CMI: Critical Memory Integration — A New Approach To Trauma
Release Date: 08/10/2025
A Deeper Story Of Your Soul & Its Essential Nature
A Quest for Well-Being
— What if reality isn’t material at all—but a shared dream, woven by infinite, eternal minds? In James book, The Dream of Matter, he explores the radical idea that our brains are not just organs of survival, but reflections of the soul’s deeper activity. If that’s true, then the existence of the soul is not only real, but measurable—visible in the patterns of thought, the rhythms of brainwaves, and the coherence or incoherence of our lives. This is more than spiritual speculation. By decoding the mathematics behind mind and matter, the book offers a structured, rational...
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Soul-Centered Healing: A Path to Spiritual Alignment
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A Quest for Well-Being
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Is Your Soul Happy With The Way You’ve Been Trying To Lose Weight?
A Quest for Well-Being
— You’ve spent countless years living a life filtered through a number on the scale and exhaustive energy trying to control that number. Every fight you have with yourself pulls precious energy away from your dreams. You get that restrictive eating and excessive exercise are not going to work for you personally. You even recognize these approaches are triggering you and making the problem worse, but you just don’t know where to turn anymore. When you realize who you are and what you have to offer the world matters, your life will expand, and your body will slim naturally. This is what...
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How to Get Your Kids to Listen—The First Time You Ask
A Quest for Well-Being
— Stress-Free, High-Quality Living with Your Kids - Parenting is a full-time job, but common challenges like sleep problems, defiance, lack of cooperation, and tantrums can drain the joy from family life. The good news is: it's time to find effective solutions, a strong support system, and dedicated accountability measures to get on the path to a high quality of life. The journey is possible. Big challenges or little ones… expert guidance is available to help you create the positive parenting experience you’ve always dreamed of. Eliminate second-guessing and confidently implement...
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Simply Self-Wonderful: To Love Yourself Is Absolutely Essential
A Quest for Well-Being
— The longest relationship you will have in your life is the one with yourself! You want to feel Simply Self-Wonderful, perhaps not all the time but at least most of the time and to know ways to get back to being Simply Self-Wonderful so you can live the life you want and create for yourself. The Simply Self-Wonderful Card Deck and The Simply Self-Wonderful Inner Workout Book came out of that yearning in Judy. Wanting to feel loved, accepted, and worthy of love. And try as she might, something always blocked her – herself! That’s why the Self word is repeated in every attribute...
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Unlocking Potential: The Intersection of Mental Health & Spirituality
A Quest for Well-Being
— Many people draw on spiritual beliefs, practices, and communities as sources of meaning, resilience, and connection. Mental health care increasingly recognizes that spirituality — understood broadly as how people find purpose, belonging, and transcendence — can interact with psychological well‑being. When integrated respectfully and ethically, attention to spiritual life can enhance assessment, deepen treatment, and help people unlock personal potential. This interview introduces key ideas, evidence, practical approaches, and cautions for clinicians, caregivers, and anyone curious...
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Living In Alignment With Your Soul’s Purpose
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— There was a time when you just knew. Who you were. What you loved. Why you were here. Before the world became noisy— Before expectations, doubts, and responsibilities crept in— There was a version of you who remembered your purpose. Who saw magic in the everyday. Who felt connected to something greater. That part of you isn’t gone. It’s simply been waiting for you to come back. Your Path, Your Pace — But You’re Not Alone When you’re ready to transcend your spiritual plateau, Dr. Kelly Edmonds offers a container that meets your deepest longing and helps you rise. Valeria...
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Why People Cheat, How To Heal: Betrayal, Addiction & Rebuilding Trust
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— Today we’re diving deep into betrayal, infidelity, and the emotional aftermath. Why do people cheat—even when they love their partner? What drives repeated cheating or secret behavior? And most importantly, how can couples heal after trust is broken? Valeria interviews Nicola Beer, a relationship and trauma therapist with over 20 years of experience helping couples and individuals navigate infidelity recovery. Nicola believes that cheating is often a coping mechanism—sometimes even an addiction—and that full recovery is absolutely possible when both people are committed. Today...
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The Neuroscience Of Anxiety
A Quest for Well-Being
— All bodily sensations, including those visceral feelings from your chest and stomach, are relayed back to the brain through the pathways via the spinal cord. Your already anxious and highly alert brain then processes these signals at both conscious and unconscious levels. The insula is a part of the brain specifically involved in conscious awareness of your emotions, pain and bodily sensations. The prefrontal cortex also engages in self-awareness, especially by labeling and naming these physical sensations, like feeling tightness or pain in your stomach, and attributing cognitive value to...
info_outline— Critical Memory Integration (CMI™) is an experiential psychotherapy that uses memory reconsolidation to help individuals integrate even the most distressing of experiences into their existing mental framework.
Unlike conventional therapies, CMI™ facilitates integration through direct experience rather than conversation or explanation, resulting in a more efficient process. The person is guided to tune into signals of bodily sensations and emotions, uncovering the root causes of patterns and responses. The process fosters deeper connections to capacities for growth and adaptiveness, leading to a renewed sense of self, and sustainable change.
Valeria interviews Estefana Johnson — She Is A Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Trauma Therapist And The Director Of Clinical Training At ARISE Alliance, Is Leading The launch of a Powerful New Therapy Model Called Critical Memory Integration (CMI™)
She began her career in 2001 as a Behavioral Health Technician, briefly stepping away in 2005 to teach in Japan. Her diverse background spans multiple roles and settings, including residential treatment for at-risk youth and medical social work, giving her a well-rounded perspective on mental health care.
As the Director of Clinical Training for ARISE Alliance Institute, Estefana Johnson oversees the professional development and training of clinicians on Critical Memory Integration (CMI™). Her role involves designing and implementing comprehensive training curricula for mental health professionals to enhance clinical skills, particularly in trauma-focused care, PTSD treatment, and therapeutic interventions. Estefana also develops and delivers trauma-informed programming tailored to the needs of at-risk populations, bringing these services directly into community-based settings to ensure accessible, responsive care where it’s needed most.
She is currently a practicing clinician and Dosing Session Monitor at Lighthouse Psychiatry and TMS in Gilbert, Arizona, contributing both to clinical care and research trials exploring the therapeutic use of psychedelics.
Estefana’s work in community mental health, coupled with her personal experiences as a first-generation child of immigrants, has deeply influenced her therapeutic approach. Passionate about supporting foster and adoptive children, Estefana serves as Lead Volunteer, Board Member, and Clinical Director for ASA Now, a nonprofit organization that provides critical assistance, support, and advocacy for foster and adoptive children and their families. Her role with ASA extends to Shade Tree Academy, a therapeutic school designed for children impacted by foster care and adoption who have not thrived in traditional school settings. There, she provides trauma-informed staff training and has contributed to program development to support healing-centered education.
With a commitment to education, advocacy, and compassionate care, Johnson continues to make a lasting impact in the mental health field and in the communities she serves.
To learn more about Estefana Johnson and her work, please visit: https://arisealliance.org/