Meet Jake
Become your greatest source of personal strength and self-confidence through the process of releasing trauma from your past.
I can help you begin this life-changing and heart-opening journey.
My story of healing…
The most impactful thing I offer to aide in other people’s healing is my own story, my life experience, and the struggles that I waded through and continue to address in my own life, when I sit with a client to address the life experiences, sensations, emotions, and thoughts that are shared in session.
It is my own personal story and healing process that is able to meet a client just where they are.
Maybe our stories can be a source of connection rather than a reason to hide, shut down, protect, and struggle through life. Maybe our traumas can lead us to connection and authenticity when we have the courage to share and express ourselves.
My recovery and healing began when I was 18 years old. At this time I was dealing with low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, lack of direction, OCD, and a debilitating search for external value and approval. I was desperate for relief and answers. I did not realize that I was searching for tools and resources to help me repair my relationship with myself.
I knew deep down that suffering was not my purpose. I was not meant to struggle through the symptoms of an overwhelmed nervous system. This little insight that I was not meant to suffer ended up giving me hope that my life could change. I started to search for ways to address the emotions and sensations that I held inside and I searched for approaches that could support me to address the mental aspect of myself that created low self esteem and limiting beliefs.
There was a part of me that cared enough about me to desire answers, a part of me that wanted me to be whole and balanced. I was able to accept that I had very little resources or knowledge on how to connect with my body, very little capacity to address my emotions, and a limited knowledge on how my current symptoms were connected to my nervous system and past trauma.
This deep intuitive desire to heal myself began to lead me in a direction. I enrolled in a two-year certification program at White Winds Institute of Energy Medicine. The school offered an education in the Art and Science of Energy Medicine. Knowing that I needed a deeper understanding of healing, I enrolled in the two-year program with the hope of addressing the traumas in my life that had contributed to my current symptoms.
At White Winds I found a compassionate space and a teacher in Dr. Fernand Poulin that could help me to address the ways that I held onto past trauma. At White Winds the students sat in a circle together and in this space we were taught how to be present for one another.
This space was the first environment that I felt safe enough to open up and share my feelings and emotions with others. In this space I started to learn how to engage with my nervous system through following the response of my body.
I began to see the benefit of staying present for my feelings and sensations as a way to release stress and regulate my nervous system. Gaining awareness and somatic approaches to self regulate plus the support of a group; made my past trauma and overwhelm feel less impactful and safer to approach. Seeing others with similar past experiences helped me to feel connected and to see that while I also have trauma it is not something that I have to hold alone or feel ashamed of.
As I moved through my two year education I felt more comfortable in my own skin and life became more manageable. Through White Winds and through the support that I received, I began to feel lighter, calmer, and more centered with in myself.
While I was receiving so much positive energy from White Winds Institute I was also learning about Energetic Medicine. I learned the anatomy of the energetic systems of the body such as the energetic field and chakra systems, how to listen and intuit into the energetics of the body to adjust and unwind stuck patterns within the autonomic nervous system, how to cleanse and adjust the chakra system and to help clients understand how life circumstances may have affected the flow of energy through their nervous system, I learned how to work with the energetics of the organs to support and unwind stress, tension, and stagnation that can be held in the major system or the body. I studied how to reconnect clients to core aspects of themselves that had been neglected because of life circumstances and trauma; reconnecting to their core aliveness and freedom. I also gained an understanding of how to support the autonomic nervous system through somatic touch work and the laying on of hands.
I graduated from White Winds with a deep understanding of how to support myself and with the knowledge and confidence to help others in their own healing journey.
Stepping into private practice
In 2013, I started my private practice, Jake White Healing LLC. Over the past ten years, I have worked with individuals from all over the world in six different continents through private 1 on 1 sessions and group programs. Through my practice, I have cultivated an educational, compassionate, and therapeutic space for individuals to learn about their nervous system and how to address current symptoms of trauma through a somatic approach.
My desire to learn about trauma, the nervous system, and healing led me to enroll at the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute to complete a three-year certification to become a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner. Through the program, I have benefitted and learned from the 40 years of successful clinical practice and professional research of Doctor Peter Levine, the founder of Somatic Experiencing.
SE offers a vast scientific approach to trauma healing and specific techniques to help clients heal from trauma such as falls, sexual abuse, childhood neglect, medical interventions, car accidents, first responder or military trauma, birth trauma, or relational or emotional abuse.
SE has taught me how to offer a respectful, gentle, slow, and gradual approach to helping individuals connect with their physical body to release the complex survival reactions that are generated from traumatic events, all while empowering them to be their own greatest source of healing and regulation. I am a graduate of the three-year program at the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute.
My Personal Recovery through somatic experiencing:
Somatic Experiencing taught me how to look and my healing from the lens of the nervous system. I learned that during trauma the nervous system is forced into states of fight, flight, and freeze.
During traumatic experiences in my past I was completely overwhelmed and my body was mobilizing an extreme amount of energy to deal with these circumstances.
Somatic Experiencing taught me the importance of slowing down, grounding myself, locating places of safety in my body, and visiting my stress response through small doses at a time. Learning how to regulate my nervous system through my bodily sensations led to more self-awareness, gentleness, less reactivity, a reduction in anxious thoughts, and a greater sense of safety within myself. My past stories of trauma were quick, big, jagged, and fragmenting and somatic experiencing brought slowness and safety to my nervous system.
In the Present
My journey of personal growth and education has led me to living on a farm in West Virginia with my two sons Luke and Abel and my wife Elli. I travel to my office in Winchester Virginia to meet with clients over zoom and in person. When I am not working I am usually outside playing with my boys and taking care of our Cabin next to the Capon River. I love hiking next to the river, feeling my feet on the earth, following the sensations of my nervous system, and finding stability through this connection. I once felt disconnected because of my trauma and I can now see myself as a consistent source of support and stability.
I hope your past trauma can become a source of reconnection and healing for you. To see that trauma is a part of your life and so is healing and recovery. Trauma led me into a journey of healing and I am grateful for my past. I hope in some large or small ways I can be a part of your healing story.
Credentials
Ten Years of Private Practice.
10 years of teaching and leading group programs and classes on Self Forgiveness, Polyvagal theory, Somatic Experiencing, Meditation, and body centered approaches to healing and recovery.
Completion of the Three Year Training Program at The Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute.
Two-Year Certification from White Winds Institute of Energy Medicine.
Level 1 training in TEB Transfroming the Experienced Based Brain a touched based technique developed by Stephen Terrell for early developmental trauma.
Specialization for working with sexual trauma and shame through Ariel Giaretto’s Advanced Strategies for Working with Sexual Trauma and Sexuality.
Six-Week Internal Family Systems Immersion Course: Integrating Internal Family Systems Across Clinical Applications.