options available. 

Important Note: Curfew

Due to the curfew restriction evening in-person sessions schedule will be limited so that to end any particular session until 7pm. Please organize your time with care – you will need to return home before 8pm.

Janvier: restrictions et horaire

Demain, la province de Québec entrera dans le nouveau cycle des restrictions.

Tout d’abord, je vous souhaite d’être avec vos proches et d’avoir un bon cercle de soutien de personnes avec qui vous vous sentez en sécurité.

Je continuerai de fournir des services. Les règlements provinciaux permettent de garder le studio ouvert.

Disponibilité

Des séances de travail avec Stress and Trauma sont disponibles en personne et en ligne.

Les constellations systémiques et familiales sont également disponibles en ligne et en personne, dans un cadre individuel.

Thérapie corporelle en personne et thérapie cranoïo-sacrée que je continue d’offrir dans mon studio du Mile End.

N’hésitez pas à appeler le 514-239-65-32 et à vous renseigner sur l’une des options disponibles. Veuillez noter que je travaille en anglais

Remarque importante: couvre-feu

En raison de la restriction du couvre-feu, l’horaire des séances en personne du soir sera limité à la fin d’une séance en particulier jusqu’à 19 h. Veuillez organiser votre temps avec soin – vous devrez rentrer chez vous avant 20 heures.

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• Craniosacral therapy and integrative bodywork sessions are offered at the office.
• Systemic and family constellations are available in an individual setting online, as well as at the office.
• Work with internal resources, help in coping with stress — I will be happy to work with you online.

Precautions related to the COVID-19 pandemic:

Please do not hesitate to call me if you have questions regarding a particular therapeutic technique or a specific case or symptom that bothers you. I will find time to answer your questions before you need to come to the office in person.

• Medical face masks and sanitizer are available for clients’ safety.
• All surfaces, including a massage table, chairs and a table at the reception room are disinfected.
• Now when the work in person is not that intense, I use an opportunity to sanitize the surfaces on the eve of the visit of each client.

I will be glad to see you. Please leave some time for a preliminary call by phone or online.

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Craniosacral Therapy, Integrative Bodywork and Systemic/Family Constellations are all available in one-on-one setting.

Stress and self-regulation sessions, as well as Systemic /Family Constellations are still available online, as well.

I will be glad to see you soon.

Retour au travail en tête-à-tête dans le studio situé dans le Mile-End

J’ai le plaisir de vous informer que je retourne travailler en personne, dans mon studio. Veuillez m’écrire un message ou appeler pour clarifier les limites et les opportunités associées aux caractéristiques du travail en ce moment.

La thérapie craniosacrale, la thérapie corporelle intégrative et les constellations systémiques / familiales sont toutes disponibles en configuration individuelle.

Les séances de stress et d’autorégulation et les constellations systémiques / familiales sont également disponibles en ligne.

Je serai ravi de vous revoir.

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Though there is something in the present that is changing. A wonderful group in Systemic Ritual I have attended yesterday, with the work related to present and past, soul and matter: first ever online group that was facilitated by Daan Van Kampenhout, a researcher and master of Shamanic practice of immense authority for me. Streaming from Daan’s home in Amsterdam. Recently I also finished watching a recording of the (again, first ever) online seminar of Jan Jacob Stam, the founder of Systemic Coaching. During the event he said that for the last eight years he avoided touching the computer. Anna Evstratova-Strougalskaya, an amazing facilitator through whom I got introduced to Family and Systemic Constellations work, started her online workshops a month earlier. When I have time, I join singing classes with Polina Shepherd, one of my favourite vocalists, streaming from her house in UK. None of these masters would do anything like this on the Internet earlier.

This is new for us. I feel as if my home is expanding in various directions simultaneously. There is no “annual” schedule due to COVID, the “today-tomorrow-the-day-after-tomorrow” timing scale prevails. This weekend I rejected an option to apply for a month and a half Trauma work supervision with Bessel Van Der Kolk, the key figure in modern trauma therapy. I would not even imagine such a choice half a year ago: now I study with Bessel online and it’s an available option. Somehow the world has changed. I need to find ways to manage my resources accordingly—to keep some energy for myself. Sometimes, it seems, a quality of a kind of internal mobility and slight amoebicity is required. When the right moment comes— I would extend a pseudopodia to catch what’s worth it. Then I keep calm until the next good moment. Gems of various kinds emerge here and there. Will it keep going like this after the Corona time is over? Probably to some extent, this will remain. Feeling curious.

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…We use the term Dignity to describe a person’s inner sensation and feeling that she is able to own her inner values and deep ethics, respecting them and living according to them. Dignity also involves authentic acceptance of certain commitments, actions and rights. … Dignity implies that a person is authentic. Dignity usually drives a person toward self-development. Dignity provides the urge for self-acknowledgement and self-development, which arise in our relationships and interactions with others. 

With dignity in mind I begin to look at what’s happening in a different way. Considering the concepts of self-respect and respect of individual values ​​by other people, instead of the mathematics of risk management.

Saving lives of ones, is it possible to deprive the dignity of others? In an emergency the ventilators are passed to the young. What happens to the dignity of the elder person whose ventilator is taken away? And what happens to the dignity of the young?

Questions that affect the fate of many are answered by the people for whom the dignity is what? Success during the next election cycle? Ability to move on to the next position? Specialists, for whom the right choice is equal to the scientifically proven response in its effect on “the population”?

