Jerry Wheeler
Licensed Mental Health Counselor
I’d like to help you feel better and get better.
Psychotherapy in Westfield, IN
My office is located downtown, one block south of Highway 32, midway down on Jersey Street, between Poplar Street and Mill Street.
My Approach & Perspective
I’ve provided some of my thoughts and perspectives related to trauma work in an effort to help you get to know me a bit.
And if you’re up for a little bit of neuroscience, take a look at the Ted Talk below. Amy Milton discusses the process of editing the emotional content of memory. This is how ART works, but the memory consolidation window is opened without the experimental pharmaceuticals discussed in the video.
Trauma
Trauma is not what happens to you, it’s how your nervous system responds to what happened to you. Trauma “happens” when your nervous system screams “I can’t handle this!”.
Pain
The attempt to escape from pain is what creates more pain.
Wisdom
Memory without the emotional charge is called wisdom. Trauma work is about moving toward your wise-mind.
Personality
Much of what we call personality is really a mess of authentic traits and coping styles that do not reflect our true self at all but the loss of it. Trauma shatters our true self.
Body
Trauma makes your body feel unsafe, and in your effort to extinguish the fear, you learn to hide from yourself. Here’s a hard truth: The past is alive, and will try to consume you from within while your hiding.
Family
Your trauma “family” is a group of protector parts that believe they carry the burden of protecting you. They don’t trust you to do it yourself, and work to manage you accordingly. Learn more about your Parts here.
My Background
I advanced my passion for relationship-based mental health and behavioral therapy with clinical training and practical experience through The Center for Applied Psychological and Family Studies at Northwestern University, the unparalleled theoretical education division of the Family Institute at Northwestern University, in Chicago, Illinois. I have over 25 years of experience supporting and advocating on behalf of young people, adults and their families, first as a coach, clinician, director, and business owner, and now as a licensed mental health professional.
