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Today’s guest writer is Gazit Chaya, another trained coach who has been using the Values Based Integration Process with their clients! If you are interested in working with Gazit Chaya, you can reach them at nkosi.ssptherapy@gmail.com.

If you have completed the VBIP training and would like to be featured on the blog, please reach out to jess@poweredbylove.ca.

Hi there, my name is Gazit Chaya (they/m) and I am a certified somatic parts work and SSP provider working in Amherst, MA. I was trained in the VBIP with Heather in February of 2025 and immediately started sharing it with my clients and incorporating it into my own therapy thereafter. My clients are predominantly neurodivergent and/or highly sensitive and many have significant trauma histories. My work is very bottom up, incorporating connection with the felt sense of things rather than focusing on the cognitive side of things and so it has been a really wonderful tool in bringing insight into not just what makes us feel bad, scared, anxious or uncomfortable but inviting in what feels alive, meaningful, interesting or connected for us. This beautifully supports the work I do to support, understand and respect our nervous systems so that we can not just move away from those things that are not for us, but towards those that are. The VBIP is trauma informed and draws from somatic, narrative, attachment and IFS therapy models, and as such has been a beautiful compliment to my work and has added a short hand for my clients and I to recenter to what is meaningful to them according to their values rather than orienting to the “shoulds” and expectations of a society that in most cases was not built with us in mind.

The VBIP begins in a really special place because it allows us to reflect back to times when we felt alive, when we were connected to what mattered to us or what fulfilled us despite what the people around us may have thought. In therapy, most of us are used to retelling the painful stories, so it has been really wonderful to invite in those cherished moments and to see how despite all the odds, those of us who “never fit in” have found ways to create our own magic and this magic can help us find places where we unmasked enough to operate out of our own joy and meaning, our values, rather than from a place of what would be accepted or deemed successful by society.

Once we have shared those beautiful stories of aliveness, we get to dig through them like treasure hunters and find the key words that keep showing up. Clients have been very surprised, they may have associated cognitively with certain identities or values that make them “good members of society” and they may be surprised to see that those aren’t present in their stories and even more surprised to see what is!

Once we have identified these treasures, we invite ourselves to create some sort of artistic interpretation of these values, a piece of art, a poem, a dance, a song, etc. One client even got a tattoo that represents her values!

Next we get to see where our unique values have pushed up against the messages of society and created that internal conflict we can describe as dysregulation, when the rules in our minds don’t align with the values in our hearts. We get to pick up a moment or experience of dysregulation and then ask ourselves, what rule were we following here, what do our values have to say about that rule and how might they rewrite it to support ourself in aligning more authentically with our true heart’s perspective on the situation.

This is where unmasking becomes a powerful reclamation of self and joy in an intentional way that can feel more supported and less vulnerable or destabilizing than just abandoning all the masks that helped us feel safe. When we are aware of the message, connected with why we used it and intentionally define how we can meet the same need with a more aligned and values based message, then we are creating stability and safety through authenticity.

I’m so grateful for Heather and the Values Based Integration Process and that I was able to be trained to offer it and look forward to continuing to deepen my understanding of it both for myself and my clients.