Another question arises. Supply chains begin in poor countries where production is cheaper. Clothing and shoes are hand-sewn where the local labor cost makes it reasonable. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people are employed in such industries. They are far less protected than buyers of what they produce. In order to save lives of inhabitants of the advanced countries, their governments halt economic activity. Frozen supply chains doom low-income workers to hunger and poverty. Saving lives of the elderly in the countries of the first world – yes. But is it ok to put those who could feed their families making what’s consumed in other countries, on the brink of survival? Trauma is associated with loss of dignity.

Modern society offers lots of moral conflicts. The decision makers are responsible for their actions, whether those are right or wrong. Still it seems to me that the “internal compass” that exists in us is important. There is still something we can do.

Please remember about the dignity of others. In an unusual situation like the current one, many experience symptoms of stress, lose their temper and fall into a variety of extremes. An incident happened in the province of Quebec, where I live. The supermarket guard would not let the customer in with his companion. I don’t know exactly why, according to the rules of quarantine, he could not let two people enter together. The customer waited till the end of the shift and rammed the guard with his car.

Was the guard rude to the customer? Was the customer a crazy psychopath (as the prime minister of the province labelled him immediately)? I do not know. What seems important here: against the background of considerable uncertainty, external requirements are applied into a sphere that has never been previously regulated from the outside. The area related to the grounds of human coexistence: security (it is safer together), personal attachment, defence of self-esteem. Scenarios that would unlikely emerge in other circumstances are activated.

There is much in this unusual situation that depends on us personally. Recently, a cashier in a nearby store asked a woman standing behind me to move back, in respect to the new social distancing rules. She began to apologize. What can I do as a helping practitioner? I can only offer her to stand as close to me, as she would like to. Although this is contrary to the public agenda, the woman will probably go home a little calmer.

During this period of uncertainty there are many points of view on what’s right and what isn’t. It seems important to me to notice: even if you do know precisely what is right, and your interlocutor says something completely against your point of view, please try to refrain from destroying him with a confident, evidence-based response. Try to find a way to contain. Even in case you feel it’s “already too much.” Ah yes, now the “too much” is becoming more and more difficult to withstand. No need to be afraid to lose face. No need to articulate your position immediately on your facebook page. Instead, you can probably choose a little more relaxed attitude toward rash acts and hasty conclusions. With this you most likely are supporting the other person better, perhaps much better than when you are explaining to him (and others) how to see things in the right light.

We, the helping practitioners, will face a significant traumatic trail in those who pass through this period, no matter what conditions they may be in. Unfortunately, we can help maintain oneself, and withstand circumstances only in the moment, now. Most of those who express their not-too-thoughtful attitudes will not even think to seek help these days. Requests will appear after the crisis has ended.

What we as humans can do now is all about maintaining dignity. Maybe it’s important for us to protect our own boundaries (that’s important, indeed), maybe we know better how to do this or that. Most often, the person who breaks the boundaries of others is the one who has absolutely ran out of resources. What we can do is to leave ourselves an opportunity to answer in such a way as to give a little more space. Space that’s needed to process other people’s hastiness or misunderstanding. Now it seems more important than ever.

Denis Petrov, April 2020

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We can support other people when we ourselves are stable.

Stress is the body’s natural response to unusual circumstances. In a short period of time, arousal helps to cope with the threat. The negative effects of stress are associated with prolonged states of arousal and lasting mobilization.

Pay some attention to how you feel. Bodily sensations will be your evaluation criteria. 

Start with the perception of weight. In a state of severe stress the sensation of weight becomes very imprecise (when raising your hand for example, or feeling the weight of the body on the chair – can you really feel the weight?)

Observe your breath

You may notice that you talk abruptly

The tempo of your speech. If it is faster than usual, that is a clear sign of arousal.

The tone of your voice. Is this your ordinary voice, or has it changed from regular? Maybe you notice that you are speaking a bit too loud?

How to deal with the situation of severe lasting stress?

If you are not limited in movement, walk more. It helps to ground yourself up, feel yourself more rooted in the moment.

Switch off the news and social networks. Watch the minimum. Once or twice a day, only the information that’s important for you.

If you’re supposed to stay home (quarantine) – do the work with your hands. Anything from caring for plants to embroidery. When I start feeling that I am all in the air I work with the wood and do something simple. Works that demand fine motor skills help to center and calm yourself down.

Tidy up, organize what’s next to you.

Perhaps you have long been planning to clean the closet. Take care of this. Would it be good to iron the shirts?

If you like cooking, cook something that is not too complicated, though not too simple. Something that is of certain interest for you. Pay attention to the nuances.

People often eat to cope with arousal. Eating is an effective way to ground yourself up, but certainly not the friendliest for your body.

Choose one or two people you trust the most, those likely to be more resilient than you. Talk to them, ask how they cope with a difficult situation, share your ways. Contact those in your family who are away from you. Find out how they are doing. Call a couple of your friends in other cities.

When communicating, do not blame others for what is happening. Even if there is someone to blame, better think about what you can do.

A sense of humor is an essential criterion for your resilience. A healthy sense of humor and the ability to laugh, primarily, at yourself.

Remember: to support others, you yourself need to be stable enough.

Modern body-oriented psychology associates the capacity to cope with the stress with these three qualities: the ability to be in a grounded state, the ability to center, and the ability to manage boundaries.

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