While I am a therapist first, I am a social worker second, and am passionate about addressing the ways trauma impacts not just individuals, but society as a whole. Outside of being a therapist and social worker, I also take care of my rescue kitty, Squish. When she is not hiding my art supplies, I most enjoy creating mixed media art while perfecting my latest playlist. I also most enjoy time spent with close family and friends, engaged in fun, comedic banter.
What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?
During our first session we'll talk about services, and I'll be there to answer any questions you may have. I, myself, will be asking a lot of questions to develop a shared understanding of your treatment needs and goals.
Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.
When compared with past providers, clients most often tell me that I provide them with a greater depth of knowledge about themselves, and am much faster in helping them develop individualized ways of coping with a given issue. While clients have told me I am warmer, more empathic, and a lot easier to talk to, those are basic skills for any therapist. Honestly, one of my greatest strengths is that I am always adjusting and perfecting my skills and approaches so that I can be the best provider I can.
Describe the client(s) you are best positioned to serve.
I am best positioned to serve adults, aged 18-75, who are seeking individual psychotherapy to address a wide range of issues, including but certainly not limited to anxiety, obsessive thoughts, compulsions, grief, and post-traumatic stress. I also assist my clients with adjusting to difficult life transitions such a chronic illness, separation from a partner, or the loss of a loved one.
About Joanna Doane
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VirtualMy treatment methods
Trauma Informed Care
It is my experience that people make sense once you understand what they have been through. I honestly do not think I've met anyone personally or professionally who hasn't experienced some loss or trauma at some point in their lives. However, clients can often enter therapy with complex layers of trauma that can at first seem very challenging and overwhelming to approach. However, being trauma informed, I work to ensure we safely work through those layers in an organized and clinically responsible way, so ensure healing.
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
Our personal beliefs are some of the most powerful, driving forces we have within us. Unfortunately, sometimes we've carried around trauma-based beliefs about ourselves and the world for so long, we don't even recognize said belief's influence on our current thoughts and emotions. In therapy we will be working, in part, to explore how you view your world, yourself, and people around you. Through cognitive behavioral therapy, I will assist you with beginning to notice, identify, and challenge any unhelpful thoughts, beliefs, and defenses you may be unknowingly engaging in. If we discover any unhelpful narratives you're carrying along the way, I assist you with developing what often turn out to be more realistic expectations for yourself and others, founded in self-compassion versus self-negligence or self-sabotage.
EMDR
EMDR is a powerful treatment method that allows clients to process traumatic events and distressing experiences from a grounded perspective, and with adaptive information that is often not available to us at the time of trauma. But, looking at these events from a safe distance, and with access to adaptive information, you will be able to actually process it and, through a process known as neuro-cropping, your brain is able to store the event or experience correctly. Once stored correctly, symptoms related to traumatic or highly distressing experiences significantly decline.
Exposure Response Prevention (ERP)
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is a treatment method designed for individuals struggling with obsessive thoughts and compulsive rituals that are a hallmark of obsessive-compulsive disorder. It is considered the gold standard for the treatment of obsessive compulsive disorder. While treatments like EMDR can assist with alleviating OCD that has developed from trauma, not all OCD necessarily develops from trauma. That is where Exposure Response and Prevention (ERP) therapy comes in. Through the process of treatment I will be there to assist you through systematic desensitization so that your obsessive thoughts stop producing anxiety and subsequent panic this disorder can cause. Through ERP, the anxiety connected to obsessive thoughts is vanquished, and the subsequent need to engage in ritualized responses that only work to temporarily relieve anxiety. Bi-lateral stimulation is also added to ERP in order to reduce the time and emotional discomfort involved in the exposure and desensitization process.