Healing Foundations Center

Healing Foundations Center Healing Foundations Center is an intensive outpatient center located in Scottsdale, AZ.

Along with treating major trauma and mental health disorders, we can also provide guidance and tools to help cope with complex life events and challenges.

Complex trauma survivors have experienced multiple forms of trauma, often across different stages of development.Because...
05/27/2026

Complex trauma survivors have experienced multiple forms of trauma, often across different stages of development.
Because prolonged trauma is often interpersonal, healing involves relearning what safety feels like—not only in one’s environment, but also in relationships with others, whether they are truly a threat or not.
Chronic interpersonal trauma can lead individuals to constantly scan others’ moods, behaviors, tone of voice, and actions in an effort to avoid potential harm—such as punishment, rejection, ridicule, blame, or violence.
Experiences that may contribute to Complex PTSD include:
• Childhood abuse, neglect, or abandonment
• Prolonged domestic violence
• Repeated exposure to abuse or violence
• Exploitation (such as being forced into the s*x trade)
• Torture, kidnapping, or captivity
• Ongoing situations marked by powerlessness, fear, or helplessness

Understanding the autonomic nervous system provides a foundation for how we move between connection and disconnection.Ou...
05/25/2026

Understanding the autonomic nervous system provides a foundation for how we move between connection and disconnection.
Our sense of safety and connection is shaped by our life experiences—especially relational ones.
Ideally, we shift in and out of different nervous system states (sympathetic and parasympathetic) with relative ease.
However, a traumatized nervous system often perceives and responds to the world differently, which is why building tolerance for activation is an essential part of healing.
So how do we build tolerance for activation?
Here are some starting points:
• Orienting – gently noticing your surroundings (what you see, hear, feel)
• Resourcing – bringing attention to people, places, or memories that feel safe
• Pendulation – moving between activation and calm in small, manageable doses
• Grounding through the body – feet on the floor, pressure, temperature shifts
• Breath work – slow, controlled breathing to regulate intensity
• Tracking sensations – noticing without judgment what’s happening in the body
• Co-regulation – safe connection with another regulated person
• Titration – approaching distress in small, tolerable increments
Healing isn’t about eliminating activation—it’s about expanding your capacity to move through it safely.

05/25/2026

Trauma-related dissociation is a fragmentation and lack of continuity between thoughts, memories, surroundings, actions, and sense of self. This process serves as one of the primary protective mechanisms for individuals who experience chronic and repetitive trauma.

Clients often tell us how life changing it was for them to be introduced to structural dissociation theory.Many individu...
05/20/2026

Clients often tell us how life changing it was for them to be introduced to structural dissociation theory.
Many individuals with trauma related dissociation have become so accustomed to symptoms of fragmentation that they cannot imagine living a life without. While this theory provides an outline for working with complex trauma, it is not a quick fix, the process is often long, non-linear

Despite tireless research from professionals such as Kathy Steele, Dr. Onno van der Hart and Dr. Ellert Nijenhuis, and m...
05/18/2026

Despite tireless research from professionals such as Kathy Steele, Dr. Onno van der Hart and Dr. Ellert Nijenhuis, and many more, Structural dissociation theory is rarely taught outside of very specialized training.

In my professional opinion and experience, this theory is paramount to complex trauma survivors “whole person” healing.
- Chelsey Valeri

It can be difficult to decipher what is “expected” emotional aftermath of chronic stress and trauma and what isn’t.When ...
05/18/2026

It can be difficult to decipher what is “expected” emotional aftermath of chronic stress and trauma and what isn’t.
When do the feelings of insecurity, self-doubt, fear, anger, confusion, and grief become problematic?
When they are chronic.
When they are disproportionate to current situations.
When they are present every single day no matter what.
When they are chronically disruptive to daily functioning.
When your sleep is impacted.
When relationships suffer.
When there feels like no way out.

It is possible to move from the wounded states of trauma to wholeness.
To find out more, follow along and if you would like, DM me; I would love to be part of your healing journey.

Experiencing traumatic events can result in the development of certain narratives about yourself, the experience, and th...
05/13/2026

Experiencing traumatic events can result in the development of certain narratives about yourself, the experience, and those around you. Often, these narratives are for self preservation and protection from the memories, emotions, and felt sense of the traumatic experience(s). Separation from the trauma allows for you to continue “functioning” despite “parts” of yourself being stuck in “trauma time”.

Unfortunately, for many, the emotional and physiological scars from trauma are residual, they hang around long after any physical scars have healed. Many of the people who I treat in my practice have kept memories buried for months, years, and even decades. Despite the time that has passed or the mechanisms you have used to maintain a mental barrier between yourself and the trauma, your trauma is valid and you deserve to heal from it.

Learning to heal from developmental trauma requires unique, multi-layered approaches and, most importantly, time. Many p...
05/11/2026

Learning to heal from developmental trauma requires unique, multi-layered approaches and, most importantly, time. Many people spend years in the wrong type of therapy, resulting in increase symptoms and complete hopelessness. Understanding the importance of regulating and adjusting the visceral responses associated with complex trauma is necessary for healing. Follow along for more information on “bottom-up” interventions.

Let’s face it, it is HARD to make time for self reflection and daily “check-ins” with ourselves. Whether the difficulty ...
05/11/2026

Let’s face it, it is HARD to make time for self reflection and daily “check-ins” with ourselves.
Whether the difficulty comes from a time constraint, detachment, depression, or avoidance, developing the habit is challenging and keeping it as part of routine can be even harder.

The benefit of daily self-reflection is inarguable, it brings us greater self-awareness, which moves us toward increased self-advocacy, which is a vital part of the foundation of healing.

Add to the list!
Are there self-reflection questions you find helpful or use as part of your daily routine?

Because the prefrontal cortex is offline during states of hyper and hypo arousal, reassuring someone that they are safe ...
05/06/2026

Because the prefrontal cortex is offline during states of hyper and hypo arousal, reassuring someone that they are safe with words only, will not suffice. It is vital that cues of safety are provided, from a bottom up approach because verbal reassurance can actually increase levels of disconnect and dissociation.

Appropriate interventions may look like….
1. Have the person look around the room, identifying objects that feel safe and comforting to them (allowing them to remove any that bring up distress). Encourage them to engage with the objects (rub a pillow, wrap themselves in a blanket, smell a candle etc).
2. Re-engage the body with moderate movement (works well if stuck on or stuck off).
3. Help them time orient to current place, age, year etc.
4. Engage the 5 senses:
a. What you see
b. What you hear
c. What your feel with your felt sense
d. What you smell
e. What you taste

5. Encourage the person to follow somatic impulses (shaking, pushing, other movements that signal sight/flight/freeze/collapse release). Support these impulses with curiosity not judgment.

What other interventions help you or your clients to feel safe?

Address

Scottsdale, AZ

Opening Hours

Tuesday 9am - 6pm
Wednesday 9am - 6pm
Thursday 9am - 6pm
Friday 9am - 6pm

Telephone

+14807256157

Website

https://www.instagram.com/healingfoundationscenteraz/

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