A Conversation About Healing, the Nervous System, and Why You’re Not Broken
With Kimberly Castle & Petra Birgit Nielsen
In this honest and thoughtful conversation, Kimberly Castle and Petra Birgit Nielsen explore what therapy really looks like, how the nervous system shapes our reactions, and why so many of our struggles make sense when we understand how we learned to survive.
Rather than focusing on “fixing” symptoms, both counsellors emphasize meeting clients with compassion, curiosity, and respect for the ways they’ve already adapted to life’s challenges.
Healing Starts With Safety and Non‑Judgment
Both Kim and Petra agree that the most important part of therapy is helping clients feel safe, welcome, and not judged. People don’t walk into therapy broken — they walk in carrying stories, experiences, and coping strategies that once helped them survive.
Therapy becomes a place to:
Share your story without shame
Feel understood instead of analyzed
Explore what’s no longer working — without blaming yourself
As Kim explains, shifting from self‑criticism to self‑curiosity opens the door to real change.
Coping Strategies Are Programs — and They Can Be Upgraded
Petra describes the unconscious mind like a computer running background programs. Many of our beliefs, habits, and emotional responses were “written” when we were young — and they may not fit who we are today.
Through hypnotherapy and trauma‑informed approaches, therapy helps clients:
Discover what beliefs are driving reactions
Understand why those patterns once made sense
Gently update what no longer serves them
Just like software, your system isn’t wrong — it may just need an upgrade.
When Your Mind Says “I’m Fine” but Your Body Disagrees
Kim brings in a somatic perspective, highlighting something many people experience:
You may logically know you’re safe — but your body still reacts as if you aren’t.
This disconnect happens when the nervous system is still responding to past threats. Trauma isn’t just stored in memory — it’s stored in physiological response patterns like fight, flight, freeze, or fawn.
Somatic and nervous‑system‑based therapy helps people:
Notice bodily reactions instead of fighting them
Create pauses between trigger and reaction
Learn new, safer ways of responding to stress
The goal isn’t to force calm — it’s to help the body learn safety again.
Resistance Isn’t the Enemy — It’s Information
Resistance often shows up in therapy — and both Kim and Petra see this as meaningful, not problematic.
Rather than pushing past resistance, they:
Get curious about what feels unsafe
Respect protective parts of the nervous system
Celebrate the part of the client that showed up anyway
As Petra points out, if part of you came to therapy, that already tells an important story about your readiness for change.
Therapy Doesn’t Have to Be Serious All the Time
One of the most refreshing parts of the conversation is their reminder that therapy can include:
Humor
Lightness
Genuine human connection
Laughter can build safety, deepen trust, and remind people they are more than their pain. Healing doesn’t have to be heavy every moment — sometimes it’s about reconnecting with joy and self‑compassion too.
You’re Not Broken — You’re Human
One of the strongest shared messages from Kim and Petra:
You are not broken.
You are running on patterns that once kept you safe.
Therapy isn’t about erasing who you are — it’s about helping you adapt your coping strategies to the life you’re living now.
And while some changes happen quickly, others take time — especially when those patterns have been in place for decades. Growth is not instant, but it is possible.
Watch the Full Conversation
In this 30‑minute video, Kim and Petra explore:
How trauma lives in the nervous system
How hypnotherapy and somatic therapy complement each other
Why resistance is protective — not wrong
What therapy really feels like behind the scenes
