TearsAndLaughter, LLC offers high-quality, body-mind psychotherapy to individuals who seek long-term or brief support in their journey of growth and healing. Serving the Boulder/Denver area, Dr. Afra Zmrhal provides a safe and compassionate setting for the exploration of a wide range of life’s issues and challenges – emotional, interpersonal, traumatic, and developmental.

Afra offers psychotherapy for adults and adolescents with a focus on:

• Chronic and Terminal Ilnesses 
• Physical and Emotional Symptoms of PTSD
• Seizure Disorders
• Personal Growth
• Asperger's Syndrome (support for individuals living with Asperger's    Syndrome, their families and partners) 

Afra uses somatic awareness (how we breathe, move, hold ourselves, and where we experience feelings in our bodies) as a powerful way of accessing and transforming limiting beliefs, emotional imprints, memories, habits and behaviors which shape our lives, relationships, and self-images. With increased awareness as to how the body holds physical stress and emotional injury the client is offered the opportunity to work through constraining patterns that are often not resolved on the level of the mind alone. Change occurs through the understanding of the mind in relation to the wisdom of the body. The experience of being oneself cannot be thought; it must be experienced directly.

As a consequence of being fully trained in a variety of body-mind psychotherapies (Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Hakomi Somatics, and Trauma Dynamics), methods specifically developed to resolve symptoms of chronic stress and trauma, Afra’s expertise allows her to work with individuals who have experienced perceived stressful and/or life-threatening events and illnesses.

If stressful or traumatic situations are extreme in nature or occur repeatedly over a long period of time, resources become drained and emotional and physical stress symptoms develop. The way an individual responds to different stressors depends on a variety of factors such as his or her resources, coping mechanisms, beliefs, emotional stability, genetic vulnerability, physical health and support by friends and family. Stress symptoms may consist of hypertension, irritability, anger, fatigue, tension headaches, migraines, anxiety or depression, high blood pressure and irritable bowel syndrome. Interpersonal relationships often suffer; the person is left with a feeling of helplessness and being out of control, which may result in isolation from his/her surroundings.

Afra’s focus on working with symptoms of chronic stress and trauma is the Here-and-Now, the present moment, and the power of healing which is embedded in embracement of rather than resistance to all there is. Stressful or traumatic memories are referenced, but only as needed for healing and completion.  

“I have been working with Afra for the past five months. It has not only been a deep healing process but has also become an amazing personal transformation opportunity for me. Although I had been years in therapy before, I feel that I finally connected with my essence during the short period I worked with Afra. A lot of things make sense to me now. Indeed the work with her is a soul making journey for me – a journey of coming to wholeness. I also experienced dramatic improvements in my chronic physical conditions with which I have been suffering over decades. Afra has been a very wise and skilled guide whose integrity I can absolutely count on. She is very intuitive, holds a very very safe space, and so competently navigates me through somatic based therapy. She is also available – she is reachable and responsive. I feel so fortunate to finally work with such a gifted individual. I highly recommend her."  Y. H., 46, Boulder, CO

 "Working with Dr. Afra Zmrhal  has introduced me to doorways that may have been there, but hadn't yet been tried or even noticed.  She helps me to see and utilize tools perhaps unused, neglected, or completely unrealized.  My own experience with her has been less about fixing something "wrong", and more about engaging me to see my true and wonderful self, to step out of that dark room, so the world can see me too. She truly is a gift." T. S., 31, Boulder, CO 

"Afra has helped me get in touch with me.  She encourages me to recognize and accept all aspects of myself. As a result, I am able to be in the world as a whole human being. I am more aware of my conditioned response to situations I find frightening or difficult. With Afra’s guidance, I have become more capable of staying present and feeling my emotions, while sensing when I need to protect myself and when I can be more open. An important component of my life is the relationships I have with others. A solid relationship with myself, which Afra has helped nourish, has allowed me to have rich, fulfilling relationships with others."  L. H., 47, Longmont, CO