I’m an LCSW (licensed clinical social worker) based in California. My initial therapy practice began over 20 years ago with young children affected by abuse and/or neglect. I’ve worked with a wide variety of clients and modalities since then including coaching women with ADHD. I continue to use coaching in the therapy process. It very much aligns with the Strength Based approach. Currently, I work with women who have lived with trauma over time; many have also experienced single incident traumatic events. Both experiences can color how you see the world and your experiences with people in it. I also work with professional women with ADHD.
What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?
In our first session together, we’ll start with brief introductions, then look into the most pressing challenge you’re facing. You may just need to talk things out to start. Sometimes beginning with letting it all out can be a great pressure release. We can also identify tools you use currently and how you can maximize their use. We will end with a plan we create together for moving forward.
Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.
Symptoms of ADHD and trauma history can look very similar. There are a lot of similarities in how to maximize your functioning with either or a combination of both. I’ve worked extensively and successfully with both using the above mentioned therapeutic tools, as well as coaching and alternative modalities (meditation, mindfulness and exercise). We will work together to ensure what will work best for you. I look forward to hearing from you to discover if we are a good fit.
About Cathy Alexander
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VirtualMy treatment methods
Motivational Interviewing
Change can be challenging. You can know you want to change. Loose 50 pounds, listen better to others, be kinder. But what will it do for you if you did? What else will it do? The clearer you are about the benefits you seek, the easier it is to do what’s needed to get there. Motivational interviewing is a tool I love to use to get that clarity. Getting clear about the benefits we seek with the changes we want to make can help ease some of the challenge. When you understand why you are making the efforts toward something greater the energy to do the work becomes more available.
Strength-Based
It’s important to know we aren’t broken. Coming from a strength based approach is incredibly empowering. You’ve come this far some how. What has brought you this far in your life? When you can name the things you’ve used to achieve the level of success you have those things can be easier to access. Recognizing you aren’t broken and do have strengths you can build on can be very empowering.
Mindfulness-Based Therapy
It’s helpful to stay grounded to make choices that are in alignment with our beliefs and values. Traumatic experiences can sometimes teach us to check out and not be present. Dissociation is a tool that might have helped us feel safer and manage threatening events we’ve been exposed. It can be useful even now. Getting to choose our state of being at a given time can help us to keep in that alignment of who we are and want to be.
Trauma Informed Care
ImTT stands for Image Transformation Therapy. It is a method for releasing traumatic memories from body to reduce triggering. It is a gentle method that does not require re-experiencing the original event. I've been working with it for over 4 years now.