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Claiming Our Story with Karen Carona · The Trauma Therapist

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  Trauma Theverist podcast Plus listeners can listen to episodes early and ad free right now.
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  Become a Plus listener by going to Apple Podcasts, searching for the Trauma
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  Theverist podcast and signing up today. Welcome to the Trauma Nevers podcast, a
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  show about the incredible people dedicated to helping those who experienced trauma. My name
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  is got macpherson and my mission is to raise awareness of trauma and to inspire
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  each of us to help those around us. All right, so five,
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  four, three, two and one are folks, Welcome back to the podcast.
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  I'm thrilled top as my guest today. Karen Corona. Karen, welcome,
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  Thank you, honored to be here, appreciate it. Sir Karen is
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  a licensed therapist in the state of Oregon and California with an office based in
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  Portland. She currently provides both telehealth and in person sessions specialized in trauma therapy
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  for women. Through her background as a psychotherapist, she's developed unique insights to
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  lead creative empaths out of chaos into harmony. She understands the lived experience of
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  suffering emotional pain due to the effects of childhood wounds and being caught in the
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  self medicating cycle. Man years ago, she had an impactful therapy experience as
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  a client which allowed her to be free from the entaglements of her own inner
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  prison. Karen, thanks for being here. I'm in Bend, Oregon.
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  I know, and I realized that I'm one of listening to your podcasts that
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  you're in Bend, and I would like to eventually get closer to Bend when
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  there's a little bit more sunshine than here. Thank you so much for being
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  here. Before we get going, share with the listeners where you're from originally
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  and where you are currently originally. I was born and raised in the San
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  Francisco Bay area and basically lived in California, northern and southern California for forty
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  five years, and then I moved to Oregon in twenty sixteen, about seven
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  years ago, and then based out of Portland, Oregon. So I had
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  wanted to move to Oregon for many years and even had a map above my
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  dorm beding College of Oregon because I had gone on a road trip and discovered
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  Ashland and Bend and Sun River. And it took some time, but I
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  eventually got here. I got licensed here in twenty thirteen, in Oregon,
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  and then I was working at Kaiser Permanente and transferred from Bay Area Kaiser to
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  an office Kaiser Permanente and Mental Health in Oregon. Nice. Nice, So
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  really interesting background you have. How did all this start for you? How
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  did you get into this field. I got into this field from a place
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  where I wounding and it first showed up as some major depression in college and
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  I spent my twenty first birthday in a psychiatric hospital. And that also was
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  the first time I got exposed to art therapy and using the expressive arts as
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  a healing modality, and I really connected with that in that somewhat traumatic experience
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  of being hospitalized. Wow, so you spent your twenty first birthday a psychiatric
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  What happened? How did that happen? I had dealt with depression in high
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  school, but was this task master performance high achieving part was really driven and
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  it really hit in college where the depression really really took a grip. And
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  so I was, you know, suicidal at the time and was seeing a
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  counselor at the college I was at and it evolved into a hospitalization. Yeah,
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  I think that's what I'll say about that. And I've been on You
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  know, I've been a client as I have been a therapist at the same
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  time, like I've had client being in that role as I have being an
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  a therapist role really as kind of a wounded healer, you know, kind
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  of space as you have a lot of other guests I've had on here.
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  Yeah, I appreciate you sharing that. You said that during that experience you
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  were exposed to art therapy, which seemed to have a was pretty impactful for
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  you. Yes, how SOO can you talk a little bit about that.
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  Yes, I've always been a very creative, empathic, sensitive soul, and
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  I really did not fit into my family of origin with that. And my
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  grandmother wrote of each of her seven grandchildren when I when we were five years
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  old, and about me, she said, creative, little miss petite.
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  She's happy in singing, anytime she's doing something with her hands, glue,
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  lace, nature, creating her craft creations. And so I've always been creative,
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  and I've also been a creative entrepreneur. In sixth grade, I held
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  a summer camp art camp for my sister, my younger sister's six friends.
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  They had to pay fifty cents in a can. That's the entrepreneur right,
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  and I felt the art experiences where there was a craft every day and I
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  had a heart set up in the backyard. So it's been a journey to
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  connect with my creative self, and that process has happened in my healing journey
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  of moving away from false self kind of wounded plays into my authentic, creative
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  self. And then in graduate school, I was again after the psychiatric hospitalization,
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  with the art therapy. I got exposed to expressive arts therapy and took
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  some classes and then had personal experiences with it as well, and with soul
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  collage, intuitive painting, and art journaling. And that just really kind of
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  was the beginning burgeoning of using art for therapeutic purposes. And then when did
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  you decide what was the process for you saying, Okay, I want to
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  become a therapist. I want to start working with people, and then more
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  specifically people who'd experienced trauma. That beginning college, when I first dealt with
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  the what's the depression and I knew I was really trying to understand myself.
