Counselor helps couples, families

Last updated 9/14/2022 at Noon

Rosimery Bergeron

Our minds and our bodies are not separate — they are a deeply and intricately integrated system. When we experience stress and trauma, it can manifest itself in a multitude of physical symptoms. And when our bodies face a chronic condition, it can affect our mentality and emotions.

Rosimery Bergeron, a licensed professional counselor out of Camp Sherman and Bend, works with that integrated system to relieve stress and trauma, enhance well-being, and improve relationships. She works with individual adults, children and adolescents, couples and families.

“Basically, it is helping people connect with their body and process emotion through that connection,” she said.

High levels of stress can cause us to lose the ability to regulate our nervous system response. That can negatively affect our digestion, our sleep, and our ability to manage and process our emotions. Those effects can, in turn, exacerbate stress.

Through a variety of techniques, including breathing and movement, Bergeron can help clients learn to “down regulate” their nervous system, managing responses to stress.

Bergeron, who has been practicing since 1989, did her undergraduate and post-graduate work in psychology and clinical psychology in Brazil. She has since attained a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling and, in 2020, became a Somatic Experiencing practitioner.

“This particular technique is particularly focused on healing trauma,” Bergeron said of Somatic Experiencing, which she describes as an advanced modality. “I work with different types of trauma.”

Somatic Experiencing seeks to treat trauma by allowing the body to fully process a traumatic event. Bergeron helps identify and work through “what was the survivor response that was not possible at the moment of the trauma.”

People who have experienced profound stress or trauma may often find that their nervous system has, to some degree, “shut down.”

“We need to bring back the flow of the life energy,” Bergeron said.

People experiencing chronic health conditions are under a particular kind of stress induced by coping with and managing their condition — and they’re susceptible to the impacts of additional stressors.

“I work with people on adjustment to the condition,” Bergeron said.

She also helps them identify and track what levels of tension they can manage “so they don’t go to the high level of stress that will activate the symptoms of the condition.”

Bergeron told The Nugget that, since college, she has particularly loved working with children, and she continues to do so to this day, including working with children with autism.

She discovered early on that, in order to serve children well, she had to work with family dynamics, including working with couples.

“Currently, the core of my work is working with couples,” she noted. “There is a big demand.”

She helps couples understand what values and formative inputs are at play in their relationship dynamic.

“We always bring our cultural and our family backgrounds to the table,” she said.

Couples can learn to communicate more effectively, and be more aware of their bodily reaction to the stresses in a relationship.

“I’m a facilitator for them to have a conversation that has not been working when they do it themselves,” Bergeron said.

She describes the work as being “very transformative.”

Bergeron lived and taught at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, where she took her master’s degree. Her husband, Tom, taught there as well, before his retirement. They maintained a summer house in Camp Sherman since 2009, and in 2018 made Camp Sherman their full-time home. Bergeron maintains an office in Camp Sherman and one in Bend, for in-person visits, and she also offers TeleHealth options.

Fundamentally, Bergeron believes “that strengthening the sense of self — by integrating body and mind, and becoming aware of the unconscious forces that may trigger emotions, thoughts, and behaviors — is a key to achieving mental health.”

She supports her clients in developing the skills to manage stress and trauma to restore and enhance a vibrant life.

For more information, visit www.rosimerybergeron.com.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.