THERAPY MODALITIES:
EMDR Therapy
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is an evidence-based therapy that can be used to treat trauma, phobias, anxiety, grief, chronic pain, depression, nightmares, addiction, and other mental health conditions. This method involves bilateral stimulation of the brain through eye movements or tapping while the client processes distressing memories. It does not require talking in detail about a distressing issue, but focuses on changing the emotions, thoughts or behaviors that result from an upsetting experience. This process allows your brain to heal.
WHAT IS EMDR LIKE?
We will identify the issue you hope to resolve, whether it’s a disturbing memory, distressing symptom, or some other issue. I will invite you to focus on the emotions, images, sensations, and thoughts that surround this issue while we use a bilateral stimulation technique to help your brain reprocess this concern, allowing for new ideas and insights. This technique will not erase your memory, but it will take the “charge” out of it. At the end of an EMDR session, I will lead you in a grounding exercise to help prepare you to re-enter your regular life.
CAN I DO EMDR THERAPY ONLINE?
Yes. EMDR is equally effective in-person and online. Some people prefer the physical proximity of meeting face-to-face, while others appreciate the flexibility and accessibility of meeting online. During warmer months, I often meet with my clients outdoors for EMDR sessions. I find that the calming sensory elements nature provides offer a helpful backdrop for the deep work of EMDR.
Flash Technique
The Flash Technique (FT) is a gentle, evidence-based, and minimally intrusive therapeutic intervention that reduces the disturbance of painful memories. It helps clients process those memories without feeling distress, and without having to engage consciously with traumatic material that would otherwise be overwhelming or unbearable. It has been shown to reduce the disturbance level of extremely painful memories in a short amount of time. Like EMDR, the Flash technique incorporates eye movements and tapping to help clients resolve unprocessed trauma. It can be used to treat trauma, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, dissociation, depression, and other mental health issues.
Pain Reprocessing Therapy
Pain reprocessing therapy is a set of therapeutic techniques which train the brain to correctly respond to signals from the body and deactivate pain sensations. It is a strongly evidence-based treatment designed to eliminate pain, not just manage it. It consists of five components: education about the neuroscientific origins of pain, the pain-fear cycle, and the reversibility of pain; learning to understand the origin of one’s own pain; exercises to help clients interrupt the pain-fear cycle; addressing clients’ overall stress and threat levels; and helping clients shift from living in a high-threat state to a state of safety.
Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE)
In addition to using other therapeutic approaches, you may learn Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE) during your treatment. TRE is a series of exercises that helps the body release deep patterns of stress, tension and trauma. TRE activates a reflexive tremoring mechanism that releases muscular tension and calms the nervous system, helping the body achieve a state of balance.
REPORTED BENEFITS INCLUDE:
Less Worry, Anxiety, & Stress Reduced Symptoms of PTSD More Energy & Endurance Better Sleep Reduced Muscle & Back Pain Increased Flexibility Healing of Old Injuries Greater Emotional Resiliency
Psychoeducation
When we lack understanding about the impact of chronic stress, trauma, adverse childhood experiences, etc. on our nervous system, thought patterns, emotions, self-concept, physical health, and ability to form positive relationships, we may conclude that something is wrong with us. This is not true, and yet this belief is held by most Americans. I can help you understand how your life experiences have impacted your nervous system, relationships, and self-concept. Understanding our own wiring is key to learning to untangle the knots we’ve accumulated through life.
Emotional Freedom Technique and Tapping (EFT)
EFT is an evidence-based treatment which uses self-applied gentle acupressure that creates psychological and physiological release and relaxation. It calms and desensitizes emotions, thoughts, and the body, and it reduces distress associated with various physical and emotional issues. EFT helps heal and balance the nervous system.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is an effective and evidence-based treatment for anxiety, trauma, depression, and other mental health conditions. It challenges unhealthy thought processes and their related emotions. CBT can help people:
Learn skills for coping with anxiety
Use cognitive restructuring to change negative thoughts
Manage anger
Prepare for and handle future stress reactions and trauma symptoms
Communicate and connect effectively with others
See situations more clearly and reduce the tendency to “catastrophize”
Mindfulness Practices
Mindfulness has been proven to help people learn to better manage stressful situations over time through cultivating greater awareness and acceptance of the present moment, rather than focusing on the past or future. Mindfulness can help reduce symptoms of many mental health disorders by increasing a person’s control over intrusive thoughts and memories. It also promotes clarity in thinking, helping people to recognize unhelpful or inaccurate thoughts patterns.
Skill-Building
Your therapy may involve learning new skills to manage emotions, discharge survival energy, and rewire the neural circuitry of your brain. Anxiety, chronic pain, trauma, depression, and other mental health conditions can bias the nervous system toward the fight/flight response. I will teach you specific skills to release stress and retrain your brain to default to the rest-and-digest branch of the nervous system.
Holistic Approaches
Rarely does our suffering exist in a single, isolated category. Quite often, our struggles extend across multiple domains, such as sleep, social connection, physical and emotional health, sense of meaning and purpose in life, job satisfaction, etc. I strive to help people address the areas of imbalance in their lives so that clients not only feel better emotionally, but they also feel better about the overall way in which they are living their lives.
