Mahshid Hager

To my clients, the ones calling in from the bedroom, the garage, the car at the park and their backyards, the clients navigating kids in the next room, puppies needing attention and their neighbor's leaf blowers... I miss seeing you in my office too. Please take care of yourself and be safe out there in the world so we can meet in person again soon. https://www.psychologytoday.com//in-pandemic-i-miss-the-re

So, this is happening! The tickets for my solo show went on sale yesterday. I hesitated to share because once this is out there, it is really OUT THERE, you know??!! And... as always, I truly believe that stories like mine are important stories to share, especially now. I want to thank Phil Johnson and The Roustabout's Theatre Co. for offering me this opportunity to share my story. I want to thank the honorary new members of my family, Jessica John Gercke and Fran Gercke for... bring my story to life in a way that makes me really proud. And I want YOU to go buy tickets and watch the show when it's released in mid-November! The show will be available for streaming between Nov 14th and Dec. 13th but you can buy the tickets now. Feel free to share and let your friends know about it. Let's take this ride together, shall we? Link in bio.

If you’ve been following me for a while, you already know my attitude towards healthy aggression. Healthy aggression is one of the ways we protect ourselves against threat. In the face of a physical or emotional threat, our physiology should have a access to a range of defenses including healthy aggression or anger. If you and your people have been experiencing systemic oppression, it is understandable that you would respond with anger. Your nervous system is set up to res...pond to threat that way. And by the way, this is exactly why systemic oppression, structural racism, identity trauma, and historic trauma needs be included as a trauma category in a trauma informed training. If you are part of a population that’s being unjustly threatened, killed, imprisoned, harassed, discriminated against, called names and pushed to the margins in various ways, etc., it is normal that you’d want to push back, that you raise your fists in the air and demand justice. To expect that people remain cool, calm and collected in the face of such cruelty, is frankly insane. If I have learned anything in my Somatic Experiencing trainings it is that you need to meet a person where they’re at. This means looking directly at the rage that’s rising, seeing it, validating it, making room for it and apologizing for our part in it, when that’s called for. Only then, we can expect the healing work to begin. #justice #socialjustice #systemicoppression #racialtrauma #identitytrauma #historictrauma #justiceforbreonnataylor #justiceforgeorgefloyd #traumaresolution #threatresponse #nervoussystemregulation #sdtherapist #somaticexperiencing #oppression #traumahealing #coherence #insolidarity See more

Sometimes, I have to leave the world behind, in order to take care of my heart. When I can’t distinguish between another mother’s grief and my own, when my clients’ rage hits too close to home, when it all feels like too much, I head for the mountains in order to take care of my heart. Once there, I sit, I let my tired body settle, I breathe in the air and the vague smell of the ocean. And I let me self feel.... How are you taking care of your heart these days? #selfcare #joy #scisljustice #traumahealing #traumaresolution #traumatherapist #somatictherapy #racialjustice #radicalacceptance #radicalselfcare #meditation #mindfulness @ Iron Mountain Trailhead See more

Talking about race and social justice can be hard. Our defenses get in the way, guilt and shame can get in the way, even our freeze response can get in the way of having embodied conversations about race. I truly believe that the initial discomfort you feel is the beginning stage of growth. There is no sustained learning without some discomfort. So if you can’t sit with the feelings that come up for you while having such conversations, then that means that you have work... to do! The responsibility falls on you to grow your capacity for discomfort while having these important conversations. And let me just say that you friendship with or collegial relationship to black, indigenous and people of color is not a substitute for the anti-racist work that you need to do right now. And it IS work! It is not easy or quick. And we all need to be actively engaged in that work personally. As your therapist I can help with increasing your capacity to hold a bigger range of emotions including discomfort. As your friend or colleague, that is not my responsibility. Thank you for reading all the way through! #antiracist #antiracisttherapist #traumatherapist #somaticexperiencing #socialjustice #racialjustice #representationmatters #dothework #traumahealing #hardconversations #tokenism #mindfulness #growth #racisminamerica See more

Sometimes, I have to leave the world behind, in order to take care of my heart. When I can’t distinguish between another mother’s grief and my own, when my clients’ rage hits too close to home, when it all feels like too much, I head for the mountains in order to take care of my heart. Once there, I sit, I let my tired body settle, I breathe in the air and the vague smell of the ocean. And I let me self feel.... How are you taking care of your heart these days? #selfcare #joy #scisljustice #traumahealing #traumaresolution #traumatherapist #somatictherapy #racialjustice #radicalacceptance #radicalselfcare #meditation #mindfulness @ Iron Mountain Trailhead See more

Keep an eye out for these:

This resonates. Please be gentle with yourselves. https://www.wbur.org//cognitive-change-stress-coronavirus-

Sound advice: https://www.helpguide.org/articles//coronavirus-anxiety.htm

Hello friends, It’s time to slow our pace. It’s time to check on family, friends, neighbors and colleagues. It’s time to help out those who are less fortunate than us. It’s time to stay home and count our blessings. Yes, there are still many of those. These are indeed unprecedented times. My hope is that we learn, or rather, re-learn that we can live with much less than we thought. I hope that we appreciate what we have and that we learn to reduce our waste and consumerism.... There is chaos and panic all around us. Believe me when I tell you, I feel it too. But there’s also communities coming together, in solidarity, to offer what they can. There’s music being performed on balconies, medical staff at hospitals dancing to keep spirits up, families eating dinner together, Spotify playlists being shared, friends holding gatherings on Zoom and teachers sharing story hours on social media. Be curious about what you pay attention to. Panic begets more panic. But the opposite is also true. Do what you can to take care of your own nervous system regulation. And then pass that regulation to those around you. I will add some helpful tips here in the coming days. As for me, I have transitioned fully to an online format with all of my clients for the next two weeks (at least). I will be watching and feeding the birds in my yard. I’ll be cooking a meal each day and sharing it with my family. I will schedule FaceTime sessions with friends and family. Connection to those we love is helpful during times of stress. I will stay home (knowing that I am privileged to be able to do so) in hopes to flatten the curve and invite you to do the same if you can. I’m here for you if you need support. Keep washing your hands, practice social distancing and stay healthy, my friends. #COVID19 #coronaviris #socialdistancing #selfisolation #stayhome #savelives #flattenthecurve

