Eastside Counseling Center

10/13/2025

https://eastsidecounselingcenter.com/blog/honoring-indigenous-peoples-day-reclaiming-our

Each October, Indigenous Peoples’ Day invites us to pause, reflect, and honor the original stewards of these lands: the First Peoples. Their wisdom, resilience, and relational ways of living continue to guide us toward deeper healing and wholeness. It is more than a day of remembrance. It is a cal...

10/13/2025

Honoring Indigenous Peoples’ Day:

Reclaiming Our Understanding of “Relatives”

Each October, Indigenous Peoples’ Day invites us to pause, reflect, and honor the original stewards of these lands: the First Peoples. Their wisdom, resilience, and relational ways of living continue to guide us toward deeper healing and wholeness. It is more than a day of remembrance. It is a call to re-member; to piece back together what colonization fragmented, and to reclaim the sacred ways of being in relationship that Indigenous communities have carried for millennia.

One of the most profound teachings shared by many Indigenous cultures is the understanding of relatives. This concept is far more broad and interconnected than the Western notion of “family.” In many Indigenous worldviews, all of life is kin. Rivers, mountains, cedar trees, stars, salmon, ancestors, and unborn children all are relatives. All exist as part of the vast web of life that we belong to, care for, and are cared for by.

Much more than poetic metaphor, this worldview is a lived reality that shapes how communities make decisions, resolve conflict, steward the land, and heal.

“All My Relations”: A Way of Seeing and Being
The Lakota phrase Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ— “all my relations”— beautifully encapsulates this worldview. It expresses the truth that nothing exists in isolation. Every being is connected, every action ripples across the web of life, and every choice carries responsibility to ourselves, and to the whole.

To call the river or the cedar tree a relative is to acknowledge that they have inherent worth, agency, and wisdom. It is to approach them as far greater than just resources to be used, but as kin to be listened to, cared for, and lived alongside. This worldview teaches reciprocity. This is the understanding that well-being is more than individual— it is shared. And healing must extend beyond the human body and psyche to the land, water, community, and spirit.

When we honor all our relations, we remember that our healing is bound up in the healing of the world around us.

Reweaving This Wisdom Into Modern Healing Spaces
At Eastside Counseling Center, we are inspired by this Indigenous teaching as we co-create a culture of care that honors interconnectedness. Too often, mental health care has been shaped by models that isolate the individual. This separates mind from body, person from community, human from nature. But healing happens outside of isolation. It happens within relationships.

We are actively cultivating a practice culture rooted in the understanding that:

Clients are more than individuals with symptoms. They are whole beings woven into families, communities, ecosystems, and ancestral lineages.
Healing extends beyond the therapy room. It includes the foods we eat, the waters we drink, the land we walk upon, and the stories we inherit.
We, too, are relatives. Clinicians and clients, human and non-human, ancestors and future generations are all part of the circle of care.

This worldview informs how we design our programs, how we hold space, and how we approach healing itself. It reminds us that our work is more than reducing symptoms, but also about restoring balance within ourselves and the wider web of life.

From Individual Healing to Collective Belonging
When we begin to see ourselves and those we serve through the lens of all our relations, therapy becomes more than a clinical intervention. It becomes an act of belonging. We are no longer trying to “fix” an isolated self but tending to a living, breathing part of a greater whole.

This shift has practical implications too. It means we ask new questions in therapy:

How does your relationship with the land support or challenge your mental health?
What ancestral stories might be shaping your current patterns?
Where might you feel disconnected from belonging? How can we help you reweave that bond?

It also shapes how we build our team culture. We strive to treat one another as kin. That is, with respect, accountability, and compassion. And to remember that each decision we make ripples outward to clients, communities, and future generations.

Honoring Indigenous Wisdom as a Path Forward
Honoring Indigenous Peoples’ Day is more than a day of rememberance. It’s about looking forward as we learn from the wisdom of the First Peoples of this land and weave those teachings into the future we are building together.

At ECC, we are committed to walking this path and honoring the sacred interconnectedness of life, to practicing reciprocity and respect. We are committed to remembering that healing is relational. When we honor the land as our elder, the waters as our lifeblood, and each other as relatives, we create a deeper, truer foundation for healing.

On this Indigenous Peoples’ Day, may we pause and listen. May we honor the ancestors who have tended these lands and carried this wisdom forward. And may we recommit ourselves to building a world, and a counseling culture, where all beings are seen, honored, and remembered as part of one vast family.

Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ — All My Relations.

10/10/2025

https://eastsidecounselingcenter.com/blog/tapping-into-emotional-freedom-how-eft-supports

In our fast-paced, high-pressure world, many people are searching for tools that go beyond traditional talk therapy. People are searching for approaches that help them not just think differently, but feel differently. One of the most effective and accessible tools is Tapping, also known as Emotional...

