HI! I’m a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with seven years of psychotherapy experience working with teens and adults. I offer a collaborative, compassionate approach where you feel safe to bring curiosity to issues interfering in your life. I am ready to partner with and support you while while we explore life changes that work for you.
While I use a variety of tools and skills in our work together, mindful awareness of the body also informs my approach as a therapist. Through gentle awareness of any physical changes that are happening during our session, you and I can better understand thoughts and feelings as they arise.
What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?
In our first session together, and in subsequent sessions as necessary, I will gather information about your history, any prior experience with therapy (so that I can understand what works and does not work for you in therapy) and what brings you to want to engage in therapy at this time. This conversation will help me get to know you, begin to build trust in our therapeutic relationship, and clarify for both of us what your goals for therapy are at this time.
Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.
Seven years of professional experience as a therapist working with teens and adults, fourteen years as a mindful-movement instructor, and my experience as a therapy client, allows me to offer a compassionate, unique and highly attuned approach as a therapist. I utilize a variety of proven approaches and techniques to help you relieve symptoms and find clarity around issues that are troubling you.
About Olivia Holden
Appointments
Virtual
My treatment methods
Mindfulness-Based Therapy
I utilize years of experience from my previous career, studying and training clients in mindful movement, to observe physical changes occurring in your posture and gestures and gently bring your attention to them. This is another way for you and I to understand thoughts or emotions that may be out of your awareness and connect to them through your body. This promotes feelings of groundedness and safety, helping to reduce symptoms that are troubling you. I also offer simple meditation and breathing techniques during sessions which you can then use between sessions to bring calm to your mind and body.
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
I utilize elements of CBT to assist you in bringing awareness to your thoughts, feelings and beliefs so that we can work together to uncover automatic thoughts you may not be aware of that are painful. In bringing light to these patterns of thought, feelings, and unconscious beliefs, we can work together to create new thought patterns that will improve your experience of life.
Trauma Informed Care
The teachings of Bessell van der Kolk (author of "The Body Keeps the Score") Peter Levine, Pat Ogden and other leaders in the trauma treatment field and years of experience studying and teaching mindfulness-based movement informs my approach to your recovery from trauma. I gently support and guide you through the physical sensations that often accompany trauma recovery. When appropriate, I offer simple breathing and movement exercises during sessions to help you process and move beyond trauma.
Dialectical Behavior (DBT)
I have experience using DBT in an inpatient setting in individual and group sessions and now utilize elements of DBT in my private sessions. I utilize it as part of our sessions and can teach you DBT exercises to use between sessions. DBT skills have been proven to improve mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and communication skills in relationships.
Acceptance and commitment (ACT)
I use Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in my practice to help you enhance mindfulness, stop struggling against your thoughts, clarify your values and easily commit to changes you want to make in your life.
