Lifespan Integration

Year Founded: 2002

Model of Therapy: Lifespan Integration

Available training types: In Person

Lifespan Integration, a body-based form of therapy, heals without causing additional trauma. Although Lifespan Integration therapy (LI) was developed out of Pace’s extensive work with adult clients who have survived childhood neglect or abuse, LI was quickly found to be equally effective in facilitating rapid healing for a broad spectrum of mental health conditions and can be used successfully with people at various stages of life.

LI focuses on the body-mind’s extraordinary capacity for self-healing. LI utilizes active client imagination, the placing of ego states in time in juxtaposition, and a visual representative of a time line of memories to boost neural integration and facilitate healing. In the course of the integrating portion of LI, the client recalls a memory as an image for every year of his/her life. Through the practice of LI, memories surface spontaneously and because people hold memories neurologically in a particular way, each memory is related in some way to either the emotional theme or a specific issue being worked on. As a result a vivid panoramic view of the client's life emerges and gives new insights around lifelong patterns resulting from past trauma.

LI can also be very effective in the healing process of various attachment disorders. This is accomplished through using imagination to 're-write' and 're-live' the early conditions, while integrating new and positive feeling states generated through the client-therapist dyad. Post LI therapy, clients experience themselves reacting to life’s stressors in more age appropriate ways. Even for people who begin LI therapy with memory gaps, the therapeutic process allows them to connect the memories or pieces of their lives into a cohesive whole. Clients who complete LI therapy report that they feel better about their lives in general, exhibit more self acceptance, and enjoy their intimate relationships more.