Sabrina Hanan (she/her)

PTSD and C-PTSD are diagnoses that the majority of my clients have had at some point in their lives. I am diagnosed with PTSD and understand first hand and from my clients the many ways it shapes our lives. From the internal family systems lens, PTSD is a strategy to keep the fragile and vulnerable parts of ourselves from being harmed again. Working within this framework can be very healing.

Depression and anxiety have become one of the most effective strategies to protect ourselves from the increasingly intense destructive forces of events around the world and particularly here in America. And it can also debilitate us and prevent us from living our best lives given the circumstances we have. Working within the frameworks of neurobiology and internal family systems we can use our depressive and anxious parts of ourselves to help us cope but not keep us from living our lives.

My neurodivergence has made my life very difficult. When I was a child in the 1960s, there was no understanding of the way I experience the world. I feel so very fortunate now to be able to talk openly about my ND and help my ND clients find their best path forward in the lives they choose. Interpersonal neurobiology has been the most effective approach according to my ND clients in their work with me.

Through years of working with those who survived being trafficked, I discovered they reported the most positive experiences with me because I am naturally a neutral person who gives unconditional positive regard as just part of who I am in the world. I hold equanimity and acceptance as the core of what I bring to the safe space I create with my clients.

Becoming certified in IFS has become a really challenging endeavor. Fortunately, I have found many wonderful opportunities for training and experience. I have my own IFS Level 3 therapist and am working peer to peer with a long time LCSW. I currently use IFS with all my clients who are willing. Hands down it is the most amazingly magically fantastic way to heal trauma from current life experiences and intergenerational trauma.

I have spent many hours being trained in IPNB. It is the most powerfully hopeful approach I have ever encountered in all the 42years I have been working with people. Absolutely no question, research has proven we can reshape the connections in our brain which then reshapes our mind throughout our lives. I am so very grateful to be able to tell my clients that whatever they do not like about their lives right now, they have the ability inside themselves to change it right now.

For over 20 years I worked as a contractor to LE to help the survivors and families of MMIW. Intergenerational trauma was always evident as a result of historical, religious and political abuses by those in power over Indigenous persons. I have also helped other persons with historical and intergenerational trauma who have been first generation US citizens and illegals. Internal family systems is the approach I have found most effective to help heal intergenerational and historical trauma.