KERRY J HECKMAN, LICSW
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Tuning In: January 2023

1/1/2023

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Each month I post an update called Tuning In on what I'm up to and content I would like to share with you. Most of the links on this post are informational, but a few are affiliate links to help maintain this website.

Upcoming Events: 
 
Facilitating: 
  • Center for Chronic Illness - Living with Rare Chronic Illness  Support Group Tuesday January 3rd, 2023 at 4pm PST
  • Center for Chronic Illness - Living with Thyroid Eye Disease Support Group Tuesday January 3rd, 2023 at 6pm PST
  • Center for Chronic Illness - Living with Cystinosis Support Group, Tuesday January 17th, 2023 at 4pm PST​
  • Center for Chronic Illness - Supporting Loved Ones of Those Living with Cystinosis, Tuesday January 17th, 2022 at 6pm PST
​
Dear Valued Community, 

Instead of making resolutions, I choose a word to represent an intention for the year. For me, 2023 will be the year of establishing "roots." This encompasses many things, organizing my home, creating routines, fostering relationships, etc. Essentially, really digging my feet in and reinforcing my connection to the ground. First roots, then wings. 

​What is your intention for 2023? 

With Gratitude, 

​Kerry ​

​Current 
Projects: Self-development book on trauma and worthiness, creating training on the polyvagal system for healthcare providers, ongoing content for various publications. ​
Picture
Lincoln Park, West Seattle

​Helpful Content: ​

What I'm Reading Related to Therapy: My Inner Sky: On Embracing Day, Night, and All the Times in Between by Mari Andrew 

"From New York Times bestselling author Mari Andrew, a collection of essays and illustrations, divided into phases of the sky—twilight, golden hour, night, and dawn—that serves as a loyal companion for life's curveballs. 

A whole, beautiful life is only made possible by the wide spectrum of feelings that exist between joy and sorrow. In this insightful and warm book, writer and illustrator Mari Andrew explores all the emotions that make up a life, in the process offering insights about trauma and healing, the meaning of home and the challenges of loneliness, finding love in the most unexpected of places--from birds nesting on a sculpture to a ride on the subway--and a resounding case for why sometimes you have to put yourself in the path of magic.

My Inner Sky empowers us to transform everything that's happened to us into something meaningful, reassurance that even in our darkest times, there's light and beauty to be found."


What I'm Reading for Fun: Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir by Matthew Perry 
​
"Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is an unforgettable memoir that is both intimate and eye-opening―as well as a hand extended to anyone struggling with sobriety. Unflinchingly honest, moving, and uproariously funny, this is the book fans have been waiting for."

(I'm a proud member of the sloth reading club, so what I'm reading will not always change monthly) 
​
Picture
Lincoln Park, West Seattle

​Poem: 

To The New Year
by W.S. Merwin

With what stillness at last
you appear in the valley
your first sunlight reaching down
to touch the tips of a few
high leaves that do not stir
as though they had not noticed
and did not know you at all
then the voice of a dove calls
from far away in itself
to the hush of the morning


so this is the sound of you
here and now whether or not
anyone hears it this is
where we have come with our age
our knowledge such as it is
and our hopes such as they are
invisible before us
untouched and still possible​
​
Picture
Sunset in West Seattle

​Quote: "Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary." - Steve Jobs
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Tuning In December 2022

12/1/2022

0 Comments

 
Each month I post an update called Tuning In on what I'm up to and various content I would like to share with you. Most of the links on this post are informational only, but a few are affiliate links that help me keep up my website.

Events: 
 

Facilitating: 
  • Center for Chronic Illness - Web-Based Rare Chronic Illness Web-Based Support Group Tuesday December 6th, 2022 at 4pm PST
  • Center for Chronic Illness - Living with Thyroid Eye Disease Web-Based Support Group Tuesday December 6th, 2022 at 6pm PST
  • Center for Chronic Illness - Living with Cystinosis Web-Based Support Group, Tuesday December 20th, 2022 at 4pm PST
  • Center for Chronic Illness - Supporting Loved Ones of Those Living with Cystinosis, Tuesday December 20th, 2022 at 6pm PST

Publications: 
  • ​1 of my haiku was published in The Haiku Foundation's Haiku Dialogue on November 2nd, 2022

National Days: 
  • December 10th is Human Rights Day 
  • December 16th is National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day 
  • December 21st is the Winter Solstice
  • December 25th is Christmas 
  • December 31st is New Year's Eve 
​
National Months:  
  • National Human Rights Month

Dear Valued Community, 

There is something sacred about the last month of the year, the last month of 2022. What a different world we live in from a year ago and two years ago. This is the first holiday season I will be spending with family since the pandemic began. It doesn't feel completely safe, but it feels safer. 

