I am so glad you have taken the first step to begin the next chapter in your life! We are living in such difficult times and I know it can be difficult to reach out and start counseling. But, don’t we all deserve a safe place to delve into our daily struggles, life events, and crises, with someone who demonstrates authenticity, acceptance, validation, and objectivity? I believe YOU hold the key to unlock your full potential to process and create meaning of complex experiences. Please schedule with me directly on my website! As an LCSW and LCDC I have experience working with toddlers, children, teens, young adults, families, couples, seniors, trauma, substance use, LGBTQ, and most mental health issues.
What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?
In our first session together, we'll start with brief introductions, then dive into the specific challenges you're facing. This will help me create a tailored plan for us to work through in follow-up sessions.
Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.
I apply different approaches to meet your unique needs: person-centered therapy (Rogerian approach) with individuals/adults; EMDR and/or TF-CBT for trauma; and I include a Christian perspective on request only.
Describe the client(s) you are best positioned to serve.
As an LCSW and LCDC I have experience working with toddlers, children, teens, young adults, families, couples, seniors, trauma, substance use, LGBTQ, and most mental health issues.
About Danica Watson
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VirtualMy treatment methods
EMDR
From the American Psychological Association: But what is EMDR and how does it work? EMDR therapy is a structured psychotherapy that primarily focuses on treating individuals who have experienced distressing, traumatic events. The idea behind EMDR is those traumatic memories, when unprocessed, can become “stuck” in the brain, leading to a wide array of emotional and psychological difficulties, said clinical psychologist Steven Silver, PhD, who coauthored the book Light in the Heart of Darkness: EMDR and the Treatment of War and Terrorism Survivors. Patients who have experienced trauma often find themselves going back to thoughts of past events and experiencing disturbances, Silver said. These unresolved memories can manifest in the form of anxiety, depression, PTSD, and other trauma-related conditions. “The brain, among other things, is always trying to solve problems,” he said. For someone experiencing PTSD, these could be questions such as ‘All my friends are dead; why am I still alive?’ “This is the kind of question that the mind will insist be answered. So, it keeps going back to the event, whatever it was. But if it can't find the answer, or can't accept the answer, it doesn't abandon the search if the question is considered important enough. It keeps going back. This effort to return to the event can result in recurrent dreams, intrusive memories, and flashbacks.” EMDR addresses the ongoing PTSD patients experience by relying on the brain’s natural capacity to heal and process traumatic experiences, Silver said. “EMDR has shown us that our brains are a lot more powerful than we originally thought they were,” he added. What do EMDR sessions entail? During an EMDR session, the therapist guides the patient through a series of standardized procedures designed to stimulate bilateral brain activity. This bilateral stimulation can be achieved through various methods, with the most common being the side-to-side movement of the eyes. Other techniques include alternating sounds or taps, but eye movements are the most widely used, said Marianne Silva, LCSW, an EMDR-certified therapist and clinical social worker with the Department of Veterans Affairs. “Sometimes clients know very clearly what their triggering event is, for example, they were in a car accident or experienced a sexual assault,” Silva said. “But sometimes clients show up saying they can’t sleep, they’re snapping at everyone, and crying all the time, and they have no idea why. Our job as therapists in this phase is to help them figure that out.” [Related: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy] Unlike other treatments that focus on directly altering the emotions, thoughts, and responses resulting from traumatic experiences, EMDR therapy focuses directly on the memory and is intended to change the way the memory is stored in the brain, thus reducing and eliminating the problematic symptoms. EMDR therapy is also time-limited, she added. “The goal is to help people heal from trauma in a relatively short amount of time,” Silva said. This treatment uses a structured eight-phase approach over a series of sessions until their symptoms have been fully resolved. These phases are: (1) taking history and treatment planning, (2) preparing and explaining the treatment, (3) activating the memory to be reprocessed, (4) memory desensitization, (5) using bilateral stimulation to install the patient's desired way of thinking about the traumatic experience, (6) identifying and processing residual physical disturbances related to the target memory, (7) bringing each session to an orderly close, and (8) re-assessing the patient and their memories to ensure they are progressing throughout the treatment and staying on track to meet their goals. “What we’re doing with EMDR is bringing back the trauma of the memory and applying techniques to allow the brain to bring in additional information that the client knows now because the trauma is over,” Silva said. “These could be things like the fact that they’re safe now, that they survived, that they’re not in a state of danger anymore, and even that they realize the event wasn’t their fault and they are not to blame for the rape or assault or whatever it is that they experienced.”
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
From the The Beck Institute: What is Cognitive Behavior Therapy? Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is a form of psychotherapy that teaches people to become their own therapists. CBT is based on Dr. Aaron T. Beck’s Cognitive Model, which is the theory that the way individuals perceive a situation is more closely connected to their reaction than the situation itself. CBT is an evidence-based practice, which means that it has been scientifically tested. In fact, more than 2,000 studies have demonstrated that CBT is an effective treatment for many different health and mental health conditions. In CBT treatment, trained therapists help clients identify distressing thoughts and evaluate how realistic these thoughts are. As clients become aware of their thoughts and are able to evaluate them, they feel better. CBT therapists also work with clients on solving problems, learning new skills, and setting and achieving meaningful goals. Although initially therapists and clients work together in session, therapists also empower clients by teaching them to evaluate their thoughts and practice their new skills on their own, outside of therapy. When implemented correctly, CBT helps individuals get better and stay better.
Trauma-Focused CBT
From NTCSN: TF-CBT is an evidence-based treatment to address youth (ages 3-18 years) posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and related difficulties. It is a components- and phase- based treatment that therapists provide individually and in parallel to youth and their parents or primary caregivers, with additional conjoint child-parent sessions. TF-CBT has been tested in 25 randomized controlled trials and many additional effectiveness studies around the world, with strong evidence of improving children’s PTSD and related difficulties in 8-25 sessions, for children of different genders, races, ethnicities, and who have experienced diverse types of traumas. Updated 2024.