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  I had been given the gift of a book, the drama The Gifted Child
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  by Alice Miller. I was really on my own quest, and that's what
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  started it. And what was the second part of the question, Well more
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  specifically, so you were exposed of that book and you said or that inspired
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  you to pursue becoming a therapist. It was one of the inspirations. I
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  mean, I have done many years of therapy, so I just I felt
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  like if I could give back in a way that was meaningful, Like I
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  have one primary therapist I worked for with many years was very dedicated to my
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  healing, and I just felt like it was part of my sole purpose,
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  you know, I just felt an align with with it. That was my
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  soul calling, right like going through my own healing journey and coming alongside individuals
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  that have emotional wounds and using the art and now I use IFS as a
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  framework and integrate those two. It's more of a soul calling. I think
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  I would kind of describe it. Yeah, yeah, I mean I think
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  that's amazing. I mean to have that, I mean, that's that's what
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  I love about this podcast, is getting to speak with people like you,
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  like yourself, who through their own experience almost need to reach out. And
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  what was it was it reaching out and helping others out? What did you
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  want to do Karen more specifically, how did you want to help people?
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  Did you just want to or just share your own process, your own journey?
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  Tell us more about that. How did I want to help people?
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  I wanted it to translate from some of my experience, Like I remember one
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  therapist she actually had a tear, like there was such an empathy for an
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  empathic connection in a way that was transformationally healing. And I think more than
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  the skill set, but it's like the essence of who the therapist was as
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  a person was a lot of the healing. It wasn't certain techniques or tools.
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  And so I think I really come from that place of who I am,
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  the healing work that I have done, and my essence, and the
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  more I can be in what Dick schwartz Ifs talks about is self energy and
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  connected to my authentic higher self. I mean, healing magic happens, right,
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  it's just and so paying some of what I have been received in my
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  own healing journey feels like my calling. You know, when you said you're
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  talking about that therapist, it was like who she was, Say say more
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  about that, what did you sense? What did you experience? I experienced
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  It was this in objects of relations. I mean it was like this emotionally
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  corrective experience. And now I know from an IF framework, but it was
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  just we weren't doing a lot of like not to you know, CBT or
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  DBT work. We were It was this empathic holding and a witness to my
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  story as I was processing it. And these were all I would say,
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  highly gifted therapists that I have worked with that have done their own healing work
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  and were really attuned, you know, in a way that their presence and
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  how they kind of emotionally held me so that I could do the work happened,
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  you know you Yeah, I love what you're saying here, and I
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  think a lot of us, a lot of maybe a lot of listeners can
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  get it. But can you give us an example of something that was done
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  or what that therapist might have how they might have been during a specific I
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  want to kind of get specific here. What do you look like? Yeah,
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  well, i've if we're going to use the express of arts and kind
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  of ifs Like I had experiences too where it was kind of depicting visually different
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  parts of myself that we've worked on. And I believe that when there is
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  trauma or traumatic experiences. There's parts of ourselves that eclipse our true authentic self
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  and like this false self emergence. So I worked with it in a way
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  where, for example, when I had some unblending around this trauma driven part
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  that is a protective inner taskmaster part that held a lot of the perfectionism control
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  trying to earn approval and worth through performance and achievement. When we worked with
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  that, I would actually do a painting of what that embodied for me as
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  as I separated more and more from it, and then there was a kind
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  of a healing befriending process with this part that then allowed me to get to
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  some of the core kind of inner child work and even use art and soul
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  collage to kind of externalize what the internal kind of organization is. And all
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  of this led to the healing where I have access to my creative, authentic
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  higher self. I did not have that for many years. It was eclipped
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  by all of my firefighter parts, my manager part, this trauma driven part,
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  and so that's how I understand the process and using kind of some of
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  the expressive arts in that journey. In the bio H I talked about the
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  buyer you shared talked about, you know, using your own experience to kind
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  of help others kind of just like what you're talking about, kind of emerge
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  and find their own creativity. How do you work with people? How do
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  you like to work with people. I like to work with people that are
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  open to expressive arts. And so there can often be the misconception that you
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  need to be artistic. And that's so I didn't you know that I kind
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  of will address that misconception. And so, for example, if we're work
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  with a perfectionistic kind of anxiety part, we might start with somatic kind of
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  work where is that in your where is that held in your body? And
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  kind of identifying, and then we might shift to in color and shape,
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  what does that look like? Or is there an image that comes to you?
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  And so they might be like, well, I just see all these
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  blue and black dots everywhere. That's the anxiety and it's in my stomach.
