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Browse Pamela’s tools and practices to develop conscious bravery
Building a Habit of Bravery: 10 Tips to Remember to Breathe Consciously
Being a parent, friend, coworker or relative of someone with substance use issues or mental health challenges means needing sturdy bravery tactics at the ready. You’ll rely on skills you integrate into your daily life to connect to your body, heart, and mind, and this...
Feeling Helpless? Find the Control You Long for With These 2 Practices
You may feel helpless at times, as I do. It’s a distressing feeling which I absolutely despise! Yet we who have a loved one who is addicted, struggling with their mental health, or even in recovery often feel powerless and confused. The person we care about sometimes...
Conscious Bravery When You Walk Alongside Someone with Addiction
If you care about someone with addiction and/or mental health challenges, you have felt overwhelmed and even traumatized by their altered states, shocking or impulsive choices, dangerous behavior, trouble with the law, imprisonment, homelessness, lack of insight, and...
Protect Your Happiness
Protect Your Happiness True happiness is the foundation for our bravery. When your beloved struggles with mental health and substance dependency, cravings and relapses, your world is rocked with adversity, hardship, and sometimes even devastation. Take time...
25 Pillars of Conscious Bravery
25 Pillars of Conscious Bravery Be Brave Every Day: Get Started with One Small Step Most of us love a good story, and those where characters have magic powers are exciting. But in real life, there’s no fairy godmother turning the pumpkin of our fear into a golden...
Why Transform
Why Transform? Because living amidst constant change requires it. We are called to stretch and shed our former skins repeatedly, in death and rebirth cycles, down each passage, around every hairpin turn, throughout our days. Let's ask: Can we transform with brazen...
Radical Acceptance
Radical Acceptance Want to be really radical? Accept your situation. Allow your past. Allow your present. Radical acceptance is brave and effective. Without fighting what has arrived, or what occurred years ago, we allow our...
“I Don’t Know” Is Brave
"I Don't Know" is Brave "I don't know" is a brave answer. “I don’t know” can be a brave state of being when we invite ourselves to sit on the fence of confusion for a time. Not a hesitant, I don’t know. An honest I don’t know. A bold,...
Self-love: A Manifestation of our Human Being-ness
Self-love: A Manifestation of our Human Being-ness Self-love includes valuing our bodies as they are today, these changing containers we've been given for our true selves. Self-love is the connection with our whole being,...
Rx Gratitude: Medicine for Conscious Bravery
Rx Gratitude: Medicine for Everyday Things look better when we’re grateful We can still find love for our lives, difficult as they are, when we focus with the eyes of gratitude upon what we have been given. None of us...
Tools: B.O.A.R
Tools: B.O.A.R. The most universally effective tool I teach to reset and rebalance during times of upset, overwhelm or devastation I learned components of this practice from different places and people, changing it over the...
On the First Day of Christmas
🎶 On the First Day of Christmas, a crisis gave to me: uncertainty in a COVID tree. 🎶 Hello friends, It’s a very different holiday season of uncertainty for all of us on our beautiful blue planet. We’re still in...
Things look better when we’re grateful We can still find goodness, peace, and love in our lives, difficult as they are to see with children, partners, or friends who struggle with mental health challenges and addiction. How? When we focus through eyes of gratitude... Become More Resilient in 2 Quick, Fun Ways It takes bravery to face and manage stress, instead of avoiding or denying it by saying things like “I don’t have time for this!” or “I’m fine!” We all have a tendency to use forms of everyday dissociation to dodge our pain... Finding some control when things around you are chaotic. What’s going on with you? When things are out of control in your loved ones’ worlds, try something different. If the words of someone you care about are disrupting you or their actions are frenzied, before you... Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late Self-regulation for anxiety Anxiety is at the roots of meth and stimulant use; anxiety that we may not even notice. I never dreamed my sons had so much anxiety. They were athletic, smart, musical, and confident. They were happy…or so I... Don’t Wait Until it’s Too Late Harm reduction saves lives I cannot stress enough how important detox and treatment are as first steps into abstinence or decreased use. When the people we care about are gripped by the beastly disease of out-of-control substance use,... Don’t Wait Until it’s Too Late Meth is a poisoned mercurial salesman lying through his teeth selling you promises. But what is actually delivered is a heart-suck, followed by a mind, body, face, teeth, and soul-suck. Meth users experience an ever-increasing desire for... Daring Gets Us Out of Our Comfort Zone DARING… gets us out of our comfort zonesand taps us into the conscious bravery we needto build resiliency. But…how do we become more daring? In small things, like jumping in with creative spontaneity! Here’s a short, fun story of... Flipsides of the Same Coin In the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love. In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile. In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, and invincible calm. I realized, through... Transform with grace. With strong, innocent grace. Actively involved, openly assertive grace. This photo is of my friend Carolyn Strong. It’s really her last name! She’s a photographer from Durango, Colorado, and on this particular day, she’d hustled up to Silverton with her dogs, her camera, tripod and props (inexpensive lace dress and straw hat) and hoped for the best during her self-portrait photo shoot. Emptiness is Scary and Brave I Am More Than This Me We are not our jobs. They’re what we do, but we are the beings that do them. We’re not our roles either. Friend, brother, mother, helper, creative. We’re passionate about our roles and work, but when we limit ourselves...
