“I am a person who has experienced severe trauma, but worked very hard to overcome it all my life. Addiction, abuse and abandonment were hallmarks of my early world but I learned that safety and help existed outside of my family home. Guidance counselors, college counselors and many competent, loving and thorough therapists have graced my path and I paid attention and worked hard. But, despite their help and many other informal supports, I have always found that words could only take me so far.

Chronic pain, depression and PTSD plagued me as my life’s burdens grew even heavier after the suicide of my husband and my children’s own mental illnesses revealed themselves. Out of both diligence and desperation, I tried every suggestion given to me: psychopharmacology, EMDR, yoga, meditation, 12 step groups, and countless other strategies.

As a therapist, I read with interest the burgeoning literature about the use of medicines to treat depression and PTSD, particularly when those issues did not respond to standard treatment. When a friend with chronic pain mentioned how much she had been helped by this approach, I decided to try it.

From the first, Sasha treated me with kindness and warmth, answered my questions patiently and conveyed a profound sense of safety. We talked at length about what I might expect, my fears and concerns, and my healing intentions for myself. Her process included a lengthy conversation during which I disclosed many of my dark and painful experiences. She was not overwhelmed or repulsed and her kind, matter of fact demeanor let my fear dissolve.

It is very difficult to put into words all of the actual experiences, but I can speak to the impact and outcomes. With Sasha’s help, I was able to sink into a deep place inside of myself, and touch long-denied emotions. I cried, shook, twitched and experienced deep intuitive states that allowed me to connect words, my body, my heart and visualizations which brought me great peace. I recovered a singular disturbing repressed memory, yet, while it was horrific, brought so many disparate thoughts, experiences, somatic sensations and life-long symptoms into focus and swiftly into integration. Other sessions served to reconnect me to laughter, optimism and resilience.

Sasha literally held my hand and provided an anchor when the memories threatened to sweep me away. She listened, she encouraged, and she gently commented at times when a gentle comment was enough to help me see myself in a new light. A light of much gentler love, much greater self-respect and a light of gentle laughter as I forgave myself for my circular, effortful and sometimes self-damaging pathway to greater health and self-realization.

I no longer take an anti-depressants, I find both practical and emotional boundaries to feel natural as they arise out of my increased self-love and I find that my greater internal integration and connection allows me to see others in a light of compassion and respect a great deal of the time. This has been a pivotal healing experience for me and Sasha a guide and teacher for whom I can only express the greatest respect and gratitude.” - Therapist and Community leader

“I have had to live with complex PTSD for most of my life as a result of childhood physical, mental and sexual abuse. As I write this, I will be 64 years old next month. That is a very long time to live with nightmares, intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, difficulty with interpersonal relationships, hyper-vigilance, and a level anxiety so high that it felt like non- stop terror. I saw a lot of therapists, tried a lot of different therapies to try to get rid of my symptoms. It all helped some, but I was still exhausted from trying to function in this world and suppress my anxiety at the same time.

Then I found Sasha and did my first session. I almost didn’t go because I was so anxious, but Sasha understood. She was very kind, and reassuring. I knew I was in good hands. Safe.

The session itself was really interesting. I felt compassion for myself; I felt good about myself. Not feelings I was used to and I loved it. At no time during the season did I feel afraid or out of control. Sasha stayed with me the entire 6 hours. The next day when I woke up, the terror that I had lived with for so long was gone. I felt calm, peaceful and content. It was as if I had had a siren going off right next to me for so many years and someone flipped a switch and it was turned off. I have had what I considered two miracles in my life and the great result from my session was the third miracle.

My second session was much the same. My intention was to access those feelings of contentment and love so that I could stop beating myself up with negative, critical thoughts. It worked. It was interesting because after the second session, I could breathe, deeply and without pain. I had spent my life as a shallow breather because deep breathing hurt. It no longer hurts to breathe and my legs have much less pain in them.

I will be going to see Sasha for my third session in about a month. I’m so looking forward to it. My goal is to spend the time I have left on this earth in a space of peace and rest. The work that I do with Sasha has made this possible. The relief is really indescribable. I know difficulties will occur in my life...it is not perfect. I can face it though because I am no longer terrified of life. I feel as if I am finally learning to know who I really am. The benefits from the sessions continue to unfold in a gentle and positive way. I am so grateful and happy that I found Sasha.” -Debbie Ellis

“I came to Sasha out of desperation and the deep, burning will to heal myself. I was 7 years into my healing journey, and healing was my singular obsession. I had seen 16 different therapists and my list of “trauma healing techniques” that worked for me (ranging from EMDR to mediation to breathwork) exceeded 60. That’s not even counting all the ones I tried that I didn’t find effective.

And although I was in a much better place than I’d been 7 years ago, I was still desperately mired in my trauma. I wasn’t living. I was finding ways to make it through each day to keep the panic and PTSD at bay. Each night was a battle that necessitated at least 3 hours of preparation in the form of various combinations of my “trauma healing techniques.” But I still didn’t know whether I’d win the battle that night and be able to sleep enough to function the next day.

I was hopeful that someday I would heal my trauma. But honestly, my life was a living hell. Then I started seeing Sasha.

In a world where most people work to make a living, Sasha is living in service. I felt that deeply when I worked with her. With generosity, kindness, and genuine love, she put my greatest good first. And that’s not something you can expect when you come in for a session with someone. It’s just a gift that’s given. And I’m so grateful to Sasha, that people like her exist in this world who are spiritually committed to helping others find their way back to themselves.

What followed was honestly a hellish 5 more months. I saw Sasha for 5 sessions, and they were often unbelievably difficult and painful. Intensity warning: please skip this paragraph if you’d like to avoid reading very dark and personal details. Among many other realizations and recovered memories, I discovered that my father had molested me, raped me, and choked me almost to death, multiple times. I had completely forgotten these memories, and the remembrance broke me apart. But the medicine helped me finally face these truths and even re-experience and move though them. Through it all, Sasha was there. Holding my hand anytime I asked. Loving me and being fully present when I needed it most.

The medicine also helped me contextualize these memories. I felt into the terrible ancestral trauma that ran through my family, that made my father the way he was. The mysteries of my failing health, my family, my behavior, my life revealed themselves. And they were at once worse than I ever imagined, but also more hopeful, more healing, more spiritual, and more loving than any reality I’d ever known before. Whereas before I measured my healing in years and in inches, now I was healing in months and in strides.

I had to break down to come together. But it was so, so worth it. And it helped that this time, I wasn’t alone. I was being witnessed and loved by someone who had done her work deeply enough to be able to hold space for the horror that was unleashed from within me. Who could help guide me through hell and back because she’d been there before. Who didn’t flinch in the face of the demons that emerged. Who could show love towards the ugliest parts of me, and the most vulnerable.

My last few sessions, the messaging I’ve been getting is that I’ve done it. I’ve gotten enough of my soul back to start living. I got my life back: my spirit, my body, my self. I am by no means fully healed, but this is the miracle I cried for in the darkest nights of my life. I can finally turn the page on a 7.5 year chapter: the war for my life. And I’d won.

I thank Sasha from the bottom of my heart for opening her home, her presence, and her heart to me. I thank her for the kindness in her eyes. For the way she’d earnestly jump up and help me anytime I asked for anything. Even if it was just to grab a tissue or some water. For doing her own unbelievably difficult and painful work. And for deciding to transmit those experiences to help people like me.” -Anonymous client