Peggy Pace

Professional Life
Peggy Pace graduated from the University of Washington in 1969 with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. She eventually returned to school and achieved her master’s in Counseling Psychology in 1985 from Antioch University. Pace has spent much of her career counseling individuals who suffer from symptoms of childhood trauma. In 2002, she developed the Lifespan Integration technique. This technique, which integrates the body and mind through imagination, allows a person to address various ego states from specific points in time in order to work most expeditiously and effectively with the emotions related to the trauma.

Pace published her groundbreaking book, Lifespan Integration: Connecting Ego States through Time, in 2003. She currently travels throughout the world advocating for and teaching Lifespan Integration, while maintaining her own practice in Washington State. Pace has lectured throughout the country, and has been asked to present her theory and technique at conferences for organizations including the EMDR Association of Canada, the EMDR International Association, and the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology.

Contribution to Psychology
Lifespan Integration (LI) was developed by Peggy Pace as a therapeutic process to help adult survivors of childhood trauma, specifically, neglect and abuse. Pace realized, after years of working with this segment of the population, that LI often resulted in a rapid decrease in symptoms. The technique relies on the body’s own ability to heal itself through somatic and psychological means. When a client begins LI, they are guided through a visual timeline of their life. The technique elicits unconscious memories and gives the client and therapist the opportunity to relate specific emotional states to individual memories. By seeing their life from this perspective, a client is able to clearly identify behavior patterns that have developed as a result of specific traumas, and begin to make changes to those patterns.

Individuals who suffer with attachment issues can benefit from LI as well. By using the imagination to re-experience past traumas and situations, the client is able to create a new and more positive life experience. This results in the client exhibiting healthier emotions related to the new experience. People who undergo LI see dramatic changes in their response to everyday stressors. Trauma can create a level of psychological immaturity for survivors, and LI teaches clients how to react in more age-appropriate and mature ways to circumstances in their lives.