I have been doing EMDR for four years. After two L.I. sessions I had dramatic results. The second session went back to birth and the focus was fear of failure that has always paralyzed me and made it very difficult for me to function. By the end of the session the huge weight of constantly fighting the overwhelming sense that I would certainly fail anything I did was gone. I now take on the challenges of graduate school and all areas of my life with an ease and confidence that I had never experienced before the Lifespan Integration session.
L.C., Seattle, WA

Peggy, I also want to say thank you to for creating this process and sharing it with so many. We adopted a young 6 year old child last year. Turns out his issues deeply triggered mine. I was not interested in re-engaging in ‘talk therapy’. If something had not changed, this boy would have been back in foster care as I was unable to deal with his issues. I tried LI with little hope. With each session I was able to better handle being around our son. After 4 months I was able to stop treatment and begin to bond with this little boy. Now, almost one year after his coming to our home, we are in the process of finalizing the adoption. We are a happy, well functioning family. I truly believe this would not have happened without LI.

And, even better, my son is doing LI to overcome the abuse, neglect, and abandonment issues he has with being removed from his birth home at age 5. His adoption worker is absolutely amazed at the progress he has made. She commented that she had not seen a child overcome and bond so quickly given all he had been through. This process may have literally saved this little boy’s life, and I know it has allowed us to become a family. Cathy Thorpe is the therapist we have worked with.

So, again, thanks!
S.D., Redmond, WA

Lifespan Integration has enabled me to finally make positive traction in behaviors I've wanted to change but have felt powerless over, even with traditional therapy. After a few LI sessions following a relapse of bulimia, I stopped having the urge to induce vomiting. Literally, within a few weeks, I went from accepting my eating disorder as a viable coping mechanism to abhorring the idea of binging and purging. I've been in recovery now for over 6 months and know that bulimic behavior is simply not an option when I am upset or feel out-of-control. I have started to have similar successes surrounding other negative 'tapes" I want to be free from- guilt, shame, childhood memories/responses that I inappropriately invoke and reenact in my adult life. Now that we have introduced LI into the therapeutic process, I can feel and see positive results within weeks, as opposed to months and years.
S.R.S., Seattle, WA

Journal Entries of M.A., Seattle, after her first LI session 10-18-04

10-19-04
After yesterday's LI session, I feel rejuvenated. I feel that this very heavy weight has fallen off my shoulders. I see everything brighter (literally), with a more positive outlook on life and I don't seem to be dwelling on the past. Negative memories with emotions (especially due to recent events) come up, however, they seem to be outweighed by positive thoughts which automatically follow (my other side of the brain brings up positive thoughts which creates a positive outlook and hope) and I am not spending hours dwelling on negative thoughts which just seemed to get worse and worse the more I thought about them. Incredible! I have come to a realization that I have to take care of myself and do things that make me happy outside my relationship but at the same time keep tuned into my relationship 100%.

10-21-04
For the past few days, I have been feeling great. When negative thoughts come up, they don't stay…..my mind just tells me not to worry about it and as long as there is progress that's something to look at.

10-25-04
Over all, still feeling great --- is this treatment going to have a lasting effect? What happened to my almost daily pessimism, crying, sadness, neediness for the past 7 months or so? I am no longer feeling guilty about what "I" have done and why we are in the situation we're in. I am focusing on creating what I want in a relationship instead of what is not happening. I no longer feel sorry for myself. I am focusing more on myself now, taking care of myself physically and mentally and I am able to do that because I came to a realization that I am a great person and I am responsible for my own happiness. I no longer dwell on PAST issues. Things that are currently bothering me are current issues, but instead of dwelling on what I am not getting, I try to think about all the good things that are happening. As a result, I do notice a difference in the way _______ responds to me. He has been more intimately responsive and caring because I think that all my negative emotions have been a constant reminder to him of what he may not be giving me or feeling 100%. I am focusing on "one step at a time" and looking for progress. And it is there.

Hi Peggy: About two weeks ago I had a final LI session with Nasrin Rousta. She asked if I would be willing to share with you a bit about my experience, and I responded, “Yes!” So, here I am. I will say what I need to say, and you can use it however it suits you. I am not known for brevity!

I began with Nasrin in August of 2007, and we saw each other a total of 15 times, I believe – that’s all!

Without giving detail, I can tell you that based on my childhood, I was probably suffering from some level of PTSD. From the age of 14 (1974) until 2004, I had been in and out of traditional psychotherapy with I don’t know how many therapists. I also was in group therapy for a couple of years fairly recently. Never did the tiny thin thread of misery which ran through my life disappear, however.

I went through a traumatic relationship breakup in 2004, and that’s when I quit one-on-one counseling. (Yes, I quit therapy when society [and my friends & family] would tell me I needed it the most. I quit for one reason – I was tired of talking. I looked back over the years of therapy and found myself physically ill – I was tired of talking, tired of analyzing, tired of spinning my wheels.) I was miserably depressed and despondent about my break-up, even though it was at my initiation.

Group therapy, on the other hand, actually helped me. I participated wholeheartedly (never missed a session) and reaped the benefits. Still, going into this time of the loss of my relationship with my boyfriend brought many deep and sorrowful feelings to the surface that I had hoped – and thought – were gone. It was very old stuff. (I learned well the difference between “old” stuff and “new” stuff and can easily distinguish between them when I’m feeling negative feelings.)

