The Process
Your experience is unique, and making change requires understanding much more than a collection of symptoms. Your difficulties are caused by the complex interactions of both psychological and social factors. I trust your expertise in your experience to help us together understand past influences and how you got to where you are now.
Explore what happened
Learn how it affects you
Experiences and environments change us. You might have learned to protect yourself by always being on-guard, or that there wasn’t anyone you could count on for help, or that sometimes the people closest to you were the most dangerous, or that you just had to just make-do with less than what you wanted. Because of this, you may be left with limiting self-beliefs and reactive behaviors.
Do something about it
You did whatever you needed to survive and adapt to your circumstances, and those behaviors served you well enough to get you to where you are today. But what worked for you in the past might not be what you need to do to thrive in the context of today’s challenges and opportunities. Through a combination of ideas and experiences we will collaborate to create new habits and instill new behaviors.
Proven Therapeutic Approaches
Throughout my career, I've applied agile methodologies – a structured yet adaptive approach to problem-solving. I bring this same philosophy into my therapy sessions, ensuring we're moving in a direction that's productive and tailored to your unique needs. I've received specialized training in various therapeutic modalities to offer you a comprehensive and multifaceted approach.
The Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF)focuses on the impact of social and cultural factors on a person's life. The PTMF suggests that mental health problems are not simply the result of individual pathology or "brain chemistry," but rather are often a response to experiences of powerlessness, threats to our sense of identity and connection with others, and the meanings we attach to these experiences.
The framework encourages clients to understand their experiences and identify the social and cultural factors that may have contributed to their difficulties to gain insight into the ways in which their experiences have impacted their lives and develop strategies for addressing them.
Power, Threat, Meaning Framework
Internal Family Systems (IFS) is based on the idea that our psyche is made up of multiple parts, like members of a family. Each part has its own perspective, feelings, memories, and goals. The core of IFS is to understand and harmonize these parts through connection with your central, confident, and compassionate self.
Internal Family Systems
Dynamic Maturational Model of Attachment
A deep dive into the most up-to-date original research that explains the adaptive function of attachment styles and patterns. According to this model, attachment is not a fixed trait that remains stable throughout life, but rather a dynamic process that is influenced by a variety of factors including significant relationships, environmental factors, and genetic disposition. In my work I apply understanding of the DMM to help clients build healthier, more adaptive relationships.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is an evidence-based technique that was initially developed to help individuals process and heal from trauma and PTSD. It involves recalling distressing events while performing specific bilateral movements, guided by a therapist. This process helps the brain reprocess these memories, reducing their emotional impact and helping individuals heal. It's applicable to a variety of conditions, and is often effective in a relatively short time frame.
EMDR
Narrative therapy focuses on the stories and narratives that shape a person's identity and understanding of themselves and the world and helps clients to develop new, more empowering narratives that can help them understand difficulties in a different way by exploring alternative perspectives, challenging limiting beliefs, setting new goals, and developing new coping strategies.
Narrative Therapy
How I Address Some Issues
Anxiety
If you struggle with anxiety you know that it’s living with an internal emotional state that constantly alerts you to potential danger. It’s confusing and exhausting. We will work to understand the protective role of anxious parts, apply mindfulness practices where they are helpful, and develop skills that lead you to more adaptive responses.
Depression
With depression, you long to return to a more vibrant life. At its worst, depression works to convince you to just give in to it, making you feel hopeless. Because the stories that depression tells are quite limited, we’ll work together to notice the ways you are able to resist depression. Ultimately, we’ll work to author a counter story that enables you to choose greater vitality.
Trauma
Whether because of a single catastrophic event, or a series of events that took place over a longer period of time, trauma makes the world feel unsafe. Our work will address the ongoing overwhelming effects of trauma so that you can flourish and become more of who you really are. We’ll build on your strengths and help you to develop new responses and behaviors.
Relationship
There are so many ways to form successful relationships. Attachment patterns cause many relationship issues when once successful behaviors are applied when they are no longer needed. I work with individuals, pairs, polycules, or families to explore more adaptive attachment enabling the emergence of vital relationships that are more than the sum of the parts.