While the world was apparently falling apart, I got to live out one of my dreams!! I love teaching SE!!! I especially love teaching SE in a beautiful setting, to lovely, engaged, passionate students and professionals. I will NEVER forget this experience. It has changed me in ways I can’t quite put words to yet. I will be forever grateful for having been offered this opportunity. Grenada, I’m leaving a piece of my heart with you and your beautiful people. Take good care. ... Ps: there are so many people to thank for this experience.... I will share those thank yous and more pictures once I am back in the safety of my home (and not in an airport) and once I have my wits about me again. #grenada #stgeorge #stgeorgeuniversity #pscsgu #somaticexperiencing #teaching #traumahealing #traumatreatment #setraining #sebasics #stgeorgeuniversitygrenada @ St. George's University

Done! Your turn. #vote #vote2020 #voteblue2020 #caprimary #itsyourright #change #powertothepeople

Advanced 1 in Golden, Colorado is coming to a close. The students are finishing up in integration sessions.... It’s been such a full experience! I have made new friends (though some of these feel more like old soul connections)and have filled up on belly laughs with old friends too. As usual I’m filled with gratitude for the learning, the deep vulnerability and grace, the assistants coming together and volunteering their time in support. Honored to have witnessed one of the ...most heartening demo sessions I have ever seen at a training!! This work never seizes to amaze me. Get home safe everyone. And see you soon. #Golden #colorado #somatictherapy #travelingtgerapist #therapist #traumahealing #somaticexperiencing #somatictherapist #mindfulness #therapytime #therapistlifestyle #writer #mytribe #followme #follow4follow #followforfollow #followback

Day 1 of SE advanced 1 in Golden is off to a great start. Some familiar faces in the room and some new ones I’m excited to get to know over the coming week. Always humbled to witness the coming together of one hundred or so people, all invested in and passionate about the art of trauma healing. My intention for what to bring to the field this week is a healthy mix of my own nervous system regulation and capacity plus some playfulness and social engagement. Off we go. ... #somaticexperiencing #advanced #traumahealing #traumarecovery #setraumainstitute #golden #colorado #travelingtherapist #traumaresolution #seassistant #nervoussystemregulation #nervoussystemreset See more

One of my professional identities is that of a Somatic Experiencing training assistant. Tomorrow I’ll be heading to Golden, CO to assist at the Advanced 1 training, where multiple cohorts of SE students, some of whom I’ve known since the beginning of their SE journey, will come together to complete the last year of their Somatic experiencing training. It is a privilege to usher students through this experiential process of learning. Assisting at trainings brings much joy to ...my life. I assist a lot! Last year alone I spent 59 days in SE trainings. 37 of those were out of town. I obviously couldn’t do this without the support and the encouragement of my husband and that makes me privileged and grateful. I also feel privileged because for me assisting provides another way to feel like I belong. As you know, I’m an immigrant. I have left my home twice. Once when my family left Iran and once more when I left my family behind in Germany to pursue my education in the United States. Belonging starts to matter a whole lot when you have uprooted your life multiple times. Assisting allows me to meet and build friendships with lots of like-minded people from all over the country (below are just a handful of those friendships). Each training starts to feel like a little family reunion. If you have never had to search for that kind of belonging, then you hold privilege too. I belong to a community of SE assistants. We join each other with the common goal of supporting the students through their SE training journey. We hold space, we encourage and support, we cheer, we laugh, we cry...then we part ways, exhausted but with full hearts. And we say Until next time. #somaticexperiencing #somatictherapist #somatictherapy #seassistant #traumahealing #traumaresolution #therapist #ptsd #sdtherapist #compassion #mindfulness #community #belonging #immigrant #traumacare #traumatherapy #traumainformed #service #learning

Many of you know I am writing a book. A #memoir in fact. In addition to the book, I am currently working on expanding my solo-show, which will be performed on stage at The Moxie Theatre in San Diego this coming September. The memoir as well as the #SoloShow tell the story of my family’s escape out of #Iran and our consequent immigration to #Germany. Putting myself and my story out in these ways has not been easy. The writing itself has been excruciating at times. So much unre...solved #grief has come to the surface as a result. The process has been much slower than I had anticipated and there’s still no finished product to brag about (though I am making significant progress). It feels vulnerable and even scary sometimes to share my writing with others. They story is my family’s history. We experienced something difficult and my retelling of it is unearthing the #trauma we all went through. So why am I doing It? Why not let the past stay in the past? Why ever talk about it? Well for one, I am the last person in my family who remembers what happened. If nothing else, I want to leave the story behind for my kids and my nephews. I am also writing because I truly believe that storytelling has healing powers; for me and my family as well as for my readers and my audience. That power keeps me moving forward every day. Stories build bridges to the unknown. They make the strange a little easier to understand. In doing some research for the book, I found out that about a million Iranians fled the country in the late 70s and early 80s. A generation of us was misplaced. Many of us never talked about what happened to us ever again, survival taking priority over trauma resolution. It is time those stories are told. #writer #immigrant #refugee #refugeesarewelcome #memoirist #author #traumahealing #iranian #iranianamerican #uscitizen #irooni #storyteller #traumaresolution #gratitude.