Caroline Pegram, LCSW
Hey, I’m Caroline. I am a white, able-bodied, person healing from complex trauma (both individual and collective). I currently live on Indigenous Eastern Shoshone and Goshute land. I have deep roots in the southeast area of Turtle Island, with generations of family who settled in Cherokee territory now known as Southern Appalachia.
I am an eco-somatic therapist who is inspired by collective liberation approaches taught by intersectional feminists, environmentalist + abolitionist activists, and queer theorists. I hold a deep reverence for the perspectives offered by these mentors and continue to seek the guidance + wisdom of my human and plant kin alike.
When I say eco-somatics, I am saying that the natural ecologies around us and the individual human body are inextricably linked.
I believe we can find a great deal of guidance to our complex challenges by paying attention to the rhythms of nature. When we observe the fluctuations, intricacies, resilience and patterns in nature - we can find a map to navigate the complexities inside of ourselves.
My purpose at Topaz Healing is to co-create an experience that encourages you to be curious about life, convene with the vitality that comes from being an embodied human, and to foster new connections that allow for our most authentic selves to emerge and flourish.
We will grow through intentional conversation + exploration of the felt physical sense. We will also grow by way of feeling into the ecologies around us - human, earth and everything in between.
When I’m not tending to my work at Topaz Healing, I can be found - caring for my garden, playing with my dog and cat (Jolene + Callie), writing a poem, studying plants, skiing down a mountain, moseying around a trail, floating on some water, taking a road trip to the lower desert, making plant medicine, listening to live music or maybe even choreographing a modern dance in my living room.
Education + Trainings
Bachelor of Social Work – University of NC Greensboro
Masters of Social Work – University of NC Chapel Hill
Human Landscape Relationships, Ecology & Ethnobotony Field Study - Groundworks, Kelly Moody Grand Mesa, CO Foundations in Embodied Ancestral Inquiry - Wildbody Somatics (6 Month Course)
Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (300 hours) – Center for Trauma and Embodiment in Brookline, MA, with David Emerson
Dismantling Racism (6 Days of Intensive) – Racial Equity Institute Greensboro, NC
Yoga Teacher Training (250 hours) – Asheville Community Yoga
EMDR Certified – EMDRIA Institute Charlotte, NC
The People’s Medicine School: Liberatory Community Herbalism - Rootwork Herbals (6 Month Course)
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy – Duke University Durham, NC
Trauma and Tension Release Exercise (TRE) – Yoga Calm Portland, OR
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy – Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute
Getting Personal for a Moment
(Because Why Would I Not Share Pieces of Me, While Asking It Of You?)
I’m a human healing from deeply personal, collective and systemic trauma. I spend a great deal of my life tending to the wounds that have been passed down to me, while exploring ways of healing that can offer a different, more gentle trajectory.
I get a deep sense of satisfaction when it’s socially acceptable to skip pleasantries and move straight to the depths of who we are (thank you, Scorpio Moon!)I have sort of an instinctual urge to keep things growing (Sag Sun), while also valuing the potent medicine of sitting with life’s darkness. I will frequently remind you (and myself) to possibly zoom out and see the intricacies of our lives, with the hope of creating a clearer focus that allows us to see the possibilities waiting to emerge.
In a sense, I’ve been primed for this work well before one should begin prepping for the life of a trauma therapist.
Growing up, I experienced a great deal of stress and chaos. Those who were involved in my upbringing did the best they could - I have no doubt in my heart about that. I also acknowledge that intergenerational trauma has a tendency to leave no one unaffected in its wake.
My flavor of inherited trauma taught me it was a threat to be my most authentic self. I believe that at the root, the disconnection from self has been my greatest heart ache (and later my greatest teacher). Like many, I tried to feel ‘whole’ by way of changing, numbing, restricting, producing and shape-shifting into the kind of person I thought could be worthy of the type of love and acceptance.
In an attempt to be the ‘me’ that others could digest - I felt like a living, breathing tornado of a person.
All the while, I was really just a human in search of belonging. I was a human trying to find stable ground.
After some especially hard emotional hits, I found myself in a place where I knew I had to let myself crack did open - I needed to let others see the pain I was carrying. I couldn’t keep holding the scariest parts of my wounds on my own.
This process involved: opening up about the shame that had been calcifying in my body. I sought professional help with somatic therapists to re-define my relationship with substances, food, movement, intimacy and my chronic pattern of ‘over functioning.’
I attended mutual aid support groups. I re-assessed and shifted the ways I spent my time. I gave more energy learning how to be in reciprocity with the being arounds me. I relentlessly put myself ‘out there.’ I relied on faith that told me there was a community out there that could love the ‘me’ I was becoming.
I leaned into the most secure care giver I’ve ever known (her name is Mother Nature). I listened to the impulses of my body, I grew a respect for my felt sense as the wisest part of me. I fell down a lot. I cried more tears than I ever thought was possible. I let my body tremor and tremble. With shaky legs, I got back up and took another step.
None of this was me doing it on my own. It was only in the care of the humans, the canyons, the rivers, the stars, the seeds, the birds, the blossoms, the seasons and the darkness that I can say I feel like I’ve become stacked over my own two feet.
While the pain and complexity of my life’s experiences are still very much a part of me, I’ve found ways to take these shadows and allow them to become my guiding light.
My life is not perfect. I still have a long way to go, but I can say with integrity:
I truly want the life I have today. I am grateful to be exactly who I am. It’s a gift I am determined to keep receiving.