LCSW, 18 years of experience
Hello! I am so glad you have made the decision towards making positive changes for yourself. I specialize in helping my clients who are struggling to manage emotions and behaviors that are interfering with their daily functioning in areas such as personal relationships, work, parenting, school, etc. These struggles may be the result of a single event that threatened survival, like a car accident, or from a chronic history of trauma and loss. Or maybe one struggles to manage their emotions and behaviors but they do not understand why. Maybe a person's life seems pretty good or even great. But they're puzzled as to why they feel the way they do. One may have thought "I have no reason to feel this way." I invite you to explore with me the possible origins of these thoughts and feelings. There are times we all need help and support.
A trusting, therapeutic relationship between you and your therapist is so important for achieving your therapy goals. It is normal to be a little anxious for your first session, or maybe even the first several sessions. Our first session will give us the chance to get to know one another. I will invite you to share some of your history and the issues that bring you to therapy. Everyone is unique, as well as their situations, beliefs and values. Together we will explore your goals and what you hope to achieve during our sessions together.
I believe my communication style is open, supportive, and non-judgmental. I have the ability to set most people at ease. I have a mildly dry sense of humor. I believe that therapy is a "team sport" working together to reach identified goals. It takes effort by both therapist and client. I love using analogies! I like to use a "buffet" analogy in my efforts to assist my clients. I offer my clients a 'buffet" of strategies and interventions. I invite you to take whatever items on the "buffet" that works well for you and leave the rest behind. I will help you identify goals that matter to you and offer items on my "buffet" that have helped others with similar goals. Recovery is like an onion. As we peel away layers in the therapy process, you may identify another layer or goal you would like to work on. We can add goals to your treatment plan at any time to ensure it’s always meaningful and relevant to you. I’m here to assist you and provide support on your healing journey.
You may be facing situations that are causing you to feel overwhelmed and unable to cope. You may be experiencing these overwhelming feelings due to a trauma history, grief and loss, health concerns, career uncertainty or work-related issues, life transitions, parenting issues, self-esteem problems, co-dependency, attachment trauma, or other relationship difficulties. Whether you are looking to work through traumatic experiences, or just wanting support for managing day to day issues, I will support you along your way.
As an EMDRIA-Certified Therapist, I have a decade of experience helping individuals navigate and heal from the effects of trauma and other issues impacting their lives. My approach integrates EMDR with other therapy modalities to create a personalized treatment plan tailored to each client's unique needs.
I have utilized Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), as an adjunct therapy in my practice for the past 18 years, guiding numerous clients through the healing process, following various traumas. It is an approach with several components that work together to address the psychological distress and behavioral challenges that can result from traumatic experiences.
Sandtray Therapy can work synergistically with other therapies like TF-CBT and EMDR, providing a multimodal approach to healing. For example, in the context of EMDR, Sandtray Therapy can assist with visualization and help clients explore memories at a deeper, non-verbal level before and during the processing phase with bilateral stimulation. When used alongside TF-CBT, Sandtray Therapy can be particularly helpful for building a trauma narrative, allowing clients to externalize difficult memories and work towards reframing them symbolically.
As a Level 1 IFS trained therapist, I use this modality as an adjunct to other therapy models. Before diving into trauma work, IFS can help create a sense of internal safety by identifying and connecting with a client's protective parts, such as "managers" and "firefighters." This approach helps clients understand that these parts, even when they manifest in unhelpful ways (e.g., perfectionism, anger, avoidance), are trying to protect them from pain, and fosters self-compassion for these protective efforts. This groundwork prepares clients for deeper processing by building internal trust and reducing the potential for becoming as overwhelmed during trauma-focused therapies like EMDR.
Exploring a person's attachment history with early caregivers can help make sense of how past experiences influence current relationships and overall functioning. Re-occurring relationship difficulties often arise as a result of early childhood attachment wounds. Current patterns of difficulty may consist of, choosing emotionally unavailable partners, experiencing fears of abandonment, difficulty maintaining friendships, romantic relationship difficulties, family conflict and work related issues. Exploring attachment history reveals the origins of these patterns as learned responses to early dynamics. Early attachment experiences can also significantly affect our ability to regulate our emotions. Through this exploration, individuals gain insight into the origins of their relationship difficulties and develop a deeper understanding of themselves.