Rae Johnson-Moonstone

Mind-body approach

Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) I utilize Pain Reprocessing Therapy to help you break the "danger loop" that keeps chronic symptoms active. Rather than treating pain as a permanent physical condition, we approach it as a misinterpretation by the nervous system. By teaching your brain to accurately identify bodily sensations as safe, we can effectively deactivate the alarm system driving chronic physical pain, anxiety, and depression. (Credential: Freedom from Chronic Pain, Enduring Practitioner - Trainer: Dr. Howard Schubiner) Expressive Writing: JournalSpeak I incorporate JournalSpeak as a primary clinical tool for somatic unburdening. Many of my clients have spent years "performing" their lives, suppressing raw, unfiltered emotional states just to remain functional. I provide a sacred, un-curated container where that suppressed energy—the fury, the terror, the grief—can be safely evacuated. By moving these emotions out of your body and onto the page, we prevent them from becoming trapped in the physical "vaults" of your muscles and organs. Cyclical Consciousness & Menstrual Cycle Charting For those with a cycling physiology, the menstrual cycle is an internal compass and a somatic clock. By incorporating cycle charting and menstrual awareness into our work, we track your monthly hormonal fluctuations to map out your body’s natural seasons of high energy, deep introspection, and necessary rest. This practice allows us to align your healing process with your actual biology, transforming what modern culture labels a "liability" into your greatest source of intuitive feedback and sustainable pacing. (Credential: Certified Menstruality Mentor – Red School Menstruality Leadership Programme )

Jungian

My approach operates at the intersection of depth psychology and somatic medicine. While many clinical practices focus on surface-level symptom management, I believe that lasting healing requires looking into the "biological vaults" of the body and the "mythological architecture" of the psyche. Here is how depth psychology informs our work together: Archetypal Mapping: I help you identify and map the "characters" running your internal script—such as your inner critic, your wounded daughter, or your sovereign mother archetype. By bringing these unconscious patterns into view, you can reclaim your internal authority from them. The Unconscious as a Resource: I treat your unconscious mind not as a pathology to be solved, but as a profound source of wisdom. Through tools like Dreamwork, we listen to the night-language of the psyche to uncover the "lost gold" hidden within your Zamani (your historical blueprint). (Certificate: Dreamwork Theatre's Online Dreamwork Course) From "Fixing" to Integration: Depth psychology teaches us that we cannot simply cut out parts of ourselves. My approach involves safely rehabilitating these survival scripts—turning a harsh, critical voice into a protective guardian, and welcoming your vulnerable parts back into a sovereign, integrated life.

Somatic

To help your body move out of chronic survival loops and into a state of safety, I integrate three foundational somatic pillars into our work: Somatic Psychology: I use somatic psychology as a foundational language for healing. Instead of just analyzing your thoughts, we learn to listen to your body’s wisdom. I view physical symptoms not as medical problems to be managed, but as "biological vaults" where suppressed emotions and historical scripts are stored, waiting to be safely discharged. Intentional Breathwork: Breathwork is a powerful, direct line of communication to your autonomic nervous system. By shifting the rhythm and depth of your breathing, you can manually override physical tension and send an immediate biological signal to your brain that you are safe, discharging trapped stress in real-time. Emotional Precision (The Feelings Wheel): To retrain your brain’s alarm system, we must identify exactly what your body is experiencing. Moving from blanket terms like "stressed" or "hurting," we use the Feelings Wheel to trace your state from its core out to its most nuanced edge. Shifting from a vague "I feel sad" to the somatic truth of "I feel discarded" is often the exact key required for a true physiological release and emotional completion. Sacred Lament & The Technology of Grief (Doctoral Research Focus): In our culture, grief is often treated as an illness to cure or an inconvenience to rush through. Drawing from my doctoral research on the historical and clinical purpose of lament, I view it as an essential, hardwired psychological technology for survival and release. Sacred Lament is the intentional process of giving voice to what has been lost, broken, or historically invalidated. When we deny ourselves the space to lament, that unexpressed sorrow calcifies into chronic somatic pain and systemic nervous system exhaustion. By creating a dedicated container for vocalizing collective and individual grief, we allow the psyche to complete its natural cycles, transforming trapped agony into a profound, grounding baseline of personal liberation. By integrating these frameworks, we ensure that our sessions move beyond simple intellectual analysis. Together, we facilitate a permanent, physical shift in how you inhabit your own skin.

Psychoeducation

The Landscape of Psychoeducation: Making Sense of Your System True healing requires understanding the rules of the terrain you are navigating. Throughout our work, I provide clear, grounded psychoeducation so you can become the conscious narrator of your own healing. We will break down three core pillars of how your body and psyche process survival: The Anatomy of the Danger Loop (Neuroplastic Pain): You will learn how chronic physical pain, anxiety, and depression are often not signs of tissue damage, but an overprotective brain stuck in a predictive "alarm loop." By understanding the neuroscience of neuroplasticity, you learn how to structurally retrain your brain's alarm center to recognize that your body is safe. The Architecture of Suppressed Emotion: We explore how the body processes unexpressed feelings. When society or early history demands that you "perform" or suppress your raw truth, that emotional energy doesn't disappear—it is forced into the body's physical vaults. Psychoeducation helps you identify exactly how your specific symptoms (like GI issues, muscle tension, or fatigue) are acting as a physical shield against unfelt grief or fury. The Wisdom of Your Internal Seasons: For those with a cycling physiology, we deconstruct the modern myth of linear productivity. You will learn the bio-psycho-social science behind your monthly hormonal shifts, discovering how to read your body's natural transitions through different psychological seasons so you can stop fighting your biology and start pacing your life sustainably. The Ecology of Time (Sasa vs. Zamani): Modern culture forces us into a strict, linear timeline where the past is considered dead and gone. Drawing from African philosophy and John S. Mbiti's framework of time, I teach you how your psyche actually experiences time cyclically. We look at how historical events, early survival scripts, and unvocalized losses aren't just "in the past" (Zamani)—they actively shape, populate, and pattern your immediate, living present (Sasa). Understanding this allows you to stop punishing yourself for "not being over it yet" and instead learn how to safely untangle the past from your current reality.