Rx Gratitude: Medicine for Resilience and Conscious Bravery
Stressed? Get Wild and Wake Up Your Senses
Why You Need Radical Acceptance if You’re a Parent of Someone with Addiction
Run Like Hell from Meth — Part 3
Run Like Hell from Meth — Part Two
Run Like Hell from Meth — Part One
Daring Gets Us Out of Our Comfort Zone
Tools: Flipsides of the Same Coin
Transform with Grace
Bring Emptiness with You When Facing Fear
Before we can know what bravery truly is we must feel gripping fear. Terror, even. We are knocked down, shocked and devastated. And we must lose what we hoped for. We may feel we’ve lost everything. But oddly enough, to renew, to steady ourselves, we have to empty even further, pouring out our hopes and dreams for what feels like space, nothingness, in its place. We die to what was, and what grows in that place is emptiness.
I Am More Than This Me
Self-love is a reality you are designed to know and experience in your body, heart, soul, and mind. Self-love includes valuing our bodies as they are today — these changing containers we’ve been given for our true selves. Self-love is the connection with our whole... Whole-Being Awareness "Mindfulness" keeps our minds too full! …but "whole-being" awareness tunes us in to what’s going on in a broader way. With whole-being awareness we can notice, on many levels. Awareness can be freeing. Our perspective is keen from all of who... Feel Real Emotions! It's brave to vulnerably befriend all of our emotions, to fully encourage and experience them without either filtering them out or overly dwelling upon them! To feel is real. When I’ve allowed each and every one of my true emotions, even those... Whole-being Awareness "Mindfulness" keeps our minds too full! …but "whole-being" awareness tunes us in to what’s going on in a broader way. With whole-being awareness we can notice, on many levels. Awareness can be freeing. Our perspective is keen from all of who... Conscious Conversations Save Us: 6 Tips for Connecting Soulfully During This Pandemic The COVID pandemic keeps rearing its ugly head in anticipatory second waves, a deathmonger spreading both disease and fear around...
Self-love: A Manifestation of Our Human Beingness
Whole-Being Awareness
Feel Real Emotions!
Tools: The 6 Zones of Experience
Whole-Being Awareness
Conscious Conversations Save Us: 6 Tips for Connecting Soulfully During This Pandemic
Can you drop the rope? Stop gripping your loved one
What is the hardest thing to accept about a loved one today? Perhaps it’s the situation they’ve gotten themselves into, how they act, things they do or don’t do, how they talk to you or don’t talk to you, or how they’ve changed — for what seems to be the worse. Drop...
Trust the Process
Trust the Process Trust?... “Trust the process.” It’s one of the few things we can do, amidst so much where we are powerless. It is a critical concept for the conscious bravery we need, especially when loving someone with addiction and/or mental health challenges....
Do You Love Someone with Addiction or Mental Health Difficulties?
Do You Love Someone with Addiction or Mental Health Difficulties? How do we handle the crises that keep coming our way when we love someone with addiction hardships, with all of the heartbreak and exhaustion we feel from their relapses, varied treatments, financial...
National Meth Awareness Day
Meth Awareness Meth in the family… ... makes holidays hard. This year on Thanksgiving, both of my sons were away from home. They’ve struggled with severe methamphetamine and stimulant addiction for years. It was a quiet holiday with my husband at home. For those...
Four Reasons We Don’t Set Boundaries
4 Reasons We Don't Set Boundaries What are the 4 biggest things that get in the way of us setting and keeping our boundaries? 1) Discomfort… fear, awkwardness, or guilt. It will not be easy, so don’t wait for it to be! Discomfort always comes with delivering a...
