Donna Bird, LCSW-R, CCH
30 Hillside Avenue, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 :|: (518) 584-0698
1525 Western Ave, Albany, NY
www.donnabird.com
Holistic Counseling, Coaching & Hypnosis
Traditional and Alternative Approaches Donna Bird is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, specializing in holistic wellness. She is nationally certified in Hypnosis, E.M.D.R., Wave Work II, Interactive Imagery, T.F.T. and Wellness Coaching. These approaches have helped people with: Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, Eating Issues, Relationships, Loss, Health Crisis, Stress, and Life Transitions.
Donna says "I consider my role as counselor in mind-body therapy similar to being a coach. I provide a safe, secure environment, where I teach people to communicate and align with their body and mind on a conscious and subconscious level. This process allows people to quickly move to the core of their being and change their limiting behaviors into helping behaviors, thereby allowing for deep, meaningful transformation."
She has been a student of meditation since 1984. She began teaching stress reduction and meditation in the private sector and corporate world in 1990 while serving as an EAP Coordinator in the government sector, where she worked for over twenty years. Donna has worked as a therapist in the mental health field for several years, helping adults, adolescents and families.
Donna creates mind-body CD's, Prayer Beads and Healing Jewelry to help others to promote health and personal growth. These healing tools are available on her website www.donnabird.com.
She is committed to helping people empower themselves and transform their lives in a safe, supportive environment. She is in private practice and has offices in Saratoga Springs and Albany, New York. Her fees are reasonable. She accepts some Insurances, Medicare, Credit Cards and Checks.
Donna says "When we learn to communicate as one with our body, mind and spirit, we achieve the greatest gift of all the ability to heal our Selves!"
Groups
Additional information at www.donnabird.com
Transforming Eating Obsessions
An 8 week group utilizing Hypnosis, Interactive Imagery and Wave Work to help you lose and change your relationship with food permanently. (Donna also works privately with people who have eating issues).
Mindfulness Stress Reduction
8 weeks (Donna has received additional training in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction under the direction of Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn). This group is modeled after Dr. Zinn's nationally acclaimed program. (Donna also provides individual meditation instruction).
Donna's CD's and Audio Tapes
Guided Imagery, Meditation and Wellness recordings are available at Borders and other local stores and at Donna's website: www.donnabird.com
Hypnosis
In 1999 Donna became Certified as a Hypnotherapist through the American Hypnosis Training Academy, Inc. In 2005 Donna took additional training and became Certified through the National Guild of Hypnotists (NGH). Additionally, Donna has received training and Certification in the 5 Path method of Hypnosis and has become Certified as a 7th Path Self-Hypnosis Teacher.
Donna utilizes hypnosis to teach clients to use their inner resources creatively in approaching their problems in life. This is done by concentrating on potential answers and resources that lie within. Hypnosis enables you to access the power of your subconscious to balance and control your life. Hypnosis can help you change almost any aspect of your life.
E.M.D.R.
Donna became trained in EMDR in 1999 and realized its powerful ability to transform people's lives in record time. She then took additional training and became Certified in EMDR in 1993. Donna is one of the few therapists Certified in EMDR in the capital district. EMDR is a technique that utilizes a specific motion of the eyes in concert with therapeutic guidance to produce emotional healing at an accelerated rate. Some people call it the "Power Therapy". It is effective for anyone who has ever experienced any upset or trauma that they haven't yet recovered from.
Wave Work
Donna Has been Certified in Wave Work since 1998. It is a unique psycho-spiritual process for clearing and integrating emotional feelings. Based on the deeper teachings of yoga, the work uses breath and awareness of sensation to allow for an organic shift in consciousness.
See additional information on Donna's website www.donnabird.com
Self Help CDs
In Donna's Online Store you will find holistic recordings to improve your health and quality of life. Each recording has been specifically researched, designed, and tested with the goal of integrating Mind, Body, and Spirit.
Testimonials about Donna Bird, LCSW-R, CCH
I overcame a mental block that was affecting me in a very negative way. My self-confidence was restored in what I was trying to accomplish. My sessions with Donna were truly rewarding!
- David Slattery, Investments and Insurance Consultant, Albany, NY
Donna is very kind, caring and empathetic. My work with her has helped me get rid of old demons and has allowed new life changing positive energy into my life. I am learning how good I can feel!
- Victoria Hurewitz, Researcher/Community Activist, Schuylerville, NY
Wave Work is the most gentle, loving practice/therapy I've ever done. I've changed and grown because it has felt natural to do so, not because there was something wrong with me that needed to be fixed. Donna brings a deep compassion to this work. She makes it possible for me to be deeper inside myself and to thoroughly heal whatever hurts.
Within a few months of practicing the Wave Work regularly, I noticed a major change in how I experience events in my life especially unpleasant ones I struggle much less. It's easier to just be with the experiences and not hate that I'm going through something I don't like.
- Susan Spang, Executive Director, Albany, NY
I went to Donna for help with phantom pain after having my leg amputated. I had some doubts at first, but Donna has really helped me with her hypnosis therapy. I am getting back to a normal life once again. I can't thank Donna enough for all she has done for me!