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  Okay, let's let's visually depict that. And then we're working with it in
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  an exter you know, it's like externalized working with the anxiety part. What
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  might be something that would contain that a little bit? What would that look
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  like if you added that to the current image, what would that look like
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  as a creative tool to kind of help you? So and then I use
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  I use the music often and journaling. I do a lot of invitation to
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  do letter writing to you know, which I've done in my own journey,
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  a letter to this task master part that became my greatest persicatory part of my
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  inner oppression. But I could see how it was initially protective, and so
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  in letting go of that part and kind of having it have a different internal
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  organization, I wrote a letter to her. So it's such an interesting concept
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  about some of these parts that, Yeah, on one hand, we might
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  find very antagonistic or burdensome other and that can be protective, yes, And
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  I have so much to say about that. That's so it's very confusing.
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  The very part that started out as protective, it was it was if I
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  could be perfect, I could avoid further shame and fear. Because I grew
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  up in a family origin that was very highly religious, conservative in the San
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  Francisco Bay Area, fear and shame based. So if I could be perfect
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  enough this part, this inner task master, then I could avoid further shame
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  and what happens with our protective manager parts is they often become persicatory, they're
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  misguided. They did the best they could, but it becomes our greatest internal
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  oppressor because she then this inner task master did all the shaming right like,
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  well that was that was an a minus like that that didn't you know?
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  And then the self loathing right like the whole shame cycle. So working with
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  the part to befriend and heal, to have access to my higher self.
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  And I am really passionate about further developing internal family systems and the express of
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  arts. I feel like it's a powerful merging and I don't know a lot
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  of clinic and maybe there are out there that are doing this merging and this
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  blend and that's actual. A little bit of my book integrates a little bit
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  of that that's coming out. Yeah, but that's that's a passion of mine.
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  Let's talk about this book. When is it coming out? What's it
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  called called Heart Healing for Radiant Living. I have the cover here, Oh
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  nice, wow. Yeah, it will be coming out in June. I
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  don't have an exact date. I'm working with a non traditional publishing company.
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  It's it's a hybrid in between self publishing and traditional publishing, So I've been
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  involved in a lot of the process. It's taken a lot longer than I
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  anticipated, but it finally will be birthed sometime in June, and I have
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  some book launches coming up, so congrats. Yes, that's awesome. So
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  let me just remind every one speaking with Karen Corona. Her website is Karencrona
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  dot com. That's Karen k A r E N Corona c O r O
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  n a dot com. So good the book coming out in June. How
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  do you how do you work with people? Are you working individually online?
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  I think online telehealth? What well, I'm really in a transitional kind of
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  business phase because I'm while I do have my full private practice, Green Leaf
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  and Express of Arts Therapy, I'm also launching my Creative Heart Awakenings coaching business
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  and so that's going to be the umbrella for my book, doing creative wellness
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  retreats and workshops and groups, and we'll be also working with individuals one to
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  one. So I'm kind of in a transitional and I have both businesses different
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  webs sites, and yeah, so I'm kind of so I work with individuals
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  right now, telehealth or psychotherapy in Oregon and California, and then I'll be
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  kind of expanding beyond the therapy room with the launch of my coaching business and
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  my book and the how are you going to be working with people as a
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  coach? What are you going to be doing specifically well? I went through
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  a coaching program for therapists and I'm a creativity and wellness coach. My first
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  offering is individual six week Heart Healing coaching package and it basically is helping women
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  to heal emotionally through the expressive arts. And can I say one thing about
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  my just a little synopsis of book. Okay, So my book is a
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  creative guide to using the expressive arts to healing emotionally, and it's fifty two
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  weeks of expressive arts prompts for healing the heart. That's why it's called heart
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  healing. But heart has capitalized a RT. It's bringing art into the wellness
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  journey and the fifty two weeks I use an expressive Arts Heart Healing framework,
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  So h stands for Heal your heart with Art. So each week there's an
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  art prompt. E is express yourself with music and movement. There's creating playlists,
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  there's music, there's Gabe Gabrielle Ross five rhythms. There's prompts for that
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  for the E for fifty two weeks. The A is affirmations for intentional thought,
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  creation and the power. It's a lot of CBT principles in terms of
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  the power of our thoughts on our well being. Are is the ritual of
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  writing and journaling. Journaling prompts for each of the fifty two weeks based on
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  themes and t is a practice of thankfulness and gratitude and how a gratitude perspective
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  can be advantageous to our well being as well. Sounds like it was very
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  well thought out well. I had the help of an amazing holistic manuscript editor
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  who said, you have two books here. You have a memoir and you
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  have your therapist lens healing. Let's just do that one and later you can
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  do your memoir because I do have another story in me, a memoir.
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  Yeah. You know, Karen, talking to you, it feels I mean,
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  you genuinely are sharing yourself and your own story in your own process and
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  your own journeys. That's so much a part of the work you're doing.
