Allison has a Master’s and PhD in Clinical Psychology and is a licensed doctor of naturopathic medicine with a professional focus on mind-body medicine and relational neuroscience.Her clinical work focuses on authenticity, embodiment and a healing-centered process that restores a deep sense of connection and well being. She is also a Compassionate Inquiry® Practitioner, Facilitator, and Mentor.
This post is an edited excerpt from Allison’s interview. It focuses on her personal experience with presence and the intrinsic healing energy we all carry within us. Listen to her full interview on
The Gifts of Trauma Podcast.
Photo Credit: Compassionate Inquiry®
I feel deeply connected to nature and the life force energy in all living beings. As a really curious kid, I was aware of healing and the power we hold within ourselves to evoke change. I’m also interested in health and wellbeing, so I started out studying conventional (allopathic) medicine, pre-med, with minors in psychology and education, and ended up in naturopathic medicine.
I’ve been interested in non-ordinary reality since I was little. By the time I was 8 I’d read the entire paranormal section of the library. My mom was doing her master’s thesis on mermaids when I was about that age, so pathways to both mysticism and magic were open to me, for which I’m truly grateful. And those doors stayed open. As an Empath I’ve always connected with nature’s energy, and I feel others emotions, just as I feel my own. At one point I decided to shut all that down, but as I moved into my 20s, I began reconnecting in communities where authenticity was encouraged and the world’s magic and mystery came alive for me again..
I still love teaching health, psychology and mind-body medicine to graduate naturopathic medicine students. Psychology, education and medicine are three threads that weave throughout my life. I love learning, the diversity and the space for eclectic knowledge, supporting others seeking wellness, whatever that looks like, and teaching the teachers. I’m grateful for these opportunities in psychology, naturopathic medicine, and for the last five years, Compassionate inquiry® (CI) . Coming into CI felt like a natural evolution, a natural adjunct to the work I was already doing. Yet it doesn’t feel like work. It feels like an extension of who I am. One of the things I love about Ci is its effectiveness in connecting to the authentic space of being, and reflecting it, resonating it, to help people feel safe enough to step more into themselves. Every day when I sit with individuals and groups, it’s really humbling. I feel genuine gratitude for this community and the ripples it’s making in the world.
I’ve studied mind-body medicine for over 25 years. In addition to my love of all things mind-body, and epigenetic, I have deep roots in psychedelic medicines. They were always a sacred instrument that amplified something already in my field of consciousness. It all comes back to the intrinsic healing energy we all carry in our cells and our hearts. In my understanding and experience, our natural state of being is healthy, peaceful, vibrant, connected with our bodies, feeling our feelings, aware of our thoughts, and expressing ourselves from that very generative place where life force exists.
Presence shows up for me as a visceral, palpable awareness. I feel it when it arrives. It flows. It’s life. it’s that space where we’re connected to the web of life. There’s always an exchange, a constant, dynamic flow of information. I think tuning into presence, being open to playing in it and receiving it, is part of attunement. Thomas Hubel describes our nervous systems as instruments of attunement. He talks about opening to that conversation between our bodies, hearts, minds, physical selves, others, and nature as a kind of consciousness. Jung talked about this with synchronicity. Others describe it as a flow state. Many have investigated it, but ultimately, I land in a quantum physics awareness that we’re really all just molecules floating around, constantly communicating.
One of the most powerful experiences I’ve ever had was with someone who was moving through some really deeply bound emotional energies. It was almost like a wave came and then we were in presence. We sat there, silent, in presence together for almost 10 minutes. Finally she just broke out in laughter and delight. That was one of the most profound experiences I’ve had in working with people. To me that’s the core of the doctor-patient or client-therapist relationship. It’s the core of the human-to-human connection.
Opening up to presence has been a journey of coming to peace with myself through lived experience. I’ll pause now as I’m being filled with a sensation like emotion, but It’s energy. My whole body feels alive. My heart feels big. I feel tears behind my eyes, I feel fluid, and there’s some joyfulness here, too.
When I’m in this place, the same thing often happens for the person or people I’m with. It’s innate in everybody and I love how the presence in me can illuminate the presence in them.
This expansive experience is life force, essence, spirit, vibrancy, energy… and you get to this point by clearing out space so presence can flow. I’ve heard musicians talking about a similar experience, they start playing, then something shifts and suddenly music is playing through them. Presence is like that because I’m not doing anything, it’s not about me and yet I’m holding this space and leaning into the flow rather than pushing against it. It’s taken me a long time to be able to celebrate this special quality. Clearing space so presence could flow required time, dedication and a lot of work to un-hijack my nervous system.
My experience of presence began in acupuncture based consciousness journey groups I led. In them, I learned a lot about trust. Yes,I had a plan and a script that formed the backbone of what I was going to say, but what actually happened was a totally emergent process. I learned to let go and trust that process. When I did, presence arrived and flowed. I would talk in a stream of consciousness as I was putting the needles in, creating a verbal journey. Afterwards, people would ask me to share what I’d said, but I couldn’t as it was just flowing through me as I leant into my body based awareness of energy. These groups taught me a lot about trust and the somatic experience of energy.
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The Gifts of Trauma is a weekly podcast that features personal stories of trauma, healing, transformation, and the gifts revealed on the path to authenticity. Listen to the interview, and if you like it, please subscribe, rate, review and share it.
