Our holistic therapy approach incorporates mind, body, and spirit to promote healing for children, teens, adults, and families.
Welcome to Sanctuary7. Our mission is for you to experience a warm and caring refuge where hope is crystallized. You are valued beyond measure, and we desire to hear your story and for you to feel heard, understood, and accepted. Together, we can craft a newness of life in spite of hardships, pain, and suffering… Hope is knowing when your world falls apart, it can fall together again.
We take a multi-faceted approach to mental health that includes spirituality and considers emotional, structural, toxins and nutrition as components that formulate wellness or dis-ease. We work alongside functional medicine doctors and acupuncturists to help you achieve personal wellness. It is our goal that from our collaborative work, you are empowered to create a more abundant life where your inner world smiles.
WHO WE SERVE
We provide therapeutic services to children in both private and public schools throughout South Orange County. We work with children who experience anxiety, depression, divorce, panic attacks, bullying, trauma, and suicidal ideation. Serving within a school setting allows us to partner with the principals, administrators and teachers as we collaborate to do our best to nurture the well being of each student and the student population. Working within the school system provides the ability to remain relevant in a child and teen’s world so we can better understand how their school and life experiences merge to impact their mental and emotional well being. With children, we recognize the need to earn our place in their world. This necessarily means creating a safe environment to establish a trusted relationship. If a child has experienced trauma, their personal world will likely not feel entirely safe physically, mentally and emotionally. They may live with shattered trust. At Sanctuary7, it is important to create a refuge where all of the little one feels welcomed. We strive to help them heal and understand their role in becoming the super hero of their young lives with an emphasis on their personal power to choose positive behaviors. We believe ground zero for the young ones is social emotional learning (SEL). Therefore, we strive to help children grow in identifying and discussing their thoughts and emotions and growing their understanding of the thoughts and feelings of others. We use both direct and non-direct play therapy in our dedicated play room. We utilize sand trays with a variety of specialized sand acquired from a geologist. This sand is chemical free, dust free, dye free, asthma and allergy friendly, eco-friendly and sustainable. We also provide kinetic sand in a variety of colors for an equally sensory satisfying experience. Children can choose from a wide array of toy miniatures to create their world in the sand and to share their story. Additionally, we utilize art, drawing, puppets, stuffed animals, therapy games, bibliotherapy, and Lego building to encourage expression of thoughts and emotions and to stimulate conversation. The idea is to create a “better together” experience to encourage and enhance positive socialization skills.
CHILDREN
TEENS
Navigating today’s teen world can be a treacherous time producing anxiety and depression. Developing a strong sense of self and becoming mentally and emotionally grounded is a solid platform from which to launch into adulthood. We strive to create a refuge where teens feel safe, heard, and accepted with unconditional positive regard. At Sanctuary7, teens are invited to share about their lives, struggles, hopes and dreams. Together, we examine challenges to their goals and explore solutions. We assist our teens in understanding their power and control to choose their thoughts, which in turn impacts their feelings and their behaviors. At Sanctuary7, there is an emphasis on increasing a teen’s emotional intelligence “EQ.” Possessing a higher EQ is a key ingredient to managing their personal lives more successfully. Towards this goal, we focus on awareness of not only their emotions but also the emotions of others. The ability to gain the perspective of others encourages empathy and respect that allows for creating and sustaining positive connections and healthy relationships.
FAMILIES
We believe the strength of our communities is based upon strong families. Utilizing a family systems theory approach, we partner with families to help members gain perspective of one another and to increase healthy communication. We examine patterns that support a healthy family dynamic and uncover patterns that create dissonance. Parenting skills is an equally important component in raising healthy children. We assist parents in building parenting skills and understanding the needs of their child(ren). There is a focus on creating and sustaining structure and an environment of caring, consistency, choices and consequences as necessary tools in raising socially and emotionally stable children. Together, we work towards strengthening the family as a whole.
INDIVIDUALS
Life is constantly changing, which requires us to grow, evolve, and adapt to live well. At times, these transitions can threaten our well being. Often the new challenge touches on existing, underlying, yet-addressed life experiences. Suddenly, we find ourselves tumbling mentally and emotionally. There is much in life that we have little to no power to control. But, we do possess power and control over how we choose to posture ourselves to our circumstances. This necessarily requires examination of our thought processes. And if trauma has occurred, we explore these experiences and discuss how trauma impacts our thinking and our choices. Truth and knowledge inform, empower and enable us to make healthier life choices. We desire to hear your story, your goals, and to work with you so you are grounded to face life’s challenges and to live life more abundantly.
