About Cheryl Cebula
Education
I graduated with a Masters degree in Social Work in 1981 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I began my training as a couple and family therapist in the shadow of Carl Whittaker—one of the founding fathers of family therapy. In the years since, I have worked as a therapist in both public and private practice.
As a graduate student in 1979, I was riveted by the radical ideas (at that time) of family therapy and the critical importance of relationships in the development of symptoms and in the healing of those symptoms. That interest began an exploration into the nature of interdependence, a life long interest and curiosity, which continues today.
Family Systems Focus
As a couple and family therapist, I have been aware of how the web of relationships, the interdependence of family members, the intergenerational family history, and the braiding together of family beliefs and behavior were powerful enough to heal or to hurt in unimagined and unexpected ways. My experience with families and the power of intergenerational legacies led to my collaboration in Intensive Family of Origin Consultations with my colleague Dr. Timothy Weber.
My psychotherapeutic work has expanded since 1998 to include attention to the mind-body connection, as I was initially influenced by Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Program. His work and research utilizing mindfulness practice to help patients live with painful and sometime fatal illness has been a significant influence in my work with clients. The often quoted Buddhist saying, ‘Suffering in life is inevitable, misery is optional’ has led me to work more directly with clients around the stories they generate about their life, their experience, their relationships, their worthiness. The desire to explore mindfulness and awareness led to yoga—a mindfulness practice in the body.
After six years of practicing yoga, I took a two-year yoga teacher training in 2002, and I now weave aspects of yoga into my work with clients as an adjunct to treatment. I may help a client to use breathing practices to increase awareness and accessibility of their breath, to decrease anxiety and panic, or to help develop concentration. I may suggest restorative yoga postures for symptoms of depression or exhaustion, stress, grief and bereavement. For other problems, I might teach postures which enhance an experience of strength, calmness or steadiness. Research on the powerful effects of mindfulness practice has been conducted on healing, chronic and acute pain, eating disorders, drug addiction, immune function, depression and even obsessive-compulsive disorders. I may teach mindfulness practices to clients in the session and encourage the use of them as a resource, or I may recommend they contact resources in the community.
Couples work and the Attachment Lens on Relationship
My work with clients also reflects the latest research in attachment theory and interpersonal neurobiology. What fascinated me in graduate school regarding the centrality of relationships to one’s well being is now being studied extensively—and the importance of our primary relationships on our health and wellbeing is well documented.(See Dan Siegel's work.) We now know that our ability to be accessible, responsive and engaged with our children and our adult partners can change our neurological systems. The ability to be ‘attuned’ to oneself and to the other is not just interesting—it is critical. Without this attunement and connection, people become distressed and symptomatic. With it, people change, heal, and can flourish. My current work with couples is based on Emotionally Focused Couples’ Therapy (EFT)—the work of Dr. Susan Johnson of the University of Ottawa. This couple’s work focuses on secure attachment and the emotional link between partners and uses the emotions as resource rather than interference or problem.
Gratitude to the Spiritual Teachers
The guidance, teaching, writing, and example of Spirit Rock Vipassana meditation teachers including Phillip Moffitt, Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg, Steven Armstrong,and Julie Wester—have all been profoundly influential in my own evolution as a person and psychotherapist.