About Peg
“I continually assist my clients, online or at my office, in accessing their unconscious in healing form complex trauma or upsetting events which is sometimes a really scary new thing to do. I invite everyone I mentor and train to do the same.” -Dr. Peg Hurley Dawson
Dr. Peg Hurley Dawson is a strengths-based treatment provider who empowers and trains various professionals—including psychotherapists, doctors, and other practitioners—with transformative, evidence-based tools. Her approach in healing many mental, emotional, and various therapeutic approaches, including but not limited to Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), Internal Family Systems (IFS), sensorimotor and somatic therapies, art and expressive therapies, Ericsonian Hypnosis, Kalffian Sandplay, and various trauma focused sand therapy methods, including her modalities known as IFS Sandtray, Discovery Sandtray, and SandStory Therapy.
Dr. Peg Hurley Dawson treats adolescents and adults with complex trauma, attachment and relationship issues, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), childhood sexual abuse, ADD/ADHD, problematic sexual behavior, mismatched desire, and other mental and sexual healthcare issues.
She is also well versed in working with clients who want to explore or have questions about Kink, BDSM, LGBTQIA+, and both non-traditional and traditional relationships.
Peg as an Author
Dr. Peg Hurley Dawson authored Sand Therapy for Out of Control Sexual Behavior, Shame, and Trauma: Treatment Approaches Beyond Words, published by Routledge Publishing House. The book is often used by therapists who do not use sand therapies in their therapeutic practices. This book introduces Peg’s Pro-Symptom Belief Cards (PSBC), which she designed after working with her professional clients for years and noticed many of them shared deeply held negative beliefs, resulting in them suffering from Imposter Syndrome. The Imposter Syndrome happens to many human beings, not just professionals. Individuals will believe I am not good enough, I should have known better, it is my fault, etc. These beliefs are in an area of the brain known as the default mode network (DMN), which she explains in her book, Sand Therapy for Out of Control Sexual Behavior, Shame, and Trauma: Treatment Approaches Beyond Words, which was released in 2024.
Chapters
Internal Family Systems & Polyvagal Theory: Out of Control Sexual Behavior as a Clinical Pathway to Long-Term Healing
This chapter focuses on non-pathologizing modalities to address out of control sexual behavior. Internal Family Systems and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy—while integrating the neuroscience of Polyvagal Theory—access the unconscious through the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system automatically, instantaneously, unconsciously, and within milliseconds reacts to the stimulus received from the five senses. The Internal Family Systems model operates on the belief that the personality comprises many thoughts and emotions called “Parts.” These Parts reflect wounds dating back to the time of the upsetting or traumatic incidents and how the body holds them physiologically. The reader will gain insight into helping clients heal from core negative beliefs, many of which date back to early childhood. By addressing these core negative beliefs, clinicians will learn how they are held in the body and how they are manifested in adult sexuality—often displayed as out of control sexual behavior. This chapter is written in an easy-to-understand narrative that uses examples of how to work with Parts alongside the ANS and the mind for long-term healing.
Using Internal Family Systems, Safe and Sound Protocol, and Sand Therapy in Treating Out of Control Sexual Behavior
Co-authored with Carl Mojta, LMFT.
This chapter brings an understanding of how the mind-body connection is key in treating sexual health issues. It introduces the modality of Internal Family Systems (IFS), Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP), and two types of sand therapies as effective tools in the psychotherapeutic treatment of people with out of control sexual behavior (OCSB). OCSB is a descriptive, non-diagnostic term used to describe the negative experience some people have in being unable to regulate their sexual thoughts, urges, behaviors, and/or bad consequences that ensue.
Consultation with Dr. Peg Hurley Dawson
Dr. Peg Hurley Dawson invites mental health professionals, doctors, and practitioners from all fields to embrace a revolutionary approach to healing. Equip yourself with cross-cultural wisdom, cutting-edge therapeutic techniques, and innovative tools to address the complexities of trauma, emotional distress, and problematic behaviors. Whether you're seeking to expand your expertise in treating mental, emotional, or sexual health challenges or looking to transform your practice with evidence-based methods, Dr. Dawson offers personalized training to help you make a profound impact in your therapeutic work.
Coming Soon
The House of Grace and Insight
(A series of 15 fictional novels written from the perspective of a therapy dog)