APPROACH
We live in a broken universe, but you do not have to live in personal brokenness. You remain the author of your life story, and you decide how you want to show up in the world. Despite personal tragedies and sufferings, you can heal, survive and thrive. You are the expert of you, and the answers you seek to create the life you desire are within you and within your reach. Our place is to help you gain clarity of yourself. With this understanding, you gain a new perspective from which you can reshape your life. We will explore your lived experiences and any traumas that created wounds. We will uncover patterns that do not serve you well. We will examine negative thought processes that hinder your ability to experience joy and happiness. To assist you in reaching your personal goal(s), we utilize a “best fit” approach in psychotherapy. We integrate techniques from an attachment-based family therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, psychodynamic theory, and experiential therapy. We take a holistic approach to wellness, integrating the mind, the body, and spirituality. We are Level 1 and Level 2 trained in EMDR through the EMDR International Association. We utilize EMDR extensively in our practice as it assists clients in effectively processing trauma, negative memories and distressing life events that can trap us to live our past in our present.
Arlene Irion,
MA., LMFT #138482
PROFESSIONAL JOURNEY I received my B.A. Degree in Liberal Arts with an emphasis in Elementary Education from CSU Northridge. I earned two Master’s Degrees - a M.S. Degree in Criminal Justice from Boston University and a M.A. Degree in Couples and Family Therapy from California School of Professional Psychology (Alliant University). My undergraduate degree led me to teach remedial reading to elementary school children on Maui, HI. After returning to the mainland and while raising our three children, I obtained an A.A. degree and Certification in Paralegal Studies. I interned at the Orange County District Attorney’s Office (OCDA) in the Homicide Unit. I was subsequently hired by the OCDA and served in the Gang/Target Unit, Environmental Protection Unit, and Organized Crime Unit. After the terrorist attack on 9/11, I decided to further my career and applied for an Intelligence Analyst position in Federal law enforcement. I was subsequently hired by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I became a subject matter expert in the Crimes Against Children Unit and the Counterterrorism Unit for FBI Los Angeles. While serving in the Crimes Against Children Unit, I was exposed to the most heinous of crimes against children; specifically, child pornography, child sexual assault, internet crimes against children, and sex trafficking of minor children within the United States. In my position, I interviewed children, teens and young adults and witnessed first hand the mental and emotional trauma sustained by these victims of crime. I worked alongside my FBI team members and Federal prosecutors to locate and arrest the perpetrators. For my efforts, I was the recipient of both the U.S. Attorney General’s Award and the FBI Director’s Award - two prestigious awards conferred by the Federal Government to its employees. I was also the recipient of the Unlikely Heroes Abolitionist Award for my work towards abolishing human trafficking and supporting the healing and restorative work to international and domestic survivors of human trafficking. Despite my job efforts and awards, my role did not enable me to help these crime victims through their mental and emotional anguish. I was determined to return to school to obtain my second Master’s Degree to become a psychotherapist. It is my privilege and honor to serve my clients by using my personal and professional experiences to help heal deeply traumatic mental and emotional injuries. And, it is here where I have found my personal fulfillment in service to others.
PERSONAL JOURNEY My formal education prepared me for my professional journey. However, my life journey created my “on-the-job” training. I grew up in a culturally diverse environment and feel fortunate to have experienced such rich friendships with people of different nationalities and socioeconomic backgrounds. I appreciate these experiences because it taught me cultural awareness, diversity, and respect for humankind. My childhood and teen years were challenging growing up in a family where narcissistic personality disorder was present. I certainly did not understand it then, let alone comprehend its impact on my personal life. This lived experience coupled with my professional education taught me to explore behaviors within the home, examine its effect on the family relationships, and to uncover the self-interpretation that can evolve from the family dynamic. I also experienced the sudden and tragic loss of both my siblings. I understand the feeling of being an empty shell, a floating cloud never feeling grounded, and the stark reality of being an adult orphan. The road traveled through grief and mourning is a journey. Healing takes time, and it came through surrounding myself with trusted and supportive loved ones and experiencing the powerful healing benefits of Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR). Because I experienced such profound healing through EMDR, I elected to become trained through EMDRIA (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing International Association) to provide this therapy form to my clients.
SERVICES
AREAS OF SPECIALTY
Anxiety
Attachment
Coaching
Depression
Divorce (Impact on children)
Families (Children/teens/parents)
Grief and loss
Human trafficking (children and adults)
Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Parenting
PTSD
School issues
Sexual abuse (children/teens/adults)
Spirituality
Stress
Teen issues
Trauma
EMDR THERAPY
EMDR therapy can be incorporated into any session.
RATES
Session fees are $200 per 60 minutes for individual, children, teens and families.
Sessions are available in-person or via Telehealth.
INSURANCE
We are an out-of-network provider. We do not take insurance. We can provide a superbill which can be submitted to your PPO insurance company for reimbursement that is allowable under your specific insurance plan. We advise you to contact your insurance company for any questions regarding potential reimbursement of services.
CONTACT
Sanctuary7
Holistic Family Therapy
30240 Rancho Viejo Road, Ste. F
San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675
Arlene Irion, M.A., LMFT #138482
Tel: 949-891-1994