Email: Info@thrivebeyondtraumacounseling.com
Call: (248) 392- 3733 | Fax: (657) 439-3825
Counselling
Counselling
Gail Cyplik Bushbaker
Email: gail@thrivebeyondtraumacounseling.com
“I work with people who understand their patterns and are motivated for change, yet still feel stuck or pulled back into old coping strategies under stress. I often support clients who say, “I know what’s going on, but I can’t make it stick.” My work focuses on the nervous-system and belief-level patterns that determine whether change can truly hold. I help your system feel safe enough to choose differently and sustain those changes over time”
Gail is part of Thrive Beyond Trauma Counseling’s holistic care team, working with individuals who understand their patterns but still feel unable to move forward.
Many of the clients who find their way to Gail are motivated, self-aware, and have already done significant insight-based work; Yet change doesn’t initiate, doesn’t last, or collapses under stress. When awareness is there but progress won’t hold, her work often becomes the missing link.
Gail’s role is not to push change, but to help the nervous system feel safe enough to choose differently, and maintain those choices over time.
*When insight is present but change won’t stick, Gail helps bridge understanding into sustained action.*
How Gail Works
Her approach is structured yet intuitive, deeply trauma-informed, and paced with care. Clients remain present, aware, and in control throughout sessions; nothing is forced, rushed, or overridden.
This work is never performative or overwhelming.
*Gentle, grounded, and direct care that prioritizes safety and nervous-system readiness.*
Clinical Hypnotherapy & Subconscious Work
Gail is trained in clinical hypnotherapy through Paul McKenna’s lineage, with additional training in NLP-informed subconscious work.
She uses hypnotherapy as a supportive therapeutic tool, not a directive technique. The work focuses on helping clients access subconscious patterns while remaining fully aware and in control.
A core focus of Gail’s work is attachment and belief systems. Many behaviors that feel self-sabotaging today were once protective
Shaped by early relationships, reinforced through experience, and held in place by subconscious beliefs about safety, worth, control, or connection.
*Belief-level work helps old triggers stop pulling clients back into familiar patterns.*
Trauma-Based Breathwork
Breathwork is an equal pillar in Gail’s work.
As a trauma-informed breathwork facilitator, she practices non-activating, regulation-based breathwork designed to stabilize the nervous system rather than overwhelm it.
- As an entry point for clients hesitant about hypnotherapy
- To support regulation before deeper work
- To help integrate and maintain change between sessions
It is always paced, optional, and guided by nervous-system cues.
*Breathwork is used for regulation first: So deeper change becomes possible.*
Reiki & Energetic Support
Reiki is offered as a gentle, optional add-on for clients who want additional support with settling, embodiment, and energetic regulation.
It is used quietly and intentionally, always with consent, and never as a replacement for therapeutic work.
Reiki supports calming the system so other interventions can land more effectively.
*Reiki is supportive, not central: Integrated only when it truly serves the process.*
Areas of Focus
- Feel stuck, even though they are motivated and trying
- Have been in therapy but feel it’s not helping much anymore
- Understand their patterns intellectually but can’t shift them
- Start strong but struggle with consistent results or follow-through
- Experience cycles of progress followed by self-sabotage
- Notice their nervous system pulling them back toward old comforts under stress
This work helps clients get unstuck by changing the internal conditions that drive behavior
Not by relying on willpower or discipline alone.
*For motivated clients who feel stuck or self-sabotaging, Gail helps address what’s happening beneath conscious effort.*
Addiction, Compulsions & Nervous-System Patterns
Gail works extensively with addiction and compulsive behaviors, including porn and sex addiction
A core focus at Thrive Beyond Trauma Counseling.
She also supports clients navigating substance addiction, food addiction, and other repetitive or urge-driven patterns.
Addiction is approached here as a nervous-system, attachment, and belief-based pattern, not a failure of willpower.
Rather than asking clients to “try harder,” Gail helps uncover what the behavior has been regulating or protecting against, then supports the nervous system in developing new sources of safety and relief.
*Addiction is treated as a nervous-system and belief-based pattern: Not a moral failing.*
Insomnia, Chronic Stress & Pain
Because Gail holds the holistic side of Thrive’s work, she also supports clients experiencing insomnia, chronic stress activation, and pain
Often signs that the nervous system has been in survival mode for too long.
For these concerns, the goal is not forcing rest or relief, but teaching the body that it is safe to downshift gradually, without flooding or shutdown.
*For insomnia and pain, the focus is safety and down-regulation: Not forcing rest.*
Support Beyond the Therapy Room
Gail will be creating guided audio recordings to support nervous-system regulation, grounding, and practice outside of sessions.
This allows clients to build consistency, not just insight, and helps new patterns take root in daily life.
*Support continues beyond sessions so new patterns can actually take hold.*
Working With Thrive Beyond Trauma Counseling
As part of Thrive Beyond Trauma Counseling,
- Emotional safety
- Whole-person healing
- Cultural humility
- Intentional, paced care
That is where sustainable change begins.
*Gail’s work at Thrive centers safety, collaboration, and lasting nervous-system change.*