Be mindful of the residue left over from the past almost 3 years. People who work with trauma know that we don't move through something like a global pandemic without any reverberations. Be curious about your lack of energy and your sadness. We have a lot to recover from and it doesn't happen overnight. 

We are on the eve of a new year, a new time, new opportunities. 

With Gratitude, 

​Kerry ​
Picture
Islandwood Retreat Center, Bainbridge Island, Washington

What I'm Reading Related for Therapy: My Inner Sky: On Embracing Day, Night, and All the Times in Between by Mari Andrew 

"From New York Times bestselling author Mari Andrew, a collection of essays and illustrations, divided into phases of the sky—twilight, golden hour, night, and dawn—that serves as a loyal companion for life's curveballs. 

A whole, beautiful life is only made possible by the wide spectrum of feelings that exist between joy and sorrow. In this insightful and warm book, writer and illustrator Mari Andrew explores all the emotions that make up a life, in the process offering insights about trauma and healing, the meaning of home and the challenges of loneliness, finding love in the most unexpected of places--from birds nesting on a sculpture to a ride on the subway--and a resounding case for why sometimes you have to put yourself in the path of magic.

My Inner Sky empowers us to transform everything that's happened to us into something meaningful, reassurance that even in our darkest times, there's light and beauty to be found."


What I'm Reading for Fun: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan 
​
"It is 1985, in an Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, faces into his busiest season. As he does the rounds, he feels the past rising up to meet him - and encounters the complicit silences of a people controlled by the Church."
​
(I'm a proud member of the sloth reading club, so what I'm reading will not always change monthly) ​
​
Projects: Self-development book on trauma and worthiness, submitting haiku & poetry, ongoing content for various publications. Considering next steps in career. ​
Picture
Islandwood Retreat Center, Bainbridge Island, Washington

Poem: 

All the Hemispheres
by Hafiz 

Leave the familiar for a while.
Let your senses and bodies stretch out

Like a welcomed season
Onto the meadows and shores and hills.

Open up to the Roof.
Make a new water-mark on your excitement
And love.

Like a blooming night flower,
Bestow your vital fragrance of happiness
And giving
Upon our intimate assembly.

Change rooms in your mind for a day.

All the hemispheres in existence
Lie beside an equator
In your heart.

Greet Yourself
In your thousand other forms
As you mount the hidden tide and travel
Back home.

All the hemispheres in heaven
Are sitting around a fire
Chatting

While stitching themselves together
Into the Great Circle inside of
You.
Picture
Scooter on the couch

Quote: "Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth...it is the time for home." - Edith Sitwell
0 Comments

Tuning In November 2022

11/1/2022

0 Comments

 
Each month I post an update called Tuning In on what I'm up to and various content I would like to share with you. Most of the links on this post are informational only, but a few are affiliate links that help me keep up my website.

Events: 

Attending: 
  • 2022 Somatic Transformation Retreat November 4th-6th, 2022. 

Facilitating: 
  • Center for Chronic Illness - Web-Based Rare Chronic Illness Web-Based Support Group Tuesday November 1st, 2022 at 4pm PST
  • Center for Chronic Illness - Living with Thyroid Eye Disease Web-Based Support Group Tuesday November 1st, 2022 at 6pm PST
  • Center for Chronic Illness - Living with Cystinosis Web-Based Support Group, Tuesday November 15th, 2022 at 4pm PST
  • Center for Chronic Illness - Supporting Loved Ones of Those Living with Thyroid Eye Disease Web-Based Support Group, Tuesday November 15th, 2022 at 6pm PST

Publications: 
  • 1 of my short poems was published in Bones, 24. 
  • 1 of my senryu was published in failed haiku, Volume 7, Issue 82. ​
  • 1 of my haiku was published in The Haiku Foundation's Haiku Dialogue on October 12th, 2022.
  • 1 of my haiku was published in Cold Moon Journal on October 14th, 2022.
  • 1 of my haiku was read on The Haiku Pea Podcast, S5E20.
  • 1 of my haiku was published in Haiku Seed Journal, Week #41. 
  • 1 of my haiku was published in The Haiku Foundation's Haiku Dialogue on October 19th, 2022. 
  • 1 of my senryu was published in horror senryu journal on October 21st, 2022. 
  • 1 of my haiku was published in Cattails, October 2022. 
  • 1 of my haiku was published in The Haiku Foundation's Haiku Dialogue on October 26th, 2022. 
  • 1 of my haiku was published in Stardust Haiku, Issue 70.
  • 1 of my senryu was published in Frogpond, 45.3.
  • 1 of my haiku was read on The Haiku Pond Podcast, 3.04. 

