I am not what happened to me; I am what I choose to become. I am not my roles; I am my journey. I am not my limiting experience; I am the creative power of my potential. - James Hollis
Who I Am. My name is Alejandro Cordova
My Orientation
- What has resonated most with me both during and before my formal education as a therapist is seeing life as a constant process of self-discovery and spiritual evolution. The seeds for this started when I was 10 years old and my fifth grade teacher spoke of yoga and Eastern mystical practices. I was captivated and 10 years later I got involved in a yoga practice, studied in India, had many explorations, and read myriad books on Eastern Philosophy and Spirituality. Of course, I stumbled and got distracted many times along the way, but in the end I maintain that orientation. I will say that I have very much augmented my therapeutic approach with the pragmatics of Psychological research. I am presently a Licensed Mental Health Counselor Associate working under the supervision of a Licensed Supervisor.
My Approach
- Healing and growth can take place when we are unconditionally present with the challenges in our life. To heal and move beyond our suffering we must undertake an honest process of self-examination. Baby steps may be required. Everyone has the key to their own healing somewhere within. It is my job to be a safe support assisting the client in finding their own answers. I am very relational in my approach. In our sessions the relationship is very much "I and Thou." Compassion and unconditional acceptance are central to my approach. Mindfulness training was an integral part of both my background and my counseling education. Simply put, mindfulness is paying close attention to our thoughts and feelings without placing judgement upon them, and thereby being less controlled by negative thoughts and feelings. Much of my training is from studying and personally putting to use many modalities and methods borrowed from the world’s wisdom traditions as well as my training as a therapist in western methods of psychological well-being.
My Therapeutic Techniques
- Some of the western psychotherapeutic approaches and techniques that I use are: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Internal Family Systems informed therapy, Gestalt Therapy, Person Centered Therapy, Mindfulness, and Transpersonal Therapy.
My Promise to My Clients
- I promise to be there for you every step of your journey to the best of my ability. I will help you grow from your struggles, heal from your pain, and move forward to where you want to be in your life.
The Therapeutic Process
- To move on from the strategies that keep us bound up in old painful story lines we must start a process of honest self-examination, and that is greatly assisted by reaching out for support. We can be encouraged and motivated when we have the understanding ear of a caring listener to share our journey. Therapy can help us peel back, layer by layer, the ways in which we have become constricted, numb, or self-defeating. We come to understand why we act out or avoid what is uncomfortable and see the ways we distract ourselves or escape.Through the therapeutic process we heal. It is my experience and, consequently, my belief that the challenges of life can be opportunities for learning, growth, healing, and increased self-awareness.
What is transpersonal Psychology
Transpersonal Psychology deals with states of consciousness beyond the limits of ego identity. In counseling with a transpersonal approach the intention is to move the client to a more spiritual perspective, or put another way, to guide a client towards a broader more meaningful understanding of their life and circumstances. It investigates the deeper meaning of life and sees all the events of life, including the vicissitudes, as “grist for the mill.” Our challenges and hardships can be experienced from a place of victimhood or they can be experienced as potentials for growth and expanded self-awareness. For example, our suffering can teach us to have compassion for the suffering of others. Or another way to look at it is to say that a reason for therapy is to understand the deeper spiritual purpose of our struggles and challenges.
Taking the Steps to Heal
Be Present With What Is
Feel what needs to be felt. Grieve what needs to be grieved. Be curious about difficult thoughts and feelings and be willing to investigate. Hold steady but try to recognize when a strategic retreat may be necessary (this may even include the use of psychotropic medications if one is entirely overwhelmed). Be wary of your attempts to distract yourself or numb-out.
Self Compassion
Hold yourself with kindness. Recognize that life is difficult and sooner or later we all get slammed. Find time for activities that nurture the spirt. Take time to to practice self-care activities (get a massage, listen to some inspiring music, call someone who cares, take a walk, be in nature).
Find Support
Humans are wired for connection. It is difficult to heal on your own. Join a group where you can share your story without being judged. Loving connection is extremely important. Having a pet can be an important part in the healing journey. What you are going through isn’t a sign of weakness. It is simply what it means to be human.
Examining The Critic Within
Shame is typically at the core of our distress. Be gentle and look within. Be willing to check in with the origins of shame. Go to the inner child where the wounds and shaming typically originate and be with that wounded child with love and compassion. Listen to that child’s story and give that child what he/she needed and didn’t get.
Working With The Physical
Trauma, wounding, and mental afflictions of any type also reside and get stuck in the body. It is therefore critical to do some kind of therapy or practice that works with the body. Some examples: Yoga, Tai Chi, Chi Gong, jogging, hiking in nature, etc.
Psychedelic Medicines
Sacred medicines can allow us to touch upon mysteries that have lain dormant in us domesticated Westerners for centuries. We have become housed within our comforts and diverted away from doing the true inner work by myriad entertainment technologies. Our privileges and material wealth have taken us away from the basics. We have lost touch with our Mother and with our wildness. We dissipate our spiritual energy by thinking that something outside of ourselves contains the answer. Yet outside of our mind and heart we can discover keys that can help us open doors within us. We must make that choice to enter and what we find within may be unsettling. On the spiritual quest we are meant to be unsettled. A spiritual commitment and spiritual search for truth are hard work for it requires us to journey through the shadow lands of our soul. The sacred medicines are very simply keys that unlock the doors that give us entrance into our inner journey.
My experience with sacred medicine is that it puts me in touch with the tenderness that is in my heart. When I sit with that tenderness, I have the direct experience of the interrelatedness and connection of all things. When my heart feels open and tender then the judgments and ego defenses begin to lose their grip. That doesn’t mean that they just flutter away like the gentle flight of the butterfly. They may hold on tenaciously and stir up deep unconscious fears and great pain, but there is no true journey to the light without passing through some darkness. With the use of sacred medicine there is the enormous importance of guidance and cultural context, or put another way, the importance of set and setting.
In Transpersonal therapy (of which using psychoactive plant medicines can be included) it is important to recognize the difference between a change in state or a change in trait. By a change in state I’m referring to a temporary shift in a way of experiencing something. By a change in trait I’m referring to the fact that a person has completely altered a previous way of being or a belief system in an abiding permanent sense. Does an altered state of consciousness (e.g. an Ayahuasca journey, Psilocybin Assisted Therapy, Ketamine Assisted Therapy, etc.) lead to a true long-term positive change in the way of being? I have seen how it opens “doors to transition” in people. This leads to my belief that these are extremely powerful types of therapeutic healing modalities. People can entirely change their perspective and relationship to reality. It can open them up to ways of perceiving reality that they have not known before, thereby leading to a shifting from a state they have experienced to a permanent shift in some traits within themselves. I’m just touching the surface as far as Psychedelic Assisted Therapy is concerned. Psychological structures and barriers that have been deeply entrenched can be be loosened and calmed neurologically, so that old wounds and traumas can more easily be faced and integrated. There is loads of clinical neurological research that show the mechanisms of how these medicines allow the psyche to open up and heal and expand in accelerated ways.