Emma Barton
I am a licensed mental health clinician in private practice and I formerly taught in the graduate Expressive Therapies department at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. My therapeutic lens of wellness is a blend of varying styles of somatic psychology (movement), traditional contemplative practices (mindfulness), and lifestyle medicine. Although I have experience with a wide range of mental health diagnoses, the populations I have most served are people experiencing behavior addictions (like substance addiction), attachment disorders/trauma, and severe mental illness.
I work from a trauma-informed, body-based lens—I'm trained as both a yoga therapist and a dance/movement therapist. I formally studied yoga as a healing modality in India from 1993-2004. My experience living in Asia was transformative and it provided a foundation for my philosophy and understanding about healing and wellness. This does not mean that the physical act of “yoga,” or even “dance” is commonplace in my therapy sessions. Incorporating movement into a session is dependent on the specific needs of the individual. Sometimes it involves simple movement interventions, other times it is a discussion about tracking physical sensations, or finding appropriate movement-based experiences to explore outside of the session. Always it is about the body providing an anchor from which the mind can rest in the present moment. Learning to focus on the present moment offers an opportunity to let go of fears and losses from the past, as well as the anxieties about the future. Contemplative practices, such as meditation, are praised for their psychological benefits, but rarely feel accessible without intentional, step-by-step introductions by an experienced practitioner. Contrary to popular belief, the benefits of mindfulness can be developed without the expectation to stay perfectly still for long periods of time. Although stillness is an important tool, it can also be intimidating and scary for people new to contemplative practices. I am very mindful about meeting the people I serve with interventions and directions that are appropriate for their needs right now. Body-based practices such as movement, and contemplative practices such as mindfulness are experiences that are always client-centered and individual.
I completed a year-long training with the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy (FMCA). In this era of processed, convenience foods, poor sleeping habits, and confusion about how to consistently incorporate exercise into life, the result is a culture struggling with autoimmunity, inflammation, stress-related illnesses and a general sense of dis-ease. Since the body and mind are one, the path toward wellness should always include conversations about lifestyle medicine. Therapeutically, this involves engaging curiously in discovering how the things in which we are exposed impact us—both positively and negatively—and what to do about it to ensure our goals for change are eventually met.
In addition, I have been a member of the Boston Psychedelic Research Group (BPRG) since 2019, and I am participating in a year-long training through the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) about the safe and effective use of entheogenic/psychedelic substances for mental health. Sometimes the combination of therapy and psychopharmaceuticals is not enough. The research on psychedelics substances use in the treatment of PTSD, substance addiction, and depression has been impressive. The beauty of this particular intervention is that these medicines are often administered only a few times before dramatic results surface. Fortunately, this therapeutic possibility appears to be heading in a direction where decriminalization for clinical use could happen as soon as 2023.
I hope this overview gives you an understanding about my work and philosophy. While my availability for individual sessions is very limited, I encourage you to send me an email expressing your interest and what your needs may be. I have a waitlist and would be happy to add your name. Alternatively, I have a long history of doing both formal and informal presentations to groups. If you have a group of people interested in a brief introduction to movement, mindfulness, and medicine, as well as a Q&A and/or experiential process, please let me know. I am particularly interested in offering my services to other healthcare providers. Following the ravages of sars-coV2, our healthcare providers are particularly in need of support as they recover from the necessary but challenging and incessant burden of giving care to others. This includes frontline health providers, as well as other mental health clinicians.