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  I can feel it. Yeah you can oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
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  yeah, yeah, yeah, I appreciate you sharing what you've shared. Yeah,
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  yeah, I definitely have been on a journey, and I do think
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  it allows me to connect with those who are brought into my path to work
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  with in a very special way, you know, because I have I've you
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  know, if we diagnostically from you know, orderline personality disorder in my twenties
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  to move disorder and complex trauma the whole, if we want to talk diagnostically
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  right and experience some of the pathologizing that even therapists do around course. And
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  so I do feel that I also hold a powerful story that has an impact
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  full message, and I think that that will come out in my memoir.
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  Although I do have little snippets of my story, like I do talk about
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  the task Master part, and I do share about the psychiatric hospitalization and the
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  suicidal ideation on my twenty first birthday and some suicide attempts. So I do,
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  but it will come out more fully in a memoir. But yeah,
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  I just appreciate what you just that was really that, it's heartfelt. I
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  just appreciate you saying that. Well, you're welcome. I mean, you
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  know so much of what I'm trying to do here, on this podcast is
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  to create a platform for people to share their story. And look, we're
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  all going through something, all of us are, you know, and you're
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  a bill to share that authentically helps people, of course it does, you
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  know, And I think that there's so much healing in that sharing, you
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  know, that's how we connect. Yeah, absolutely as yeah, yeah,
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  we ask you, as you've grown and developed as a therapist working with others,
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  can you share what has been like for you? I mean kind of
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  an early clinical error and what you learned from that? A good question.
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  An early clinical error, I think some of it. In my early it
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  was I would get caught up in I don't have enough to offer, Like
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  I was preoccupied with myself and kind of doubting myself, and so I wasn't
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  able in my early years to show up in the way I am today.
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  And I think that has a big difference. So I in terms of like,
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  clinical errors can always be used for even therapeutically, for repair in a
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  certain way too rite like, and I think if they're I'm not I'm not
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  coming up with a specific example of a clinical error, but I do think
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  that how it might be addressed with the client and kind of repair can go
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  a far away, right, or just kind of taking some ownership, you
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  know. I yeah, I can see how that response. I got caught
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  in some of my own stuff, right like. And so I think it's
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  the evolution of me being able to be more my authentic who I am and
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  the self energy present that has been a process that didn't just work challenging for
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  you to own that, to own that, I've been in along kind of
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  my own journey to own your own, yeah, to own your journey,
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  to own your own experience, you know, to be able to to a
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  certain degree share that in in in the clinical work you do obviously with boundaries
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  and ethics, of course, but a certain amount of owning your own processing,
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  your own story has to go into this work, right yes, And
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  I do as clinically appropriate. Of course, I will do some self disclosure,
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  right I'll mention, Yeah, I've really worked with this trauma driven part
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  that's been a manager. You know, Wow, she you know, she
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  wanted the OCD kind of order, like, this is how she operated,
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  right like? And then they're like, oh, like it helps with the
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  un I mean it just so the more I've used I think over the years
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  too, I have used more of kind of my my story and appropriate self
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  disclosure in a way that I think sometimes is deeply healing on their experience,
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  right Like, it's sometimes it just diffuses the shame, and so much with
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  trauma wounding is you know, these shame based parts and the inner shaming that
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  happens. And so when I'll share something, it kind of it really can
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  diffuse it, you know. Yeah. Yeah, And and there's different I've
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  had so many different experiences in my healing journey that I can you know.
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  I mean, even a woman that had postpartum psychosis, I was able to
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  disclose I've been had a manic psychotic I mean, you know, I'm still
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  like and that I think helped her so much. She had so much shame
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  as a mother that she had the psychotic postpartum depression, right Like. I
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  just it's an element that I that I bring in that I do think is
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  has healing transformative kind of you know effect. Yeah, definitely definitely appreciate you
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  sharing that. So all right, what's the best way for people to reach
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  out to you and learn about all of the great things you're doing. My
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  website is a hub, but I'm going to give two websites. One is
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  Karencrona dot com, so my first and last name, and when you first
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  go on to the website you can sign up to be notified of when pre
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  sales begin for my book, and it has my coaching website. My psychotherapy
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  website for therapy clients is Karen Corona LCSW dot com. We'll have those linked
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  up here at the show notes page at the Trauma theapispodcast dot com. Congratulations
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  with the book. Thank you, thank you so much for being here and
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  just being open and being courageous enough to share your own process and your own
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  journey. I mean, that's what this podcast is about. Love to have
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  you back. Oh, thank you. Wonderful opportunity. I love what you're
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  doing here and thank you so much. Appreciate it. All right, we'll
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  be in touch. Take care, Bye bye