Acceptance and commitment (ACT)

When we resist our thoughts, emotions, and experiences by fighting, ignoring, or pushing away, those unwanted experiences fight back and get even stronger. Acceptance of "what is" has the opposite effect. Once you accept "what is" instead of fighting against "what is", you have the physical energy and mental clarity to make a meaningful decision on how to respond to "what is" and to follow through on that commitment. I will bring to your attention areas where you might be expending unnecessary energy trying to change things outside your control. I will show you how to create space for you to explore options that align with your core values.

Dialectical Behavior (DBT)

I utilize DBT skills training to put you back in the driver's seat of your thoughts, your emotions, and your interactions with others. There are "go to strategies" to bring down anxiety/trauma/drama when when you get stuck in fight or flight mode, and there are daily practices that reduce the overall tendency to get stuck there in the first place. There are so many skills to pick and choose from. Take the ones that work best for you, and put the rest in your back pocket. I teach you how to be your own best friend. A healthy friendship with yourself leads to healthy friendships with others.

EMDR

I use EMDR to help you separate yourself from negative, emotionally-based beliefs that were formed due to experiences from the past. Because I do this work virtually, I will have you tap your own knees or shoulders while I guide you through the process. This and other left/right stimulation is just as effective as moving your eyes back and forth, which was the original method of EMDR. Research has shown that any back ond forth stimulation, eyes, tapping alternately on the left and right side of your body, a left right sound played in each ear, or buzzers held in each hand all create the same effect, which is to separate the emotion from the memory over time. As you you process a memory during EMDR, you experience a shift in attitude, belief, emotion, and perspective. EMDR can be used in conjunction with IFS, talk therapy, guided imagery, and DBT.

Internal Family Systems (IFS)

Internal Family Systems is one of my favorite modalities. IFS begins with the premise that you are a core Self with the qualities of compassion, curiosity, courage, clarity, creativity, connection, confidence, and calm. Throughout life, our beautiful core Self becomes surrounded by parts that often unwittingly work against each other and the Self in and effort to protect or be protected. They don't know that the core Self is the one fully equipped to manage everyone. There are manager parts, firefighter parts, and exiles. The managers are the ones who push you to succeed, the firefighters are the ones who push you to get emotional or physical relief from pain ASAP, and the exiles are the little kids hiding in the basement, sad, lonely, afraid. I help you sort out who is who, and remind you that no matter how disruptive a part may be, their intentions for you as a person is protection. Getting to know and befriend all these parts is the work of IFS, and I will help you walk you through a step by step process to do this and get more time with your core Self at the helm. We will get to know your wounded child(ren) so the Core Self can provide them with the safety and love they crave. You will become the person you would have been if you had had the most wholesome upbringing possible. My mantra is...You CAN go back and change the past! By closing your eyes and accessing a visual representation of some part of yourself, especially a wounded child, you can say to that child, I am here to give you what you should have gotten but didn't: love, nurture, being seen and celebrated, comfort, acceptance, and so on. This action truly transforms your present day self into the authentically whole person you were born to be.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)

Neuro-Linguistic Programming is a fun approach that usually works really fast and is really easy. Generally, I don't need to know all the terrible details of a situation in order to get you a ton of relief. I don't use all the tools of NLP. The ones I utilize most are the Swish Pattern and Timeline Therapy. These techniques are usually done in one session. The timeline therapy is a fun exercise that takes you back to the beginning of a problem. We don't need to really talk about it, analyze it, or even remember it. We just unravel it from your life easily and effortlessly during a somewhat hypnotic state. This approach relies heavily on the ability to give the analyzer and figure outer parts of the brain a big break. I utilize some techniques to reduce activity in that part of the brain so your internal wisdom make the necessary changes while you rest.