Therapeutic Approaches: How I Work
Have you tried therapy before but felt like you weren't getting that deeper insight, growth, and healing that you were longing for?
I hope to offer you services that go beyond mere symptom management and traditional "talk therapy" approaches.
Together we will explore the roots of your concerns and create an individualized plan to begin regulating your nervous system. I want you to experience deep and lasting levels of healing in your life.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
I am trained in EMDR and am passionate about using this body-based modality to help my clients heal from trauma.
EMDR is one of the top evidence-based modalities for helping people reprocess traumatic memories and distressing events. EMDR aims to reduce the emotional charge associated with distressing memories through desensitization and cognitive restructuring. Profound emotional healing can occur when the root issues are addressed in both the mind and the body. EMDR incorporates a holistic view to healing as distressing thoughts, emotions, and body sensations are all addressed through reprocessing.
EMDR uses bilateral stimulation through eye position and taps to allow both hemispheres of the brain to remain “online” during the reprocessing of traumatic events. This process mirrors the rapid eye movements that happen during REM sleep and allows the body to naturally heal from distressing events on a neurobiological level.
EMDR is a trauma modality that requires special resourcing and preparation before beginning treatment. For this ethical reason, I do not start EMDR treatment with clients without first going through a thorough assessment process. This process helps access if there is enough safety in your life right now to do deep trauma work.
You can learn more about EMDR by visiting EMDRIA.org.
Brainspotting
I am a Certified Brainspotting Practitioner and deeply believe in the brain and body's capacity to heal.
Brainspotting is a body-based therapy for healing from trauma and regulating the nervous system. Brainspotting aims to reduce the emotional intensity and distress associated with traumatic experiences.
Brainspotting locates points in your visual field (brainspots) that help access unprocessed trauma in your subcortical brain. The subcortical brain is the most primitive part of your brain and what lights up on a brain scan when your body detects a threat and goes into a stress response of fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. By locating the correct eye position and using bilateral stimulation, you can experience profound healing on a neurobiological level while releasing traumatic stress from your body. The research shows that when it comes to trauma the body keeps the score, and a body-based approach is often needed to access a deeper level of healing.
Brainspotting is a trauma modality that requires special resourcing and preparation before beginning treatment. For this ethical reason, I do not start Brainspotting treatment with clients without first going through a thorough assessment process. This process helps access if there is enough safety in your life right now to do deep trauma work.
You can learn more about Brainspotting by visiting Brainspotting.com or by checking out my blog post: What is Brainspotting?
Somatic Experiencing (SE)
Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a body-based therapeutic approach used in the treatment of trauma, stress-related disorders, and PTSD. When a person experiences a real or perceived life-threatening or unsafe event, the first thing that happens is the body will have a somatic response to the stressful experience. Somatic Experiencing helps the body release traumatic stress that was unable to process out of the body during the traumatic event, thereby addressing the root cause of many trauma-based symptoms.
Somatic Experiencing is a modality that starts with where the trauma is stored in the body, as opposed to traditional talk therapy which starts with cognition around the trauma. Healing from trauma must include a return to the body, and the research has shown that talk therapy alone is often insufficient when it comes to regulating the body's nervous system post-trauma.
Somatic Experiencing can help you increase your distress tolerance and move out of an activated stress response of fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. SE can help you regulate your nervous system and increase your ability to emotionally regulate when triggers arise. SE can also be a helpful treatment method for people struggling with severe body and brain dysregulation and high dissociation symptoms.
You can learn more about Somatic Experiencing by visiting SomaticExperiencing.com
Narrative Therapy (Traditional Talk Therapy)
Narrative Therapy believes that as people grow and develop throughout life, they accumulate life experiences that shape a narrative around their identity, worth, and value. There are helpful narratives we can embrace about ourselves and unhelpful narratives. Narrative Therapy believes that we construct meaning around these narratives and aims to empower people to explore alternative and more adaptive life narratives.
Narrative Therapy can help you work through past traumas, losses, and disappointments in a safe and organized way to effectively acknowledge, process, and synthesize these experiences. During this process, a collaborative approach is taken and you are viewed as the expert of your life.
