In a mental health crisis, call or text 988 or go to the nearest emergency room. For other emergencies, call 911.
Approach to Therapy
My approach to therapy is...
Trauma-Focused
I believe mental health symptoms, unhelpful things we think and ways we feel about ourselves, problematic patterns in our relationships and behaviors we wish we could stop doing most often stem from unresolved issues in our past. Adverse or overwhelming experiences, whether or not they would be readily recognized as “trauma” by others, shape our brains and create responses in our nervous systems that continue to play out later in life. My approach is to help you heal the past experiences underneath your present-day concerns to bring about lasting change in your nervous system.
Accepting, Curious & Collaborative
These nervous system responses are largely automatic. While I will encourage you to learn to manage these responses and be responsible for your behavior, it’s not useful to judge you for your symptoms or problems. Together we’ll get curious about how they make sense in the context of your history and may have been necessary at some point in the past (or maybe you already know!). Drawing on my training and your knowledge of yourself, we’ll collaborate to better understand all of this and devise a plan to start to change the things that no longer benefit you.
Attachment-Based
Our early relationships shape who we become and how we move through life. If the adults in your world were abusive, neglectful, mentally ill, addicted, traumatized, incapable, stressed or overwhelmed, or failed to protect you, it likely had an impact on how you came to think about yourself, what you can expect from others and what kind of place the world is. And, even the best, most loving parents don’t get it right 100% of the time. As we work together, we’ll talk about the impact of your early attachment experiences and consider whether the schemas your brain created when you were young are still true now.
Relational
If you’ve been hurt in relationships, you might also heal in relationships. You may or may not have already experienced this. I will strive to build a relationship with you that feels as comfortable and secure as possible, understanding that it might take time and that things won’t always be perfect. We’ll talk about our relationship, what’s going well, what’s not and how we could improve it. At times we may inadvertently trigger each other, and I encourage you to tell me if this happens so that we can work through it together. I may not always be able to do exactly what you need, but I will listen openly, with care and compassion, and do what I can.
Grounded in Neurobiology
There’s still a lot we don’t know about the brain, and we’re learning more all the time. The therapies I use are rooted in research about how our brains and nervous systems are shaped by trauma and adverse or overwhelming experiences and also how best to activate our brains’ innate ability to heal. We used to think our brains and personalities were fixed after a certain age, but now we know the brain has the potential to change and create new neural pathways throughout the entire lifespan. Imaging tests have even shown structural changes in the brain after doing some of these therapies. You can change your brain!
Experiential
All therapy involves talking, of course, and we will talk (about your history, what’s going on in your current life, what changes over time, etc.). However, some research shows the deepest changes come from experiencing, not from talking. The therapies I use are considered experiential therapies. I will support you in having emotional and somatic/physiological experiences that help your brain process information differently than talking alone, and these experiences create change. Of course, I’ll explain everything before we do it, and you can always say no to anything you don’t want to do.
Transformational
I believe the goal of therapy is deep, long-lasting change. While gaining insight and learning skills are necessary, they’re not enough. The experiential therapies I use actually change your brain and nervous system. My hope is that you will not only gain skills to use when you get triggered but that you will also eventually stop getting triggered in the first place. My hope is that you will not only learn to understand your symptoms, behaviors and patterns, but also meaningfully change them. Sometimes this can all happen relatively quickly, and sometimes it takes a lot longer to get there. But in my mind, that’s always the objective.