Casey Applegate-Aguilar

Integrative Psychotherapist | Creative Wellness Coach | Educator | Mind-Body Medicine Researcher | Poet | Multi-media Artist |  Mother | Intuitive Empath | Seeker

General Approach

I use gentle, empowering approaches such as expressive arts, clinical hypnosis, mindfulness, Internal Family Systems (“parts” therapy), inner child work, dreamwork, and body-oriented psychotherapy to support clients in uncovering their inner wisdom and stepping into their true Selves. 

First, clients learn to ground and self-nurture while developing mindful awareness of thoughts, emotions, and bodily signals. Next, clients learn to express emotions in contained, healthy ways. Moving these stuck emotions out of the body relieves many psychological and physical ailments. Clients also learn to utilize their creative imaginations for healing and wellness. These skills help clients re-create meaning and inspire changes in thoughts, emotions, neural networks (the cellular level of the body), and the subtle (energetic) body. 

I am also deeply passionate about creating conscious communities that support connected and mindful ways of being in the world. 

Insurances accepted:

Aetna (NM)

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Virtual Network

Cigna (NM)

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 and mission:

I am an independently Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor (LPCC) and Substance Abuse Associate (LSAA) in New Mexico. I hold a MS in Clinical/Counseling Psychology from New Mexico Highlands University and am a doctoral candidate in Mind-Body Medicine with specialization in Integrative Mental Health at Saybrook University. I take a holistic and integrative approach to therapy and coaching and am a Certified Integrative Mental Health Professional (CIMHP). I am 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. 

My wellness education work is informed by my extensive training and over 10 years of experience as an educator and community-builder.

When you don’t know there is another way to live, you don’t seek support or change. It took decades for me to discover what I didn’t know. As children, we need teachers and role models. As adults, we need them too, especially when we didn’t have them as children. This is why I am dedicated to teaching and creating communities that embody mind-body-spirit wellness. Through community-oriented wellness education, I hope to shift our intimate and global landscapes toward a humane future.

Global change begins with the individual. When you learn how to heal yourself, you naturally bring that knowledge to your family and your community.

Specialties:

I specialize in clinical hypnosis, expressive arts, body-oriented psychotherapy, and other methods of guiding people to the subconscious to heal trauma and uncover their true, unconditioned selves. Within this, I incorporate neuroscience, teaching clients how to regulate their nervous systems. I often work with clients who are struggling with anxiety and parenting challenges while navigating their own childhood trauma. Often, these clients also struggle with chronic pain, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), substance abuse, obsessive thoughts, and compulsive/habitual behavior. 

You will find me a good match for you if you are curious about what it might be like to step outside the mind and into your body to discover your innate creative and intuitive healing nature. 

The following are my specialty areas in psychotherapy. While I view these as adaptive responses of the nervous system, I do realize labels can sometimes be helpful for communication purposes. 

Trauma / Post-traumatic stress (often called PTSD / CPTSD)

Chronic pain 

Anxiety / phobia 

Habits (often called addictions or obsessions/compulsive behavior or OCD)

The areas listed above are often connected. We shift neurophysiological states to survive, and our body holds on to unprocessed trauma. The great news is we can learn to shift the nervous system to thrive and feel safe in our minds, bodies, and spirits — even if we do not remember what this feels like! 

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.