About
Julia de Souza Queiroz, PhD.
As a psychologist and neuroscientist, I seek to integrate understanding of how trauma, on the one hand, and emotional growth and self-development practices, on the other, can affect the functioning of our brain and body.
My identity as a psychologist stems from evidence-based research, the interdisciplinary studies, and of many years of personal work.
From my perspective, the brain and the body co-participate in the restoration of health. And, for this reason, top-down (Pathwork and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) and bottom-up (Somatic Experiencing) approaches are used to facilitate, in a constructive and gentle way, my patients to deal with their dysfunctional beliefs, negative emotions, destructive attitudes, and trauma.
This journey gradually leads to integration and self-knowledge, allowing the patient to, little by little, function from the core of their being, to connect to their inner wisdom and to access their highest potential.
My approaches
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
We function in the world based on our core beliefs, which condition the way we see, feel and react to the world.
These beliefs are limited and distorted because they were created in our childhood, when we are naturally self-centered.
As a result, life can feel like a struggle, a threat and we might feel helpless and hopeless.
Bringing awareness to our core beliefs, relating them to our suffering, and to learn to feel our pain instead of using the strategies we built to run away from it, bring self-awareness and a more present way of living.
Somatic Experiencing
This approach allows us to overcome the negative effects of trauma through reconnection with our body, feelings, and emotions.
Trauma is not only a profoundly distressing physical or emotional experience, but also an incomplete physiological response to a threat.
This causes energy to be stored in the body, causing physical and emotional symptoms.
Pathwork
This is a path to personal transformation. Here the personal psychological work is a first step, where we walk gently through our “darkness”.
By doing so, a more authentic and confident self is built, and the ability to feel joy and abundance is increased.
The second step emerges organically, in the extent that a conflict is faced in the correct way, the personality gradually awakens in self-awareness, the consciousness expands and, with its use, new inspiration, and new domains of comprehension are reached.