Social Emotional Change

28/12/2025

Did you know that in Pennsylvania, people who were harmed due to crime can access the Victims Compensation Assistance Program (VCAP), which provides funding to help ease the emotional and physical aftermath of crimes that occur in Pennsylvania?

VCAP can help pay for many of the expenses that come up after someone is impacted by crime including:
Counseling
Crime-Scene Cleanup
Forensic R**e Exams
Funeral Costs
Loss of Earning
Loss of Support
Medical Expenses
Relocation
Transportation
Other Expenses

CW: s*xual abuse/assault

Some things to know:
The crime must have happened in Pennsylvania.
The crime was reported to the proper authorities or you filed a protection order.*
It has been less than 5 years since the crime happened.*
You lost at least $50 because of the crime.*
*These requirements do not apply to many crimes involving s*xual abuse/s*xual assault.

There are different requirements for people who survived s*xual abuse, assault, or other s*x crimes.
You don’t need to make a report or to have lost money in order to get help with counseling.
There is no time limit for applying for VCAP after a s*x crime.
Individuals who were under 18 when they were hurt during a s*x crime are also eligible for additional funding for counseling services.

WAYS TO GET HELP: Get help from a Victims Services Program.
Call VCAP at 1 (800) 233-2339.
Download the Crime Victims App.
Mail or email your claim.

We're proud to work with VCAP and serve those impacted by criminal acts.
Reach out to learn more; link in bio.

01/11/2025

When we’re chronically activated by stress and overwhelm, our bodies can lose access to deep rest and restoration. This creates a cycle: we can’t rest, so we can’t recharge, so we can’t show up in the ways we want to.

In Rested & Ready, we'll use the unfiltered introduction to the Rest and Restore Protocol (RRP) — a polyvagal listening program designed to support nervous system regulation — to help rebuild capacity for genuine, restorative rest.

The goal isn’t rest as an endpoint, but as a foundation: to help us respond rather than react, and to sustain engagement rather than burn out. Through gentle listening and awareness, we’ll focus on cultivating the inner steadiness needed to stay present, effective, and connected — both with ourselves and with the world around us.

Link in bio.

06/10/2025

I'm so delighted to welcome Liz Johnson to the practice. She asks, "How can we honor the body and its 'science' while also honoring the meaning we make," beautifully summarizing the work we do at Social Emotional Change. She's offering therapy for a low fee sliding scale through her graduation in April. Check out her bio on the site, and reach out for a consult.

22/08/2025

Reach out for a consult or intake...openings available as soon as next week! Immediate, in-session ease in nervous system functioning, practiced over a course of sessions, becomes flexible, boundaried relationships, focus, emotional clarity. Migraine relief, improved digestion, greater interoception. Reach out, feel better; link in bio.

15/08/2025

So delighted to welcome Cori! They're accepting clients using Aetna, Cigna/Evernorth, and Pennsylvania VCAP funding, as well as a sliding scale for self-pay, while waiting for Medicaid, UPMC, and Highmark credentialing to come through. Specializing in work with trans & autistic folks, their practice is explicitly ENM/poly-positive, kink-positive, body-positive, q***r positive, feminist, and anti-racist. Check out their profile on the site, and reach out for a consult, or refer to someone in need.

30/07/2025

Brainmaps on my mind...quantitative EEG as a window into the dynamics underlying symptoms. Commonly heard as people witness these patterns on the page, in color: 'It's not me, it's my brain!' Delightful.

Be in touch if you'd like to explore brainmapping and training for yourself.

ID: four visual representations of brain activity, including raw EEG waves, flat picture of brains with text about the default mode network, an image of brain cross-sections with orange and blue coloring, labeled delta and theta, and a layout of ten circles with different patterns of orange in the center and blue around the edges. Text reads: Brainmapping ~Quantitative EEG~ gives us varied views of brain activity. We overlay these different views with symptoms and goals to develop a plan for neurofeedback training. Text appears on a pale green background.

10/06/2025

15/12/2024

Moving toward rest with every exhale, activation when we inhale. Slightly lengthen or simply focus on the aspect you'd like to enhance. If it doesn't feel good, stop.

12/08/2024

Leese has current availability for free therapy through VCAP funding, for any uninsured or medicaid-insured folks who have experienced a s*xualized crime in Pennsylvania. If you or someone you know (please share!) struggles to access accurate care for traumatic events, check out the details about Leese’s work, VCAP, and PA’s uniquely sensitive approach with SA survivors in the comments below.

ID: Three daisies in stages of bloom, viewed from behind, on a green background. The words "reach grow heal" in white lettering on a black background, and in smaller lettering below, the words Social Emotional Change.

18/07/2024

Stuck & can't get moving?
Or constantly revving & can't rest? Maybe you just want to leave.

Each of these protective nervous system states makes sense for the global and local environments we live in. Unfortunately, our health AND effectiveness suffer when we stay stuck in one gear.

If telling ourselves to *feel better, do better* worked, that would be really great.

And...many of us have patterned these protections for survival, and our brains & bodies (not actually different things,) need support to shift fluidly.

Distilled relief...
Our neurofeedback services engage & affect flight/fight/freeze & rest/digest responses in the nervous system. It's tough to describe in words; the process is so simple, and yet so profound.

Sit comfortably, sensors on your scalp, hearing the sounds reflecting your brain's activity, speaking directly to your nervous system in its own language. Feel better, move through the world with fluid power.

We expect significant change in our clients' ability to meet the challenges of a tough time.

Clients report greater ease/rest, recognition of self & connection with loved ones/community, as well as relief from a wide range of what we call "mental" health issues and chronic suffering.

Schedule a free consult, and learn more about the change that's possible with accurate support. Neurofeedback is a private-pay offering.

23/03/2024

(4 of 4) Our practice:
Weekly virtual resilience practice group, regardless of the ability to pay: Taking Care, Thursdays 6pm EST

Infraslow Fluctuation (ISF) neurofeedback, in our Pittsburgh office.

Safe & Sound Protocol, available virtually in Pennsylvania.

Transformative psychotherapy, integrating Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) & EMDR, in person in Pittsburgh and virtually in PA.

Links in bio.

20/03/2024

3 of 4

Tuning in to relative safety (and imbalances in access) supports equity.

Clearing the effects and protections of first or repeated shocks helps us focus on what's real, right now.

Weekly virtual resilience practice group, regardless of the ability to pay: Taking Care, Thursdays 6pm EST

Infraslow Fluctuation (ISF) neurofeedback, in our Pittsburgh office.

Safe & Sound Protocol, available virtually in Pennsylvania.

Transformative psychotherapy, integrating Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) & EMDR, in person in Pittsburgh and virtually in PA.

Links in bio.