The name Integration and Cohesiveness Practice, PLLC., did not spring out of thin air. On the contrary, it carries profound meaning and a message of hope for those who intend to embark in a process of healing, being and becoming.

In order to understand the concepts of integration and cohesiveness, we must first have a brief discussion about consciousness. Consciousness may be described as the process of being aware. It is a complex experience formed by the interaction of many mechanisms determined by both physiological and psychological factors.The process of consciousness starts early in life, it is shaped by our experiences, and changes with the passage of time. Moreover, consciousness is deeply related to our experience of who we are. Unfortunately, severe stress, lack of time to engage in self-care related activities, chronic loneliness, experiences of trauma, and mental illness in general, affect consciousness in a negative manner. It fragments parts of the self by rejecting specific memories, emotions, or behavioral expressions of who we are because they are deemed unacceptable or too painful. Thus, limiting awareness and increasing the distance between ourselves and our wisdom. The truth is that decreased access to our memories, preferences and experiences can be a hindrance and may lead us astray. Integration of thoughts, feelings, body and mind in the present, as well as through time, can be a valuable tool in understanding who we and in our search for personal meaning.

One of the hallmarks of lack of integration is a decreased ability to be aware of  our feelings, name them, or recognize where certain feelings come from. In more severe cases, it may be experienced a sense of confusion that often leads to poor decision making, or a sense of emptiness. In less severe cases, stress might seem too difficult to manage and negative thoughts and feelings might permeate consciousness. The issue of lack of integration and cohesion also raises important ontological questions. For instance, without access to how we feel, how do we know our true preferences? How can we chose who we want to be and how we want to behave?

I wrote earlier that a practice focused on attaining integration and cohesiveness carries a message of hope. In fact, psychotherapy has shown to be effective in helping people move towards becoming more integrated and towards increasing their ability to choose to behave in ways that are self-coherent. These changes are usually accompanied by increased emotion regulation skills, decreased use of maladaptive cognitive and behavioral patterns, increased self-acceptance, and decreased suffering. That is not to say that psychotherapy is always an easy process, or that these outcomes are universal. Nevertheless, psychotherapy is a worthwhile investment likely to bring positive changes to people who decide to undertake a journey towards self-discovery, self-understanding and towards developing purposeful awareness to navigate our fast paced society.