Cynthia Djengue is a Reiki Master, Mindfulness Practitioner and Teacher and Integrative Coach licensed in Arizona and Oregon. In this special interview for MysticMag, Cynthia explains her work and how it’s connected with relationships. Don’t miss our talk!
What is the difference of integrative therapy to other therapies regarding the healing process and also the sessions?
Integrative Therapy combines psycho-therapeutic strategies and techniques to provide clients a more holistic approach. Therapy is not necessarily considered healing, rather it is clinical. Healing can be sensed or felt as an outcome of therapy. Therapy is a relationship that is dynamic. Some of these relationships are short term (a few months) to long term (more than a few years). Outcomes are measured by the Treatment Plan of goals and objectives, but also by testing and the client’s verbal feedback.
I trust the client to know when they are “finished” with therapy, although many clients come back after months or years to check back in with a new issue. Thus, the door is never shut, rather, clients and I build trust with one another, and it’s important to be available to them if they feel they need me.
Can you present to us the services that you offer?
As a LCSW in Arizona and Oregon, I provide clinical therapy services through telehealth/virtual therapy. My clientele is diverse. I help individuals and couples through ages 14 – 80. I assist clients in repairing relationships, becoming more mindful, reacting less and responding more, filling their PIESSS (my own model), and communicating boundaries, while gaining clarity.
I support the LGBQT population strongly, as well as clients in poly or open lifestyle relationships. I help clients with symptoms and management of anxiety, ADHD, caregiver burnout, relationship and childhood trauma, grief/loss, and marriage and family issues. I am certified as a Reiki Master, Mindfulness Practitioner and Teacher, Integrative Coach, and teach at a local Community College.
Why the hummingbird? I’m really curious about that!
I was walking home with my daughter one evening, she was very young and happened to spot a Baby Hummingbird on the ground, near a tree. I noticed it wasn’t moving much, and my daughter made a little bed and I created a dropper with sugar water.
This baby Hummingbird slept right near me, in the home-made bed over a heating pad on low heat. It was magical that this tiny creature would trust us like this. I discovered Hummingbird as my totem animal with a strong meaning at that time in my life. bringing Joy and being “in the moment.”
You mention the challenges of relationships in your website. How do I know when a relationship (family, friend, even work relationship) requires work or is it just negative?
Many clients come to therapy with relationship issues of all kinds. Clients will identify they feel burnt out, or have strong emotions toward a partner or boss, or parent or coworker. Clients eventually discover their strong emotions are human, but do not necessarily feel these emotions are manageable. Strong anxiety, anger, or depression can occur. This is when clients find therapy helpful, that they aren’t “crazy” or imagining the poor treatment of others, or that they have more ability to manage their emotional reaction once we start reviewing some educational information, and start choosing new behaviors.
Negativity can definitely be part of relationships, but is not preferred by most. Thus, clients and I sort out whether or not the relationship is inherently negative, or if one or both parties are bringing communication, attitudes, and behavior that creates or enhances the negativity. It isn’t always straigtforward. Therapy is a process that assists a client in discovering their own, and other’s, participation in relationship frustration or breakdown.
How does the HeartMath interventions help in your work and improve the client’s results?
Heart Math is a unique tool for creating increased mindfulness of mind-body connection with several tool options that measure heart rate.
What can be treated using HeartMath?
Heart Math has its own website and pages full of helpful information. It can treat a bigger list than I want to put here. It has expansive possibility in helping trauma, mind body connection, reducing stress response, and enhancing intellect, calm demeanor, clarity, and other mental and physiological outcomes. It’s relatively inexpensive and I recommend it for almost anyone.
Do you have a special message to our audience in these challenging times?
Times are always challenging. I think some years or decades bring new or different challenges, but not necessarily challenges that are insurmountable.
Clients impress me every day. The human being, homosapien, is full of incredible potential. People need to be reminded of this potential, their strengths, and the fact that they can always choose breath. Breathwork is available to us all. Mindfulness is difficult to practice, but is within reach, inside of all of us. Taking 1-3 minutes a day to connect to breath will eventually make you feel better in itself. I also teach clients that integration and balance, internally, is also key.
You will benefit from social connection as well. As a culture, we have new disease of loneliness. Be sure to connect with others, especially those that enhance life and make you feel joy.
