Ryan Maher, LCPC

Before creating Inner World Therapy, Ryan practiced for three years at Watch Hill Therapy, a group of therapists who specialize in the treatment of trauma. During this time he enhanced his skills as a trauma therapist and gave workshops on the intersection of trauma with the body, mind, and psyche as well as the use of dreams in psychotherapy. Prior to Watch Hill, Ryan worked at a treatment facility for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. This experience provided a comprehensive understanding of mental health, human behavior, and ways to create meaningful change in both our inner and outer lives. Ryan has spent a significant amount of time living and studying in different countries and values the diversity in human experience and culture. As a certified yoga teacher, Ryan has over a decade of experience working with the mind-body relationship. He is a certified hypnotherapist and has completed a two year training program in Jungian Psychotherapy at the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago. Ryan is a member of the National Board of Certified Counselors, The American Counseling Association, The International Association of Yoga Therapists, and The Breathe Network.

As a psychotherapist I approach treatment from a place that honors the unconscious/shadow elements of our experience and seeks to integrate this into conscious awareness to promote synthesis, empowerment, and wholeness. To allow for this type of transformation and healing, I utilize the therapeutic relationship as the primary mechanism for change. Within this relationship I find the use of dreams, archetypal phenomena, narrative, felt-sense, mindfulness, and somatic-oriented experiences as effective.

Drawing upon my study of psychology, and specifically trauma, as well as my years practicing and teaching yoga, I also offer trauma-informed yoga instruction to survivors on both an individual level and in groups. Through trauma-informed yoga, my goal is to empower survivors to feel safer connecting with their bodies. Understanding that the body contains a narrative, and developing the ability to listen to this narrative, is an integral part of trauma-informed yoga. The main intention is to help individuals feel capable of residing more fully in their embodied, here and now experience of life.

Trauma can be experienced in many forms and is more common than often believed. At its essence, trauma is a deeply disturbing and disempowering experience that threatens our sense of autonomy, safety, and place in the world. I have worked with survivors of both sexual violence and general trauma in several capacities. At Live Oak and Simply Counseling, I worked with survivors of sexual violence and general trauma through individual psychotherapy. In addition, I have experience working at a residential home for individuals with severe mental illness including: schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and bi-polar disorder. All of the individuals at this facility have survived some form of trauma, and unfortunately in most cases, several forms of trauma. At this facility I created a 3-month long meditation group and also a 3-month long yoga group. Both groups met once a week with the intention to create a safe enough space for individuals to experience the present moment in a non-threatening way and to re-inhabit their body and breath. Through first establishing safety anchors I sought to create a neutral option for individuals to utilize if they felt triggered. Once several options for safety anchors were established, I invited participants to explore various forms/styles of meditation including guided visualizations, silent meditation, mindfulness meditation, the use of sound (singing bowls, bells, etc.) and also yoga nidra. In the yoga group, I guide participants through stretches and poses with the aim of creating new embodied experiences that re-pattern neurological and somatic responses and associations.