About me and my journey to establishing the foundation

First of all, a brief summary of my personal history. I was born in north Germany and spent my childhood and youth in the south of the country. After finishing school, I moved to Berlin, where I studied political science at the Freie Universität for a while. During this time I developed a strong attachment to Berlin and have lived there ever since, except for a short period of 3 years when I lived in Weimar.

After several years of working as a salaried employee in the field of occupational therapy, I opened my own registered practice in Berlin in 2005. This has allowed me to fulfil my desire to serve others and, at the same time to retain my self-determination while shaping and realising my own concepts.

One of the reasons why I decided to become an occupational therapist is that I wanted to put my entrepreneurial skills to good use in establishing and running a practice of my own. At the same time I also wanted to take up a profession involving intensive exchange with fellow human beings and offering me diversity and a lifelong opportunity to improve and enhance my therapeutic and personal skills. Over the years I have been fortunate enough to fulfil these wishes.

2020 was such an extraordinary and challenging year in all respects that I felt the time and circumstances were now right to no longer postpone the fulfilment of a wish I had nurtured for four years and to actively set about establishing my own foundation.

The establishment of the foundation completes a full circle: my interest in politics and social affairs was one of the reasons for choosing to study political science and it had always been my greatest desire to provide people with spaces and positive encounters which would promote healing.

Privately, I enjoy reading, painting and travelling. In order to take a rest from my busy professional life, I practice yoga and enjoy taking long walks in the countryside.

It was my experience as a practitioner in the field of occupational therapy, working with children and, in particular, children with a developmental trauma, that motivated me to establish a foundation for overcoming developmental traumas. My encounter with the polyvagal theory proposed by Dr. Stephen Porges has also encouraged me in my pursuit of this goal. Both of these aspects have involved a considerable amount of professional trauma research work.

The children who come to me with an underlying developmental trauma usually do so for other reasons than treatment of the trauma. They are often referred to an occupational therapist due to an abnormally increased level of arousal/hypervigilance (high activation of the sympathetic nervous system) and a considerably limited self-regulatory capacity. This can lead to problems of concentration or affect regulation in the form of excessive emotional response; the children do not experience themselves in a manner which is appropriate to the respective situation and do not feel their body adequately in the present moment.

The sense of balance – polyvagal theory – the pursuit of safety

Dr Jean Ayres' sensory integration approach lays the sensory and physiological foundation for humans to feel safe. Without a secure connection to gravity and its sensory processing, humans cannot develop and establish a sense of safety. In my experience as an occupational therapist with children whose nervous system is either too high or too low due to prenatal and postnatal trauma, it is necessary to work on achieving a medium level of arousal (level of brain stimulation). This is where polyvagal theory comes into play with its approach to co-regulation. The autonomic nervous system in these children is not sufficiently capable of regulation due to a lack of co-regulating attachment experiences that allow the child's nervous system to mature. A medium level of arousal, which allows for optimal integration of sensory stimuli, is gradually built up by means of a sensory integration therapy and through the well-regulated nervous system of the therapist and caregivers. The child's autonomic nervous system is given the opportunity to develop stability and resilience on its own, modelled on the mature nervous system of the therapist or caregiver.

This process establishes a tolerance window that allows for the proper processing of sensory stimuli as well as the handling of strong emotions and adverse circumstances. A regulated autonomic nervous system also lays the foundation for ego and contact development as well as the ability to form attachments. According to polyvagal theory (detailed information on polyvagal theory can be found at polyvagal-akademie.com and polyvagalinstitute.org), in order to become a socially engaged person, a specific part of the vagus nerve (the ventral part) must be developed. If a person experiences developmental trauma, this part of the vagus nerve often does not mature.

Through the integration of the vestibular (sense of balance) sense, a co-regulating nervous system and a trauma-therapeutic approach, both children and adults can develop and establish a sense of safety on this earth. This then forms the basis for experiencing self-efficacy in life and in the world.

You can learn more about sensory integration and trauma in the following book:

Ruth A. Lanius & Sherain Harricharan: Sensory Pathways to Healing from Trauma – Harnessing the Brain’s Capacity for Change.

Polyvagal theory has helped me a lot, not only in terms of understanding trauma. It has also shown me how much our sense of security depends on the regulating support of a fellow human being (co-regulation). The sense of security in children and people affected by trauma depends on whether their body feels safe and secure within its social environment. The information on whether our body needs to go into a defensive state depends on the physiological perception of our autonomic nervous system. Dr. Stephen Porges refers to this as “neuroception”. If the environment emits the correct security-giving impulses and these are interpreted correctly by neuroception, interpersonal exchange that includes higher cognitive functions and characterised by emotional reciprocity, respect and appreciation can take place.

My special thanks go therefore to Dr. Stephen Porges and his team for development of the polyvagal theory.

While working on the topic of developmental trauma, I realised how traumatic events in early childhood and adolescence can cast a shadow over a person’s entire life. The traumatic experience affects not only the person’s body perception but also his or her physiological condition. As a result, the person's ability to socialise and communicate and his/her bonding capacity become very limited. Dr. Peter Levine developed a body-oriented therapy approach called “Somatic Experiencing” to address physiological dysregulation in the context of trauma therapy. He is a friend of Dr. Stephen Porges and the development of Somatic Experiencing and the polyvagal theory have influenced each other considerably.

Why a foundation for trauma therapy focusing on children, adolescents, and young adults:

It has always been very important to me to offer people both a place, in this case my practice, and a therapeutic encounter. They should have a space for themselves where they can become aware of themselves, feel their own impulses, and express them, which I then pick up on and integrate therapeutically. My focus in occupational therapy has always been on children and adolescents, and to some extent also on infants. I am particularly fond of children's unbiased and non-judgmental view of the world, which touches me deeply every time. They still see our true core, our being, our authenticity, beyond the conditioning that often accompanies us as adults.

Children have always reflected me truthfully and directly in their honesty and openness. This unfiltered authenticity and purity have touched and shaped me deeply. They have inspired me to admire this psychological state of children and, at the same time, filled me with gratitude towards them.

Children have contributed greatly to my maturation, helping me to experience my own meaningfulness and to recognize and perceive myself more closely and deeply. We all need an authentic mirror to recognize ourselves. We recognize ourselves in you. That is why the promotion of Somatic Experiencing is so close to my heart, because a dysregulated autonomic nervous system depends on the presence of a person with a regulated autonomic nervous system in order to experience healing.

That is why it is very important to me to continue helping, encouraging, and supporting children, adolescents, and young adults. So that these wonderful qualities of children can fill our world with more light and love, rather than being overshadowed by developmental or traumatic experiences.

Children are given the opportunity to carry their light and radiance into their own adult lives and to live it.