a woman staring off into the sunset

How can a woman heal her mind holistically?

Here at Villa Kali Ma, we take a holistic approach to healing the mind, body, and spirit.

We embrace everything that works to help women heal from trauma, mental illness, and addiction. There are many wonderful tools, modern and ancient, for treating symptoms, and we use these to help reduce pain and address imbalances appearing closer to the surface of our lives. At the same time, we know that true, deep, lasting healing at the level of causation is also possible.

When it comes to healing the mind in a deep and lasting way, this is a matter of taking a whole-woman approach. The word holistic is connected to the root words for wholeness and health, and this isn’t an accident, as health exists when wholeness does. To get to wholeness, we take into consideration the multidimensionality and totality of a woman, excluding nothing.

To heal the mind holistically, three attitudes are helpful:

Remember Healing Is Possible

1. We must know, or become willing to believe, that healing is possible for us, and be willing to try to heal. Can we believe that life wants us to heal? Though we must participate actively in the process of healing, healing is available to all who seek it. Typically, to get to the point of being willing to try to heal, we must work through many stages of recovering enough self-love to believe ourselves worthy of our rescue mission.


Take Responsibility for Loving All Parts of Ourselves
  1. To heal, we must recognize and be willing to take loving responsibility for the many wounded parts of ourselves as they express themselves within and outside of us. We must realize that symptoms, synchronicities, relationship troubles, dreams, struggles, mental health problems, addictions, and so on, are all arising in our own personal consciousness stream.

This isn’t the same as taking the blame for the harm that happened to us, but more like realizing that the residue of bad things that happened to us can be cleared from our own thoughts and bodies, on our end.


Choose Love over Judgment
  1. To find healing, we must learn to gradually stop judging and separating pained parts from us as if they were strangers who do not belong with us, and instead practice the art of loving and including them in our lives.

Once loved and invited into our lives, these parts eventually transform into positive expressions. What we once considered our problematic anger or depression, for example, turns into self-protecting boundaries. Our habit of trying to get love from the wrong people turns at long last into abundant self-love, and so on.

The holistic take on symptoms is that we will never be able to make them go away by cutting them out, because we ourselves are creating them, or at least allowing them to spring up again and again, in our own consciousness stream. The only thing we can do is make friends with them until one day they do not present as enemies, but rather as allies.

This idea, that symptoms are messengers, sent from split-off, lost parts that need to be loved back into our wholeness, represents the heart of the holistic approach to healing women’s minds. (This is different, for example, from some approaches that focus on suppressing symptoms, which can be a good short-term tactic but won’t resolve the issue finally).

Also, understand that this isn’t about blaming ourselves or denying experiences of deep victimization. In fact, the inner victim we all carry must be loved and included, too!

START HEALING TODAY

Why is nurturing the mind important in holistic treatment for women?

The mind has a huge role in holistic treatment for women. That’s because the mind has the all-important function of generating and shaping our subjective realities.

Metaphorically, the mind is in charge of the film projector in the back of the cinema. What we experience on the big screen of our lives appears there because of the films we are running in the consciousness projector in the back of our minds.

The waking mind, which we experience as our sense of “I” and “me”, which has a sense of choice and wanting, is only one part of the mind. There are other layers of mind, ranges of semiconscious and completely unconscious thought. When we experience something in our reality movie that we don’t like, we must understand that only we have the power to change the reel.

While during the daytime we tend to focus on “me”,  also called the ego, whom we can think of as the storyteller, narrator, or protagonist of our lives, a lot of what happens to us is being generated by unconscious and subconscious levels of mind.

The subconscious and unconscious mind layers carry unresolved negative memories and feelings (in other words, trauma), which lead to us taking imbalanced actions designed to bring us safety or resolution of our past.

One sign this is happening is when we find that part of our mind is struggling against another part, as is the case when we have an addiction (one part wants addiction, one part doesn’t). What we need to do in this case is bring these parts of mind into a conversation and get them on the same page.

Nurturing the mind, therefore, is a huge part of healing, particularly in restoring the relationship between these parts of the mind, so that these parts speak to each other, even love each other, and at last work together to correct our consciousness in the direction that we would prefer.

When we heal the mind, we learn to create a reality movie for ourselves (and others!) that best expresses our true highest reasons for coming into embodiment.

Offerings for Healing the Mind Holistically

We have many pathways to healing the mind holistically here at Villa Kali Ma. Each one is designed to bring a specific gift to the healing process.

Some will resonate more strongly with you than others, and this is all as it should be. Each woman needs to strike the balance of following her own guidance, against the need to surrender into a structure or discipline, when such surrender is beneficial.

Typically in the beginning of our recovery from serious conditions, like mental health disorders, addiction, and trauma, structure and surrender will be helpful for us, a relief even, to let go of the pressure of trying to make decisions from a place of real soul sickness.

Read on to get a feel for each core component of our program for healing the mind holistically.

A woman in a hat observes the ocean at sunset, embodying a peaceful moment as the sun sets on the horizon.
Individual Therapy

Individual Therapy is psychological counseling, in which you explore your personal topics together with a compassionate healing professional who can help you understand yourself, stop judging yourself, and learn to give yourself what you need to recover.

