Casey Applegate-Aguilar

Integrative Psychotherapist | Educational Consultant & Coach | Educator | Mind-Body Medicine Researcher | Poet | Multi-media Artist | Homeschool Mom | Seeker

Psychotherapy

I am an integrative psychotherapist trained in mind-body techniques who is dedicated to guiding overwhelmed parents in healing their childhood wounds so they can change the course of generational trauma. 

If you are anxious, irritable, and overwhelmed by parenting, having children may have activated old wounds. This is an invitation to heal. My clients are often neurodivergent and highly sensitive, with childhoods that left them feeling unsupported and confused. These experiences often manifest as worry, obsessiveness, relationship issues, perfectionism, and difficulty making decisions. We work together in therapy to un-learn the past and create a new way of being for yourself and your children. 

Are you curious about utilizing your creative imagination for healing and wellness? I use gentle, empowering approaches such as expressive arts, clinical hypnosis, mindfulness, “parts” therapy, inner child work, dreamwork, and body-oriented psychotherapy to support clients in uncovering their inner wisdom and stepping into their true Selves. 

Together, we will develop your awareness, re-regulate your nervous system, heal old wounds, and learn new skills that empower you to be who you choose to be. First, you will learn to ground and self-nurture while developing mindful awareness of thoughts, emotions, and bodily signals. Next, you will learn to express emotions in contained, healthy ways. Moving these stuck emotions out of the body relieves many psychological and physical ailments. You will also learn to utilize your creative imagination for healing and wellness. These skills help you re-create meaning and inspire changes in thoughts, emotions, neural networks (the cellular level of the body), and the subtle (energetic) body. 

Insurances accepted:

Aetna (NM)

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Virtual Network

Cigna (NM)

Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Jersey

Consulting & Coaching

My educational consulting and coaching work is informed by my training in neuropsychology, mental health, wellness, education, and nearly two decades of experience as an educator. I hold post-baccalaureate certificates in elementary, secondary, and special education. After teaching kindergarten through university and leading student success initiatives at the university level, I made a career change to psychotherapy. My focus on finding the roots of emotional and behavioral challenges revealed the deep wounds individuals hold from their experiences at home and at school. I now dedicate myself to not only supporting individuals in healing the wounds through psychotherapy but also preventing such wounding through educational consulting and coaching. By honoring the spirit of each individual, we can create learning experiences that inspire growing into (instead of out of) who the child is. I offer consulting to homeschooling families that includes strength-based assessment, wellness-first learning plans, and coaching for parents and children. Through holistic, wellness-first education, I hope to shift our intimate and global landscapes toward a humane future.

Clinical Supervision

I am an approved clinical supervisor for provisional and Licensed Mental Health Counselors (LMHCs) and licensed social workers (LBSWs and LMSWs) in the state of New Mexico. 

My clients and supervisees say they feel more calm and relaxed after our sessions, which assists them in feeling confident to implement new ways of being. My humanistic approach to therapy extends to my approach to supervision. My goal is to create a supportive space for supervisees to process and make their own decisions so that they trust themselves as therapists. I enjoy sharing resources with my supervisees so they have an abundance of information to inform their thinking.  

My background:

I am an independently Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor (LPCC) and Substance Abuse Associate (LSAA) in New Mexico. For my PhD in Mind-Body Medicine at Saybrook University, I specialized in Integrative Mental Health and focused, in my dissertation, on issues in moving mindfulness research into practice. I hold a MS in Clinical/Counseling Psychology from New Mexico Highlands University where I focused on neuropsychological assessment. I take a holistic and integrative approach to therapy and coaching and am a Certified Integrative Mental Health Professional (CIMHP). I am also a certified Advanced Clinical Hypnotherapist (ACHt) through the Wellness Institute, and I earned a certificate in Clinical and Applied Hypnosis from Saybrook University. I am also highly involved in the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis where I often teach other clinicians how to use hypnosis in clinical practice. Additionally, I am a member of Integrative Medicine for the Underserved, the United States Association for Body Psychotherapy, the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology, and the American Psychological Association divisions of psychological hypnosis and humanistic psychology. 

More information about hypnosis 

Hypnosis

Hypnosis is a tool that involves relaxing into an inwardly focused state and then utilizing the imagination to create healing, deeper insight, relief from symptoms, and/or change of behavior. This altered state of consciousness is a natural process involving focused attention that occurs every day when you do things like read or watch a movie. When in this state, you are still aware and in control, just less distracted and more open to connecting to the healing aspects of the subconscious mind. Hypnosis is a great way to augment other therapeutic tools to increase effectiveness. Some experiences hypnosis may assist with: anxiety, panic, phobias, trauma, grief, depression, chronic or acute pain, medical and dental procedures, childbirth, and habit disorders (e.g. consuming substances, food, media, etc. or picking, biting nails, and other obsessive or compulsive behavior).

Hypnosis for Trauma 

Trauma lies at the root of other issues such as habit disorders, anxiety, and phobias. Hypnosis is effective for addressing wounds to the mind, body, and spirit that result in dysregulation because hypnosis makes learning to regulate the nervous system easier. It also allows us to revisit traumatic events in a relaxed and aware state so that we can dissolve shock in the body and re-learn ways of thinking and behaving that we adopted to help us survive. Our conscious mind does not remember everything that has happened to us, but our subconscious mind / body does. Without awareness, these subconscious memories control our present behavior and how we feel emotionally and physically. Hypnosis can help us access the subconscious mind to discover the root cause(s) of underlying destructive beliefs and accompanying behaviors and re-learn thought patterns and behaviors at the subconscious level.

Hypnosis for Pain

Research has demonstrated hypnosis as effective for acute and chronic pain, and has even been used to conduct pain-free surgery without anesthesia. I coach individuals to use self-hypnosis for acute pain situations and assist individuals with chronic pain in reprocessing their pain. Most chronic pain is primary pain, which means it has formed as a mind-body response to physical and/or emotional trauma. Through the teaching of hypnosis-augmented mind-body practices, I assist people in unlearning their pain. For informative videos and more information on mind-body practices for chronic pain, visit www.thismighthurtfilm.com  

Hypnosis for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

I use the North Carolina Hypnosis Treatment Protocol for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), which has been found highly effective in 7 published research studies. These studies demonstrated substantial and long-term improvement in bowel symptoms and psychological wellbeing for most patients, including those who were unresponsive to medical treatments. This protocol is 7 sessions over the course of 14 weeks. Visit www.ibshypnosis.com for more information on the use of hypnosis for IBS.

Hypnosis for Childbirth

Birthing individuals can experience a beautiful, comfortable, childbirth with no medication. I coach pregnant individuals to use breathing, relaxation, visualization, and self-hypnosis to create gentle, positive childbirth experiences. These techniques support the increase of endogenous (natural) hormones that increase comfort and bonding and decrease stress. Both the birthing parent and child experience these powerful, natural hormonal shifts. Use of self-hypnosis increases physical and emotional comfort and ease during pregnancy, labor, and post-partum. I offer a coaching package that includes 8 sessions, resources, and recordings. 

There are many other uses for hypnosis. I am happy to discuss how we might use hypnosis in your healing and personal growth.