National Days: 
  • November 2nd is National Stress Awareness Day 
  • November 5th is National Donut Day 
  • November 6th Daylight Savings Time Ends
  • November 11th is Veterans Day 
  • November 13th is World Kindness Day 
  • November 14th is National Pickle Day 
  • November 19th is National Adoption Day 
  • November 24th is Thanksgiving
​
National Months:  
  • National Native American Heritage Month
  • National Adoption Month
  • Alzheimer's Awareness Month
  • National Diabetes Month
  • National Novel Writing Month

Dear Valued Community, 

Here we go...into the long dark. So now we must prepare for the long cold  nights of winter. Both transitions and losing hours of daylight can impact our well-being. Many people have seasonal affective disorder and experience low moods during the winter months. 

At the height of the pandemic, I learned how important it was to create a living space that I wanted to be in. Before the pandemic, everything exciting or special involved leaving the house. When we weren't able to leave our homes, it became necessary to occupy our time at home. The same thing applies to this time of year. How can you create the environment that you want to spend time in? Low light, candles, and lots of warm blankets are helpful. 

This is a time to remind ourselves that we are also members of the animal kingdom and like all animals our bodies are deeply connected to the seasons and the daylight. When there is less daylight our bodies will naturally be less active. This is not a failure and there is nothing wrong with us for being less productive or desiring to be home more in the winter. Give yourself permission to slow down. Enjoy a bowl of soup and a snuggle with your pet. 

With Gratitude, 

​Kerry ​
Picture
Washington State Capitol in Olympia, Washington

What I'm Reading Related for Therapy: My Inner Sky: On Embracing Day, Night, and All the Times in Between by Mari Andrew 

"From New York Times bestselling author Mari Andrew, a collection of essays and illustrations, divided into phases of the sky—twilight, golden hour, night, and dawn—that serves as a loyal companion for life's curveballs. 

A whole, beautiful life is only made possible by the wide spectrum of feelings that exist between joy and sorrow. In this insightful and warm book, writer and illustrator Mari Andrew explores all the emotions that make up a life, in the process offering insights about trauma and healing, the meaning of home and the challenges of loneliness, finding love in the most unexpected of places--from birds nesting on a sculpture to a ride on the subway--and a resounding case for why sometimes you have to put yourself in the path of magic.

My Inner Sky empowers us to transform everything that's happened to us into something meaningful, reassurance that even in our darkest times, there's light and beauty to be found."


What I'm Reading for Fun: The Plot: A Novel by Jean Hanff Korelitz 
​

"Jacob Finch Bonner was once a promising young novelist with a respectably published first book. Today, he’s teaching in a third-rate MFA program and struggling to maintain what’s left of his self-respect; he hasn’t written―let alone published―anything decent in years. When Evan Parker, his most arrogant student, announces he doesn’t need Jake’s help because the plot of his book in progress is a sure thing, Jake is prepared to dismiss the boast as typical amateur narcissism. But then . . . he hears the plot." 
​
(I'm a proud member of the sloth reading club, so what I'm reading will not always change monthly) ​
​
Projects: Self-development book on trauma and worthiness, submitting haiku & poetry, ongoing content for various publications. Considering next steps in career training: psychedelic assisted therapy, HeartMath training,  biblio/poetry therapy training, or yoga teacher training. ​
Picture
Statue in Olympia, Washington
Poem: 

After Awhile
by Veronica A. Shoffstall

After awhile you learn the subtle difference between 
holding a hand and chaining a soul, 
And you learn that love doesn’t mean leaning
And company doesn’t mean security. 

And you being to learn that kisses aren’t contracts 
And presents aren’t promises, 
And you begin to accept your defeats 
With your head up and your eyes open 
With the grace of a grown up, not the grief of a child, 

And you learn to build all your roads on today 
Because tomorrow’s ground is too uncertain for plans 
And futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight

After awhile you learn that even sunshine burns 
if you get too much 
So you plant your own garden and decorate your own soul, 
Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers. 

And you learn 
That you really can endure, 
That you really are strong, 
And that you really do have worth. 

And you learn and learn
With every good-bye you learn. 
Picture
Port of Olympia, Washington

Quote: "If this isn’t nice, what is?" - Kurt Vonnegut 
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    Welcome

    I'm Kerry (She/Her/Hers) and I am a licensed therapist, group facilitator, poet, writer, & speaker. This is a place to acknowledge and validate our suffering and trauma, while also learning how to turn toward aliveness and spaciousness. 

    Kerry J Heckman

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