Individual Therapy works very well because of the high concentration of attention, psychological safety, and emotional connection that are possible when working one-on-one with a therapist.

Villa Kali Ma individual practitioners offer specializations in different approaches. Meet our clinical staff here!
What all of our therapists have in common is the training and expertise in holding a safe space for confidential, intimate, deep healing work.


Family Therapy

Family Therapy is a very powerful form of psychological counseling that works with multiple family members.

At Villa Kali Ma we work together with you and any positive family members who are available to participate in your recovery path. Family Therapy is precise and effective at making immediate changes in relationship patterns, communication, and family dynamics. Family Therapy is short, structured, and packs a healing punch.


Trauma Therapy

Trauma therapy is a form of psychological healing specifically oriented towards helping people heal from specific traumatizing events, as well as from chronic childhood traumatization due to a background of abuse or neglect.

All of our practitioners at Villa Kali Ma have a trauma-informed orientation, and some of our practitioners have extra specializations related to trauma work, such as EMDR training or Somatic Experiencing certification.


Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Acceptance and commitment therapy is a variation of mindfulness-based therapy. ACT is especially helpful for addictions and compulsions, in any situation where we feel like we have lost control of our own behaviors, or are behaving self-destructively.

ACT relies on the power of acceptance, understanding that all that we do, even our “bad” behavior, we do for a reason. When we understand and accept why we have been doing what we’re doing, we free ourselves up to make different choices.


Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive behavioral therapy is a tried and true, powerhouse counseling method that trains our ability to observe the cycle of thoughts, emotions, and behavior. Through CBT we learn to “pattern interrupt”, harnessing the power of thought to lead us to behave differently in the world, and therefore experience life more the way we want to.


Dialectical Behavior Therapy

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a mindfulness-based form of psychological counseling that helps us find the middle way between extremes and imbalances in the psyche. DBT is especially good at teaching self-soothing and relationship effectiveness, and coaches practical skills for getting through difficult moments without turning to self-destructive behaviors. DBT is for all of us who struggle with dramatic emotions and intense pain related to relationships.


EMDR Therapy

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a clinically validated method to process and release traumatic memories. Residual trauma symptoms like panic attacks, flashbacks, and disturbing dreams can be greatly reduced if not eliminated through EMDR, by reorganizing the way that scary memories are stored in the brain. EMDR works by inducing eye movement to help complete experiences and release them.


Motivational Interviewing

Motivational Interviewing is a methodology known to be especially helpful for developing the courage to change. An evidence-based practice that works well for healing addiction, MI helps us clarify inner conflicts and make choices, moving us out of being stuck in ambivalence, and into action.


Mindfulness and Self-Compassion

Mindfulness and self-compassion therapy is a gentle, effective approach that works through training the body and mind to create states of compassionate self-witness.

Practiced through deep breathing and awareness exercises, MSCT helps soothe and calm the nervous system, enabling us to make changes from a place of feeling safe, grounded, and held in our own love. For all who may have struggled to meditate, MSCT helps make meditation a safe experience for us.


Emotions, Anxiety, and Stress Management

Emotion regulation therapy is a kind of cognitive mindfulness therapy that builds a toolkit for coping with painful emotions. Emotion regulation therapy focuses on the connection between traumatization and getting stuck over and over again in strong, overwhelming negative emotions later on in life. Emotion regulation therapy teaches us how to have emotions without reacting to them.


Love and Relationships

Our ability to have healthy love relationships, intimacy, and companionship deeply affect our sense of self, and whether or not we feel connected, valuable, and safe in the world. At Villa Kali Ma we help each woman work on relationship topics like codependency, boundaries, self-esteem, and abuse.


Relapse Prevention

Relapse prevention is planning for life after treatment. Together with your team of therapists at Villa Kali Ma, you will generate a blueprint for living life in a positive way, that aligns with your core nature and goals, and helps you steer clear of addiction, mental health imbalances, and trauma episodes, going forward.

Villa Kali Ma Offers a Holistic Mind Program for Women

At Villa Kali Ma, we know from experience that healing is possible. We have tales of our own deep healing and of the profound healing of many women who have come through our doors.

Come see if what we offer our sisters on a path of healing mind, body, and spirit, might be right for you, too. We’d love to meet you!

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It was the best 30 days of my life.

LORNA H.
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Villa Kali Ma provides a holistic, supportive, therapeutic retreat for women to recover from trauma & substance disorders. The intensive and comprehensive approach provides a compassionate path of learning, awareness, and self-love for healing. I am grateful for the sacred space provided for my reflection, my mind-body-spirit work, and my opportunity to connect with other women in this process.

STACY S.
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Villa Kali Ma changed my life in every single aspect. Not only did the experience help me get sober and stay sober for over a year now, but I was finally able to work on my past trauma in a safe and stable environment. Not a day goes by that I’m not using a healthy tool they taught me. I am forever grateful to the staff and strong women I spent my time with there. Truly the most profound life changing month of my life.

ASHLEY T.

Villa Kali Ma is an in-network provider with Anthem BCBS, Multiplan, First Health, Healthnet, and currently accepts most
PPO plans with out-of-network benefits. Call (760) 350-3131 for information on cost and payment options.