Jan Bergstrom, LMHC

I am glad that you have decided to take steps toward changing and healing your life. As you continue your journey, you will realize that being healthy and functional is not anything you may know or have; it is something that you learn and ‘do’. Living a healthy life comes from a commitment to finding supportive daily practices that cultivate living from your most functional self. Many clients ask me why they struggle with keeping their commitment to grow and heal? The answer is childhood developmental and relational trauma that gets in the way. Those adaptive patterns that helped you during your childhood can show up today as dysfunctional cycles that hijack your experience of living your life today. That is why, I wrote my book “Gifts from a Challenging Childhood, Creating a Practice for Becoming your Healthiest Self” to inform and give you guidance in discovering these adaptive patterns and how to change them and heal your childhood trauma. 

What is the practice of living in your functional self? It starts with the Six Core principles for well-being: loving yourself, protecting yourself (through use of internal boundaries), knowing yourself, taking care of yourself by asking for what you need and want, containing and moderating yourself and taking care of your needs and wants with others interdependently. It also incorporates your ability to self-regulate your nervous system and practicing mindfulness by being curious and non-judgmental when observing yourself. Using these practices of well-being allow the functional self to cultivate and grow. This results in more satisfaction and joy in your life. Your relationship with yourself changes and your relationships with others thrive as you heal from your past childhood wounding's rather than continue living in them.

During my 28-year career, I have had the opportunity to work with great teachers and mentors who have informed my work today.  Pia Mellody, RN (5 Core Self Skills and Healing the Wounded Child, Adaptive Child and Growing the Functioning Adult), Terry Real, LICSW (Relational Life Therapy), Brugh Joy, MD (Heart Centering Work), Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D (Mindfulness Practice), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing), and Susan Johnson (Emotionally Focused Therapy and Attachment).

I hope you can find support and resources in my website as you begin/continue your path to healing.

Warmly,