Specialties
I am an experienced counselor who is trained in a variety of modalities, including EMDR, Brainspotting, CBT, and person-centered therapy. I believe there are five key components to effective healing around mental health: (1) Health and Nutrition (2) Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (3) Emotional-Focused Therapy (4) Deep Dive Work (i.e. trauma-focused work), (5) Somatic / Body-Focused Therapy and (6) Meditation. I believe therapy, when effective, is about completing the cycle of emotional, cognitive, and somatic (body) energy that has not been fully processed. At the most basic level, effective counseling and therapy grows a client’s capacity to sit with old pain and process through it. My role as the counselor is to know how and when to help clients complete the process. Sometimes, it is wise to not immediately jump into old traumas and instead work to install resourcing (healing tools) first; other times, it’s our refusal to be present in our bodies that elongates the pain; this can be a delicate balance.
trauma-focused work
I have found that in order for clients to effectively process trauma and deep wounds they must access the subconscious. Talk therapy typically does not provide the significant shifts / changes that are necessary to bring change. Therapy that reaches the prefrontal cortex to process within the limbic system tends to be more effective. In other words, the process can shift individuals out of their Fight, Flight, Freeze, and Fawn responses to the CEO part of their brain. Therapies such as EMDR, Brainspotting, Integrative Modeling, and Internal Families Systems (IFS) are recommended modalities for such therapy.
attachment-focused work
Attachment therapy is a form of therapy that focuses on building or repairing the attachment relationship within the therapy room. The theory behind attachment therapy is that a strong, secure attachment between people is essential for healthy development, and that when this attachment is disrupted throughout childhood, it can have serious consequences for the person’s emotional and social well-being. Since many people who come to therapy have had attachment ruptures throughout their childhood, therapy becomes a safe place to repair some of the ruptured relationships, make sense of and grieve some of the ruptures, as well as experience a new way of connecting and being in relationship with someone.
grief counseling
We often associate grief with the loss of a loved one. But, it’s important to recognize that grief can follow all sorts of losses. This may be in the form of job loss, break-ups, and any other major life transition. Grief counseling can help you make sense of your feelings, no matter which type of loss you’re going through. Oftentimes, people think that their grief must follow a prescribed path or certain stages, though grief is not a linear process. I honor all components of your experience- physical, spiritual, and psychological. Turning to each part of ourselves with compassion is an essential part of the grieving process.
meditation
Meditation is integral in that it allows for a practice so we don’t have to practice when difficulties arise in the moment”. Meditation can take many forms and is not just “sitting meditation”. It is the practice of being present to the moment whether it is walking, washing dishes, sitting, running, etc. It is the practice of being connected to the present moment verses a form of dissociation by being caught up in our “thinking mind”. We still utilize that rational mind but it is not what is driving life anymore. Rather it is from our heart. I utilize meditation so that you can develop your own practice.
Somatic (body) work
Somatic work goes hand in hand with meditation. The focus is about coming back to the body rather than living in your thoughts. The problem for most of western culture is that we can be too cerebral/head-centric. Somatic work is a practice of connecting back to the head, the heart, and the body. Somatic practice is about knowing where you are feeling emotions and sensations in your body and connecting back to oneself instead of to an often dissociative state which occurs when we are caught up in thinking rather than being.
cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
Oftentimes it is our thinking mind that creates our suffering. Our thinking can distort actual reality of “what is”. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a type of therapy that works with thinking and behaviors. CBT helps by teaching us how to identify the relationship between feelings, thoughts and actions. If we cannot identify what is going on with our feelings or our thoughts, we cannot make changes to help ourselves. Therapy is about challenging our false / negative beliefs to the truth of the moment. Part of one’s therapy is learning to not only notice our negative thinking patterns but to catch ourselves in the dissociative act of “negative thinking” and to come back to the moment.
emdr | Brainspotting
I utilize both of these modalities (often during the same session) to treat trauma, anxiety, depression, shame, and addiction. Both EMDR and Brainspotting use a common phrase which says, the "past is present". The process accesses those past disturbing memories as well as our emotions, negative beliefs about oneself, body sensations, and images around those past events. EMDR and Brainspotting then help reprocess those target memories. The goal is to experience a shift and/or release from those negative experiences. This model incorporates cognitive, emotional, and somatic reprocessing.
internal family systems (IFS)
IFS is a wonderful and very effective mode of therapy. Basically, it helps us understand the inner contradictions of our lives. It also allows us to reconnect with “parts” of ourself and begin to unburden those parts that have been holding unprocessed energy/emotions/thoughts and integrate them back into our overall system of “being”. It’s basically a westernized form of meditation where we grow into the benevolent observing witness and allow ourselves to slowly unhook from unhelpful reactions, pattens, and beliefs.
schema therapy
Schema Therapy is an evidence-based approach for long lasting change. It is considered an integrative model because it draws on cognitive therapy, behaviorism, attachment theory, emotion-focused and relationship-based therapies and other schools of thought. By identifying our “schemas”, we can look at our patterns without pathologizing ourselves. This model provides a helpful mirror of seeing oneself in various modes that we can shift or “dissociate” into. The more we can identify and understand these various modes and patterns, the more we can begin to catch ourselves falling back into old patterns that no longer serve us.