Narrative therapy takes a strength-based approach to healing and helps you reclaim your voice and take back any sense of lost power. It can help empower you to decide who gets a say in your life narrative and who does not. Furthermore, Narrative Therapy can help your life narrative acknowledge and celebrate your resilience, strength, and the wisdom you may have gained along your life journey so far.
You can learn more about Narrative Therapy by visiting NarrativeTherapyCentre.com or by checking out my blog post: What Is Narrative Therapy?
Imago Relationship Therapy
Imago Relationship Therapy is a modality I utilize in couples counseling and also utilize aspects of when working with my individual clients. Imago Relationship Therapy believes that early childhood experiences will affect how we interact, respond, and communicate with others. Unmet needs and familiar relationship dynamics from childhood often carry into adulthood. In Imago Relationship Therapy, an emphasis is placed on connecting the past to the present to help increase understanding and insight as to why you act the way you do in your adult relationships.
Imago Relationship Therapy can help you increase and strengthen your communication skills, learn how to implement and set healthy boundaries, and gain a deeper insight and understanding of your values. It can help move your partner and you closer together, help you meet each other's emotional needs, and deepen intimacy.
Imago Relationship Therapy can help you heal younger parts of yourself and it pairs well with inner child healing work.
You can learn more about Imago Relationship Therapy by visiting ImagoRelationships.org
Parts Work
Parts Work Therapy (also known as Internal Family Systems) is an evidence-based and non-pathologizing approach to trauma therapy. Parts Work Therapy believes everyone has the inner resources available for transformational healing.
Parts Work Therapy understands we all have an “inner world” made up of parts that hold emotions, perceptions, and belief systems that impact how we view ourselves and the world around us. For example, some of us may have a part that gets anxious in social situations or a part that drinks alcohol to numb the pain from a traumatic childhood.
Parts Work believes there is a protective intention behind every part of yourself. By exploring the motivation behind your thoughts and behaviors with curiosity and self-compassion, you can create a more integrated internal system. Parts work can help you experience greater emotional regulation and bring a sense of inner harmony and balance into your life.
You can learn more about Parts Work Therapy by visiting IFS-Institute.com
Inner Child Healing and Shadow Work
Inner Child Healing is a transformative process centered on addressing and navigating unresolved traumas and challenges from childhood. This involves bearing witness to past wounds and reconnecting with the inner child who still carries the pain. The heart of Inner Child Healing lies in cultivating compassion, validation, and nurturance for the younger parts of oneself. It can also involve reparenting your inner child and meeting any unmet emotional needs. Inner Child Healing can be a powerful modality to help reconnect with past versions of yourself and heal from the inside out
Shadow Work is a profound psychological and spiritual process that revolves around acknowledging and integrating the concealed and suppressed facets of yourself. The term 'shadow' encompasses any suppressed thoughts, desires, characteristics, emotions, and lingering past traumas residing in the subconscious. Engaging in Shadow Work involves bringing these 'shadows' into conscious awareness through a non-judgmental and shame-free approach. It's viewed as a dynamic process rather than a fixed destination, with the overarching goal of fostering self-discovery and self-acceptance.
LGBTQIA+ Affirming Therapy
As an LGBTQIA+ affirming therapist, I validate and support my clients on topics related to sexuality, gender identity, gender expression, and more. I am a member of the LGBTQIA+ community myself and I understand how important it is to find a therapist who welcomes and accepts you just as you are. I hope to create a safe space where you can live more fully, more authentically, and more freely yourself, and you can truly come home to the wonderful you.
Therapy can help you unpack, navigate, and work through challenging situations you have gone through. Common topics that I help my LGBTQIA+ clients with in therapy include processing past trauma, exploring their gender identity, sharing their identity with safe friends and family, working through any internalized transphobia or homophobia, increasing self-esteem, increasing pride, working through grief and loss, and reducing anxiety and depression. You deserve to live your life unbound and free.
Ready to get started? Schedule your free consultation today.