Choosing to begin therapy can be difficult.
Whether you’d like help making changes, dealing with life transitions, engaging in self-exploration, working through difficult relationships, sexual issues, uncomfortable moods, past and ongoing trauma, or just developing a better sense of peace, balance, and integration, psychotherapy can offer the space and relationship to facilitate growth.
A safe and supportive environment where you can be free is the foundation of growth and change . A skilled therapist creates an atmosphere where you have the freedom to be uncensored, true to yourself, and where you can be accepted and understood throughout the process of examining your life.
With the therapeutic foundation in place, our therapeutic relationship develops insight, skills, and coping mechanisms that move you closer to the life you have envisioned.
You bring extensive expertise in a critical area of therapeutic practice: your own life.
WHY THERAPY?
Many of the people I work with are intelligent, creative, and resilient individuals who feel “blocked” or “stuck” and who benefit from having someone help them to develop greater insight, alternative ways of thinking, and tools that they can use in and outside of therapy. I bring my expertise as a therapist, you bring your expertise on your life and experience and, together we collaborate in finding an approach that is tailored to your specific needs.
Approaches
Two research supported, short-term treatment modalities that I can offer clients are eye-movement desensitization reprocessing (EMDR) and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT).
EMDR is used to treat past and ongoing trauma, in addition to single-incident traumas (e.g., a car accident, panic attacks, medical trauma), relational trauma, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). EMDR uses bilateral stimulation to integrate traumatic memories and experiences so that they have less of an effect on current mood and relationships.
CBT has been shown to be effective in working with anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, phobias, eating disorders, and insomnia, and it can help us to identify maladaptive thinking patterns and behaviors and to develop skills and tools that will, in turn, shift these patterns.
Combining cutting-edge therapy with a mindfulness approach, both EMDR and CBT empower you to develop alternatives to the way you feel, think, and behave and, in doing so, give you the freedom and space to decide WHAT you would like to think about and HOW you would like to act without feeling like your mind and body are making these decisions for you.
“Traditional talk therapies can help a person gain insight into what happened or reframe thinking, but the multisensory body experience of traumatic events that are so deeply etched in the nervous system may plague trauma survivors even if they have intellectual insight about their experiences.”
-ELAINE KARAS-MILLER and LINDA GRABBE, 2017
working with me
I offer sessions both in my office and over the phone. My goal is to provide you with a calming environment and safe space to do the necessary work for your personal growth and healing. At your request, my dog Charlie is also available to join us in session. You are also welcome to bring your own dog(s).