10/10/2025

Tapping Into Emotional Freedom: How EFT Supports Mental Health
Melanie Vallee
In our fast-paced, high-pressure world, many people are searching for tools that go beyond traditional talk therapy. People are searching for approaches that help them not just think differently, but feel differently. One of the most effective and accessible tools is Tapping, also known as Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT).

Tapping is a simple, evidence-based practice that combines modern psychology with ancient principles of Chinese medicine. By gently tapping on specific acupressure points on the body while focusing on a thought, feeling, or memory, EFT helps regulate the nervous system, reduce stress, and release emotional blocks that may be contributing to anxiety, trauma, or depression.

What Is EFT and How Does It Work?

EFT is based on the understanding that emotional distress often arises from disruptions in the body’s energy system. By stimulating certain meridian points (the same energy channels used in acupuncture), tapping helps rebalance this system and restore a state of calm.

A standard tapping session involves three main steps:

Identify the issue: Name the emotion, thought, or memory you want to work with.

State acceptance: Pair the issue with a compassionate affirmation, such as “Even though I feel anxious, I deeply and completely accept myself.”

Tap the points: Using your fingertips, tap through a series of points on the face, head, and upper body while repeating the phrase.

The process is simple but powerful. Many people report a noticeable reduction in emotional intensity, often in just a few minutes. Over time, EFT helps reprogram the body’s stress response and reshape how we think and feel about difficult experiences.

The Science of Tapping and Mental Health

Research into tapping and EFT has expanded significantly in recent years, and the results are compelling. Studies show that tapping can lower cortisol levels, reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression, improve sleep, and even enhance immune function. It does this by calming the amygdala— the brain’s fear center— and signaling safety to the nervous system.

Here’s how tapping can support mental health on multiple levels:

Calms Anxiety and Stress: Tapping helps shift the body out of fight-or-flight mode and into the parasympathetic “rest and digest” state, reducing physical symptoms like rapid heartbeat, shallow breathing, or muscle tension.
Supports Trauma Healing: Because EFT engages both the body and the mind, it allows people to process painful memories without becoming overwhelmed. It is a gentle yet powerful tool in trauma-informed therapy.
Improves Emotional Regulation: Regular practice trains the body to respond differently to stressors, leading to more balanced moods and less emotional reactivity.
Empowers Self-Healing: Once learned, tapping becomes a lifelong skill. You can use it anytime! Try it before a challenging meeting, during a moment of grief, or when anxiety feels overwhelming.

A Simple Tapping Practice for Anxiety

Try this short EFT exercise next time you feel anxious:

Identify how you’re feeling and rate the intensity (0–10).
Begin tapping the points as you repeat: “Even though I feel anxious right now, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
Continue tapping while exploring the layers of the feeling:
“I’m worried I’ll make a mistake.”
“My chest feels tight.”
“I choose to breathe and trust that I’m safe.”

After a few rounds, rate your anxiety again. Many people notice a significant drop in intensity.

This practice helps break the body’s habitual stress pattern and teaches the nervous system to respond with calm rather than fear.

EFT as Part of an Integrative Approach

At Eastside Counseling Center, we view tapping as part of a larger integrative mental health model, as it honors the connection between body, mind, and spirit. EFT is not a replacement for therapy. Rather, it’s a powerful complement to other approaches, especially for those dealing with trauma, anxiety, grief, or the signs of high-functioning anxiety often hidden beneath busy schedules and high achievement.

Because EFT is gentle, accessible, and client-centered, it’s particularly helpful for people who feel “stuck” in talk therapy or want tools they can use between sessions. Over time, it becomes more than a technique. It transforms into a daily practice of self-regulation, resilience, and emotional freedom.

Begin Your Healing Journey

If you’re curious about how Emotional Freedom Techniques can support your mental health, our team at Eastside Counseling Center is here to guide you. We integrate EFT into therapy sessions as part of a holistic approach that helps you regulate your nervous system, process difficult emotions, and find peace within.

You deserve support that nurtures every part of you. Tapping is one way to begin. One breath, one point, one gentle moment at a time.

In our fast-paced, high-pressure world, many people are searching for tools that go beyond traditional talk therapy. People are searching for approaches that help them not just think differently, but feel differently. One of the most effective and accessible tools is Tapping, also known as Emotional...

10/09/2025

Check out all of the New Insights and Support we are offering at ECC and learn more about why an Integrative Model is the Gold Standard for Mental Health and Wellness.

At Eastside Counseling Center, we believe mental health deserves the same level of comprehensive care as physical health. Just as a physician considers the whole body—looking at the interplay of systems, lifestyle, and environment—mental health care is most effective when it takes an integrative...