We Can See Our Path More Clearly … With Boundaries
We Can See Our Path More Clearly . . . . . . with good boundaries. What do you want to feel? With your partner or spouse? How do you want to feel at work? Regarding money issues? Do you want to experience more contentment? Do you want greater ease in relationships...
Equilibrium
Equilibrium We re-find our balance and lean back into contentment. I have two “beautiful boys:” two young adult sons who are in recovery from meth addiction, who’ve both literally lost everything then found it again. They’ve had severe mental health and legal issues...
Presence and Love Are Two Good Solutions to Meth
Presence and Love Are Two Good Solutions to Meth Self-awareness and self-love are inner antidotes. Don’t withdraw from the drug-dependent person you care about. Engage with them. Assert boundaries and limits with love and kindness. Anger and even rage are normal, but...
Run Like Hell from Meth
Run Like Hell from Meth There’s no need to try poison to know it will kill you. Meth is a poisoned mercurial salesman lying through his teeth selling you promises. But what is actually delivered is a heart-suck, followed by a mind,...
Who Are You?
Who Are You? Many of my clients realize on short order after our initial consultation that they don’t know the answer to this crucial question: Who am I? They answer with some version of, “I don’t know who I am,...
Rx Gratitude: Medicine for Resilience and Conscious Bravery
Things look better when we’re grateful. Gratitude is our most ever-present, accessible medicine. When we enjoy a moment with gratitude, we saturate ourselves in something pleasurable. Savoring simple happenings helps us to accept — and even begin to love — our...
How Often do You Laugh?
"I think one of my favorite feelings is laughing with someone and realizing halfway through how much you enjoy them and their existence.” @createthelove Life is really hard some days. Entire months and years can be hard. We all need to be able to bravely feel our...
Healing Doesn’t Equal Forgiving
We are heal-able. Able to heal from stress, disappointments, and trauma. But healing from emotional trauma doesn’t just happen once for all time — it happens on a continuum over time. We have to keep at it. Consciously noticing letdowns and offenses as they arise, we...
A branch of myself needs pruning…
Metaphorically speaking, there’s a part of me which needs to be trimmed off. A branch of my expanding tree-Self that needs pruning. So…I’m deliberately removing that bent branch. It’s requiring concerted effort! What is it? The not-so-good LISTENER part of myself....
How to Comfort a Hurting Heart
Did someone you love misunderstood you, or hurt your feelings recently? How did you handle it? My tendency: stick up for myself, to “make” them understand me! But this usually leads to more conflict! Others of us tend to: snap back defensively, be sarcastic, give them...
An everyday miracle to get through the holidays and beyond
Presence can be your reliable holiday miracle. Being consciously present is a wake-up into what actually IS… versus what you’re thinking, dreading or fearing, hoping for or regretting. All of those originate in the mind—they’re not reality! Being present with whatever...
Bravery Bite #1: Conscious Breathing in 10 Minutes or Less
Hi Friends! Bravery is something we need for everything in life. We can cultivate it in small moments and build up a reserve for when life's bigger moments require us to show up and BE BRAVE. As the holidays approach, time can be a scarce resource and we can...
Approach
Pamela has worked as an integrative therapist and coach. Her transformative approach helps clients and attendees develop skills in: living in the present moment, resetting under duress, adapting to change, facing the unknown and building resilience. She is a committed mental health advocate, helping others transform difficulties into foundations for strength and compassion as they find gratitude, hope and freedom in everyday living.
For anyone who walks alongside someone struggling in the wilderness with addiction or mental health challenges, Pamela compassionately teaches her “pillars of conscious bravery”: befriending all feelings; becoming more comfortable with discomfort and overwhelm; breathing consciously; developing whole-being awareness; living from one’s essence; cultivating a “Now, there’s this” approach; asking for help; viewing fear as an advisor; anchoring in healthy self-care; protecting happiness, and living with vibrancy.
Background
Pamela received her master’s in social work (MSW) from the University of Denver and completed her licensure in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In addition to receiving traditional education, she integrates skills from: somatic experiencing therapy, dreamwork, EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), meditation and yoga into her trainings and sessions. She teaches “whole-being awareness,” along with other tools and practices she designed or refined to cultivate and embed conscious bravery. Her diligent personal yoga, meditation and dreamtending practices have informed her life and her work for three decades.
Passions
Pamela enjoys poetry, music, art, and adores traveling the world. A former competitive athlete, she loves biking and hiking, skate skiing and yoga, plays piano and the ukulele, and brings tenacious joy into each of her passions. She and her husband David divide their time between the mountains and the ocean.
