As a PhD candidate in depth psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute, I’m researching the bind of fear and desire in disorganized attachment and how this bondage suspends a daughter from becoming woman. My working hypothesis is that the daughter frozen by this relational imprint, is bound to a negative animus, lives within the confines of a sadomasochistic split in her psyche and eroticizes her father complex. To cross the threshold into womanhood the inner authority structure must yield to the feminine, control must be surrendered for potency, and she must reclaim her beauty. Beauty animates relational love and frees it from the bind of terror.

As a somatic IFS and Jungian depth psychotherapist, I focus on the treatment of shock, attachment and developmental trauma, CPTSD, and anxiety, with particular attention to sexual and narcissistic abuse, betrayal and abandonment wounding. I support women and couples to feel safe in connection and move from relational trauma towards relational intimacy.

Rooted in the modalities of Somatic Experiencing, Internal Family Systems, Attachment Theory, Polyvagal Theory, and Jungian Depth Psychology, my work fosters the recovery of the Core Self and earned attachment security.

You can find my current research and musings on IG @iamerikastraub