- Thomas Burke, Retired Bus Driver, Corinth, NY
Because Donna is able to balance her sweet gentle nature with a firm grounding in the present, I feel safe and am able to go deep within and tap into my own Higher Self and Inner Knowing. What a wonderful tool!
- Diane Perecca, Motel Owner/Yoga Teacher, Lake George, NY
"The integration techniques Donna uses have helped me release unwanted emotions so that I can move forward with confidence in my life. This has truly been a blessing to me.
- Jim Fenton, Sales Engineer, Ballston Spa, NY
When I began seeing Donna, I was so disconnected from my feelings and thoughts that I couldn't think straight or write, which is what I needed to be doing. Donna got me through many Ph.D. courses, helped me turn my life around and get over the traumas that have happened to me, one at a time. Even my own mother couldn't believe the change in me and wanted to do EMDR herself. Donna's time is priceless and she is a gem of a therapist. I recommended her to everyone I know who has had trauma."
- Marcy Auguste, MA, Troy, NY-
What is Holistic Counseling and Coaching?
Holistic Counseling and Coaching operates with the understanding that we create much of our own experience by the specific ways that we see, hear, and feel things in our mind and body. Some people call this experience thinking. Actually what we do is a complicated interaction between our conscious and unconscious mind.
Most of us greatly underestimate the scope of the unconscious mind, which is sometimes referred to as the "old brain." The old brain is concerned with self-preservation. It constantly questions is it safe? Since pre-historic times the old brain has attempted to insure our safety, although it appears to have no awareness of time and only a vague awareness of the outside world.
Dr. Harville Hendrix explains it in this way: In the daytime, we can't see the stars. We talk as if they "come out" at night, even though they are there all the time. We also underestimate the sheer number of stars. We look up at the sky, see a smattering of dim stars, and assume that's all there is. When we travel away from city lights, we see a sky strewn with stars and are surprised by the brilliance of them. When we look into a telescope we become aware that the thousands of stars seen at night are only a fraction of stars in the universe, and some of those lights are really complete galaxies. So it is with the unconscious mind: the orderly, logical thoughts of our conscious mind are like a thin veil over the unconscious, which is active and constantly functioning.
While the instinctual old brain is aware of what's beyond its borders only through sensation and feeling, the new brain takes in and processes the data of the external world. The old brain is simple and primitive, and makes wide distinctions regarding its safety and survival primarily by the symbols, images and thoughts relayed to it by the new brain. Eternally concerned with survival, the old brain identifies particular patterns that it has learned to relate with 'anger,' 'fear,' 'rejection,' or 'love.' The old brain cannot make subtle distinctions according to the circumstances and it's over reactions are deeply ingrained, and exaggerated in comparison to the stimulus. To the old brain, all threats are life threatening. Even the slightest frown could be interpreted as a total rejection.
Both old and new brains are considerably different, but somehow manage to constantly exchange and interpret information outside our awareness. Actually in most cases our conscious mind is practically powerless to permanently change behaviors, feelings and responses that are automatic and unconscious.
One example of old and new brain (unconscious and conscious) interaction would be if a child was in a play at school and forgot his lines. If the audience laughs at him, he may feel shame and embarrassment, but is forced to remain on stage until the end of the play. The old brain may register this experience as 'unsafe' and therefore connect being unsafe with speaking in public. Although the conscious brain knows as an adult, that logically, public speaking is not really dangerous, however the unconscious has imprinted the unsafe feeling with the act of public speaking. Consequently this event may cause some adults to become afraid of a simple task like speaking in front of a group, while other adults are pleasantly stimulated by it. Sometimes these experiences cause us to encounter blocks to our growth.
Dr. Bernie Siegel's best selling book Love, Medicine and Miracles is based on what he learned from his exceptional patients who suffered from terminal illness who lived much longer than expected, or who even became completely free of illnesses. Dr. Siegel learned that some people were able to transform their lives and become disease free. In the same way, mind-body therapies have evolved from the study of the mental processes of those who have dissolved trauma, changed behaviors or who have completely recovered from difficulties.
Some of us may think of mind-body therapy as unconventional or that change can only be achieved if the client has special awareness or talents. Actually, the process is about connecting with various parts of the self, which is really connecting the unconscious/old brain with the conscious/new brain. At times we refer to a 'part' of ourselves that controls our behaviors and make us act out inappropriately. We eat food indulgently, work in excess, become unmotivated, or act impulsively. Actually when we make references to these kinds of 'loss of control' actions we are admitting we don't have conscious control over our behavior. It appears that we have many 'parts' that control our behaviors, when actually it is the unconscious/old brain that controls these parts, and limits our functioning.
Because the conscious part of our thinking is not in charge of running the behavior, feeling or response we don't want, the first step in changing the behavior is learning to access the part of ourselves that is responsible for running it. When we learn to communicate with our mind and body they become allies and we achieve a sense of wholeness and an awareness about ourselves that is necessary to make lasting changes.
We can learn to work with our unconscious parts that hold us back through blending talk therapy with alternative therapies like E.M.D.R. Wave Work, Hypnosis and Interactive Imagery. We can convert our inner parts into inner allies, who communicate with us on the deepest levels of our being and then communicate with our conscious mind so we can make profound changes in our lives.
See Donna's website at www.donnabird.com for additional information.
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