Donna Havens MEd. Psych Counseling, CHHC
Psych Counseling, Life and Holistic Health Coaching
Spirit, Mind and Body Transformation - Love, Longevity and Legacy
Trauma Sensitive, Informed and Aware
Note - April 2024 -
Four years since the beginning of the pandemic - last week I had a great talk with a client about remembering who and how things were before the pandemic - who we were - and moving beyond processing the pain and losses to refocusing and reclaiming the things we miss that we can reclaim! Clients are asking questions such as how do we reconnect to joy, happiness, a felt sense of safety? How do we regain our physical health and emotional well-being? How do we reconnect deeply to one another? How do we reconnect to the awe and mystery of life? These are my favorite kinds of questions. My clients and I go on the adventure of finding answers - finding some answers that are true for all and answers that are personal and based on my client's individual challenges and life experiences. We go on a quest to find answers to the questions that lead each one to their life of integration, meaning, purpose, a felt sense of being seen, heard, known, and understood; a life each individual client can look back on with joy, peace and contentment.
What are Donna's clinical strengths? I am not a psychologist or clinician. I did graduate work in the history of religion and in that context studied Jung and Rogers and a few other well known people in the field. What I can say is this: Donna combines an extraordinary amount of empathy and imagination with a very analytical mind and an unusual ability to remember details. I don't think I ever met anyone so strong in all those capacities, either during four years at Harvard or in all the years since. I believe that any client who works with Donna will feel that they are really being heard and will be surprised at how detailed her grasp of their personal story is.
Donna is someone who is constantly trying to deepen her understanding of what it means to be a well integrated and adjusted human being.
Regarding couples therapy online: I know that Donna in recent months has particularly enjoyed working with couples and has been gratified when she has been able to help get them unstuck from negative situations. I think that they see her as an honest referee who can call foul when necessary but will always be looking out for the interests of both parties without letting her affinity for one person over another compromise a session. I'm always amazed when I realize that all of her client relationships have been virtual and not in person. Somehow, she manages a very strong connection with people she has never been in the same room with. I suppose this ability is related to her presence on stage or when speaking to a group. A mutual friend of Donna's and mine, who is a practicing therapist, calls this ability one of Donna's "superpowers."
Donna brings a lot of real life experience to her constantly evolving understanding of the work she is doing. She has raised three remarkable children. She understands in a profound way how narratives shape lives, but she also brings scientific knowledge and method to her practice. She has studied holistic health and thought a great deal about how physiology affects the psyche and medications interact. Donna doesn't talk about it but she is a member of Mensa!
She is always looking for new authors and speakers who can expand her understanding of effective strategies for helping different kinds of clients.
I have worked with Donna as a musician on several occasions. I actually met her at a Celtic music session. She was learning how to accompany traditional tunes on the guitar. Most of my performing and recording career has been focused on my songwriting, but I have been playing traditional instrumental tunes since I was a young teenager. For Donna whose focus had been on fingerstyle instrumental playing and Americana music, this was a brand new direction, to learn the tunes and the role and backing style of the rhythm guitar player in Celtic music. Donna has played with me on several occasions including a show at the Iron Horse. She has always been very easy to work with and has a natural relaxed manner when on stage that her fellow musicians and the audience all enjoy. I didn't realize till I'd known her for several years that she had done a number of solo concerts earlier in her life and had recorded a CD, Live in the Studio.
Note - May 2023
It's almost the "official" end of the pandemic. I'm not really sure what that means. Three years ago this week a dear friend of mine died of Covid after a month in the hospital alone, on a ventilator, one of 21 friends and loved ones that I have lost since March 2020. Covid is still around. People, family, friends and loved ones, still argue about masks and vaccines, but less frequently and with less emotion. We have been through a collective trauma, one we didn't see coming, and we have experienced it differently and we have come to different conclusions. I am changed, and I am pretty sure that you are, too. We have memories. We have scars. We have coping skills we didn't have before, some good and some not so good. I highly recommend unpacking that! I feel that we can integrate our experiences to become more confident, encouraged, hopeful, stronger in the broken places, older, wiser, and more complete. We can use the lessons we are learning to help us to be healthier in spirit, mind and body. We have more control than we know and this is a very important message at a time when health care and providers can be hard to come by.
I have been working with individuals, couples and families as they have had to navigate significant challenges and loss. Come learn about resilience, uncertainty, trauma, courage and healing. I am ready to process with you what you now carry, and integrate what we now know as we move together towards a better life for you, your loved ones, and collectively, a better world for all.
Do you feel called to more? Do you want to live more vibrantly in all aspects of your being? Are you being called into a deeper and wiser identity, a more authentic you? Do you feel called to make a deeper impact, to help heal our families, our communities and our planet but you don't know where to begin? Would you like to explore better health, a deeper creativity, storytelling, and courage to speak and share who you really are and what you really believe? Do you know that all this matters - that you matter and that we need you?
Health challenges, weight challenges, unexpected turns of events, healing the past, love found and lost and found again, seeking meaning and purpose, leaving a legacy - these are things I have tackled, studied, worked with, things I know deeply. I can help you transform your life. It's important. You are important. You are here, now, on purpose. Be your best you so that you can have your biggest impact.