Dr. Sunita Merriman
In addition to being a poet and an author, Sunita graduated with honors from New York University, College of Dentistry. Her career as a clinician in private practice has spanned three decades during which she earned Diplomate status with both the American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine and the American Board of Craniofacial Sleep Medicine, a distinction awarded to less than 1% of dentists in the US. Sunita founded the New Jersey Dental Sleep Medicine Center in Westfield, New Jersey with the understanding that sleep is the driver of our overall mind-body health, wellbeing, healthy longevity and potential to thrive.
After a transformative experience of healing from attachment and complex childhood trauma, Sunita has shifted the focus of her career as a clinician by limiting direct patient care at her Sleep Center to be able to write and develop what her poetry and its teachings offers others in their journey of healing.
Stripping- My fight to find Me is her first collection of poetry to have been published.
She is currently completing an Anthology called ‘The Way Back Home’.
TWBH is comprised of 5 additional collections of poetry that just like in Stripping: My Fight to Find Me translate the language and spirit of the unconscious. Each poem reveals and unveils the unconscious to be a vibrant and active command post in our lives that remains hidden unless we make the effort to strip.
The unconscious proves itself to not only be the place that stores our darkest memories and indescribable suffering, but also to be the source of our healing, innate wisdom, strength and inner voice.
Sunita has spent a decade thinking about what made her journey from a place of suffering and despair to wellness a successful one and how she can reverse engineer that complex process with simplicity and clarity so other people could apply those principles in their own lives. That work is ongoing.
She is a passionate advocate of those who suffer from ACE’s and mental illness and is dedicated to promoting her belief in the infinite potential of the human spirit.
Sunita has been with her partner Tim for over 30 years and they are privileged to be the parents of two wonderful daughters. She lives in New Jersey, USA, but is also immensely proud to be a Canadian of Panjabi Sikh (Indian) descent. She adores her cats, Runa and Cara, and can most assuredly be found in her kitchen every day.
The debilitating impact of trauma on sleep is beginning to be seen in the results of research studies. But those who suffer from trauma and mental health issues could tell you directly how sleep is elusive for them and how it negatively impacts their body, safety, relationships, mental health, decision making and quality of life. I was one such person. Until I sought professional help for my issues. I wrote this article to shed some light on the connection between ACEs and sleep.
‘ACEs, Integrative Medicine, and the Mind Body Connection – Why Dental Sleep Practitioners Must Take a Seat at the Table.’ in Dental Sleep Practice, Winter 2020 edition.
How did Self Love Self Care® first come about?
I needed to find some meaning in my suffering. So, I kept thinking, “What did I come out of this journey with? How can I convey what I now know other than what is in my poetry? What is the simplest, most fundamental, basic understanding of how I healed that I came out with? That is where the practice of Self Love Self Care First® came from.
Life is a complex and difficult journey in a complicated world which can often disconnect us from ourselves.
On top of that, if we do not love ourselves, we do not take good care of ourselves. The pain of our lives, and the messages we receive settle deep inside us to cause us at times, not to pay attention to ourselves, and at times, even hate and harm ourselves. And these feelings and beliefs come from our unconscious. Self Love Self Care First® is a journey of learning we are all on.
To find compassion for ourselves. To find acceptance for ourselves. To find love for ourselves.
This is The Journey.
We have everything we need within us. But we must believe that. If we do not believe it yet, we must keep saying it. Keep a journal. Find a mirror. Get in there and say “I’m worth it.” We are entitled to feel happy.
Find your light within.
Because we are not moving towards any light. There is no light out there. It resides inside us. We have to move inward, not outward to look for the light.
And when we find our light, we light up the world and give permission to others to find theirs.”
-Sunita
Self Love Self Care first™
Everything you need is within you.
connect to yourself. be present. be inspired. be love.