I stayed in this sorrowful way for a long time – way too long (my diary details it). Somehow, after a couple of years, I made it out and moved on. Still, I felt there was “more”, and I wasn’t sure how to get it. Finally, in a recent relationship it hit me that there had to be an answer for me. Something would happen, the “old” stuff would pop up, out of the blue, unexpectedly, from left field. It was like being sideswiped in a car – I wouldn’t see it coming. Once it surfaced, I acknowledged it as “old” stuff, and wondered, “When, oh when, will this be resolved?”

I saw that I was stuck, but for the first time, I also suddenly believed that I could get unstuck. I’m not sure where that feeling came from, and I’m grateful for it. It sent me on a new path. Maybe just having that positive thought opened up possibilities for me??

Anyway, what led me to LI was my naturopath, Dr. Sheila Dunn-Merritt. I’ve been consulting her over the years for many issues related to diet and health. She’s also been a kind of pseudo-psychotherapist for me, in addition to being a truly warm, loving, and encouraging person in my life.

When I was visiting her office last summer, she suggested I might be a prime candidate for LI, which I’d never heard of before. In a roundabout way, I found Nasrin, and now here I am. No thread of misery runs through my life. I can’t even connect to that concept!

After the very first session with Nasrin, I knew I had found something different, something that was going to work, something that once and for all was going to give me back my life. And it did!

Before LI I viewed – and experienced – my life in chunks. In fact, when Nasrin asked me to make my timeline for our first session, it was difficult for me to think in terms of how old I was vs. the year something happened. My life was in chunks of time – years – and I kept having to count my way forward or backward in my head to figure out how old I was at the time she would say aloud. Over time, I had detached age from my life experiences.

I quickly saw the benefit in the “movie” concept. I lost the chunk experience and began to feel integrated. I began to feel whole, rather than segmented. The process of the “movie” alone helped me tremendously to integrate my chunky separate selves!

Through the integration process I saw the ebb and flow of my life. I saw that my life had purpose and meaning. It hadn’t been a series of random acts – which I either instigated or which were instigated upon me – something I had believed for so long. There actually was an underlying current which moved me along, a lifeforce, I suppose. I no longer felt fragmented or separate from myself. This alone made me feel safe, secure, and very powerful, too. And that’s the place from where my healing came.

I’m happier than I’ve ever been. Finding LI and Nasrin took me from a mediocre life into a wondrous life of endless possibilities. I mention Nasrin because our work together is what brought me success. Nasrin is a loving, caring, insightful, and committed person – committed to her work and to her clients. We really clicked in our sessions, and that made all the difference for me.

Thanks, Peggy, for your dedication to the process and to your clients. You took a courageous risk in 2000, and now the rest of us can do the same to reclaim our lives.

Thanks for “listening”.
L.B.
Renton, WA
3-20-2008

I feel compelled to share how LI has cured (yes I said cured) my life-long eating disorder, constant anxiety, panic attacks and insomnia. My LI sessions are intense and sometimes difficult to get through, but the results are phenomenal.

Since I was 15 years old I have struggled on and off with eating disorders, switching back and forth between bulimia and compulsive overeating. It was a never ending battle of willpower, of weight gain and weight loss.

The anxiety was also a never ending plague. I remember having panic attacks even as a child, not knowing what was happening to me as my heart raced roaring in my ears and my breath felt impossible to catch. These would eventually pass, but the night terrors and constant fear did not. I never felt safe, not even in my own skin.

The night was sometimes unbearable. I would sleepwalk, or wake up drenched in sweat and fear, or scream yelling in a rage that shocked me as I woke. Eventually I didn't sleep at all.

After about a year of LI, concentrating mostly on the birth to present protocol, I no longer obsess about food. I never dreamed that eating normally could be so easy and effortless. I don't need willpower. I don't want more and more and more. The irresistible urge to binge and purge is gone. I don't have to live "one day at a time" anymore.

I finally feel safe. I've never felt safe before. It feels delicious and warm and fuzzy inside, like a bird snuggled safely in her nest.

The panic attacks are gone. I can't remember the last time my heart felt as if it were going to explode in my chest, like the world was turning upside down as acid slowly crept up my throat. Sometimes I forget I ever had them.

I don't wake up in panics, checking the locks on my doors and windows in the middle of the night. I sleep. I go to bed early. I don't lay awake all night waiting for the sun to rise. I no longer take a nightly regimen of sleeping or anxiety pills.

It sounds cliché, but you’ve changed my life. Lifespan has changed my life.

Thank you.
C.B.
Louisiana
April 2008

After having suffered severe back pain, I have undergone physical therapy, and I have had various doctor examinations and two MRI's. The results from my medical tests and exams showed minor disk degeneration in my back and some arthritis, but there was nothing that seemed to be causing my severe back pain. I was then referred to Peggy Pace for Lifespan Integration Therapy.

When I first started LI therapy, I was using heavy medications (morphine, vicodin) and muscle relaxants for my back pain, and during physical therapy I found it difficult to do some of the exercises. In particular, any exercises where I had to use my pelvic and abdominal areas. I just couldn't feel how to do the exercises. I was detached from these parts of my body.

Now that I have been doing LI therapy to work through some of my sexual and emotional abuse issues from my past, I am doing some major emotional healing. I find that now I can " feel" how to work on my abdominal and pelvic exercises. I am no longer detached from these parts of my body. I also am taking less pain medication. I am no longer needing to take morphine and only occasionally need to take vicodin. I feel that LI therapy is helping me heal the many wounds from my past. With Peggy Pace's help, I am sure that I will become a wholly integrated and happier individual. My sincerest gratitude and thanks to Peggy for having developed LI therapy, and for sharing her wisdom and insights with me and her many other patients! LI therapy really works! I would recommend to anyone!

H. in central Washington
6-29-08