About Alyson Halas

I attended Boston University (1999-2003) and graduated with a BA in Psychology. I then went on to earn a Masters Degree in Social Work from New York University (2005-2007). My personal and professional experience have led me into deep commitment to the exploration of the impact that stress in various forms ( ie. episodic, chronic, traumatic) can have on us both negatively and postively. It is my mission to help support and hold individuals, families, groups, and communities in the process of managing stress and healing through trauma to restore body, heart, and mind, as well as deep conneciton to ourselves and each other.

Teachers I have been gifted

My Mother, Lynn (Tomanio) Meeker

My mother first and foremost taught me the power of love. That love is enough and that in the presence of it, everything really can be okay. She taught me the importance of serving others as an integral part of life. She also taught me perseverance in the face of all obstacles and that it is important to fight for what you believe in and know to be true. Without her and her unending support, love, and deep belief in me and my abilities, I would not be the woman I am today. She continues to be a foundational support in my life, one I can rely on without any doubt or fear and I rest easy in knowing she is always there. I am and will forever be in continual gratitude for her, her loving presence in my life, and all she has and continues to give to me.

Lauren Machin, LCSW, former Vice President & Chief Behavioral Health Officer at MHHC:

Lauren was my first boss out of graduate school at Morris Heights Health Center (MHHC) in Bronx, NY. She taught me what it meant to be a heart centered leader. She loved me, with all my fumblings and insecurities as a new therapist. She loved me, my spirit, my ideas, and she saw what was inside of me when I could not yet see it. She gave me permission to love my clients, because I already did but I didn’t know if that was allowed. She showed me the importance of having fun, being creative, and being myself. Her endless commitment to taking care of the mental and emotional well being of her staff showed me the necessity and the power of prioritizing self-care. Although I only had the pleasure of working for her for 5 years, her love, inspiration, and teachings are held in my heart and continue to shape me today.

Dr. Lori Leyden, founder of the Grace Process (lorileyden.com)

Little did I know, one day back in 2014, as I stepped into a work training and Lori began speaking that my life was about to be forever changed. Her joy was palpable and it irritated me because at the time I didn’t understand the embodiment of joy as a natural human state of being or how to embody it. She introduced me to the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) aka tapping through a direct demonstration. I felt the power of EFT as it calmed my body, opened my mind to clear, grounded, and truthful thoughts, and released the self-blame I was carrying in the moment. It was then that I heard the guidance inside me in a clear and new way… a more conscious way. It happened something like this, a voice inside my head said, “You need to learn more about this (EFT).” The rest of me then saying, “No. Definitely not. This is stupid and weird and uncomfortable. Why would you want to do this??” Me hearing them both and with confusion and yet a strange confidence signing up for the EFT Level 1 training. Lori has and continues to teach me in deep ways the power of love, how healing myself is and will always be my first step in facilitating healing in others, what it means to be a heart centered leader, the truth of how trauma lives in our bodies and needs intention, awareness, and tools to be released, and that the energy inside of us and connecting us is very real. She has taught me the power and truth of oneness and the need to shine my light in order to help illuminate the path of others. She has also guided me in utilizing EFT to accelerate my own healing and that of my clients. Her lessons continue and I am in tremendous gratitude for her continued presence as a mentor in my life.

Denise Lamoureux, founder of the Colette Technique for Healing Trauma (healingswithdenise.com)

I have always had a deep interest and belief that accelerated healing is possible. Denise continues to teach me that the accelerator is opening to my own intuition and inner guidance, as well as opening to direct support and guidance of a power far greater than myself, even if I don’t fully understand it. Through direct personal work with Denise and learning workshops, I have experienced the very real truth of accelerated healing. Her work is something that my ego and logical brain are still skeptical about and it still makes me uncomfortable in ways, much like tapping did when I was first introduced to it. This is why I know that I need to continue to lean into learning her methods at a deeper level. I am in deep gratitude for all that she has and continues to teach me and the healing she has facilitated in my life.

Get to know me a little more

The only time I have an internal sense of timing and direction is when I am running outside. Otherwise I can still get lost within a 2 mile radius of my house in a car. GPS drastically changed my life!

I talk to myself in my head throughout my day.

I love dessert... I used to pride myself as someone who always had to have dessert at lunch and now it’s more of a secret reward.

I tap and run.

I love to dance. Knowing what I know now about trauma release, I think going out and dancing at night with my girlfriends In college helped to heal initial layers of trauma I experienced as a result of losing my good friend on 9-11-01.

On one of those nights out dancing a passerby grabbed my friends vagina and I chased him down in heals and punched him in the face. I am secretly feisty and fiercely protective but I keep it under wraps.

I feel my fierce through mama bear moments now when needed. I’m still working with how to own my fierceness and hold it in direct relation to myself.

Sometimes I don’t give a F what people think about me and sometimes I really do and it bothers me until I can tune into what’s churning inside of me

I’m scared to have a website that Is fully and completely me, yet I deeply want to have a website that is fully and completely me.

I hate doing laundry. I texted my girlfriends in my early 20s from grad school a package of underwear I bought on the way to class bc I had no clean ones and laughed about it. To this day I still wait to do laundry until I have no clean underwear.

I am stepping into the online community as a step first and foremost in the service of my own continued healing and owning my need to honor and speak my truth. I am also doing this because I believe I am able to help facilitate healing in our world.