Ashley Busch

Dialectical Behavior (DBT)

DBT is an evidence-based therapy specifically designed to help individuals with intense emotions, unstable relationships, and patterns of self-destructive or impulsive behavior—core challenges often experienced in borderline personality disorder (BPD). DBT teaches practical skills in four key areas: Distress Tolerance – managing crises and tolerating emotional pain without making things worse Mindfulness – staying present, aware, and grounded in the moment Emotion Regulation – understanding, managing, and reducing overwhelming emotions Interpersonal Effectiveness – building healthier relationships, setting boundaries, and communicating needs effectively DBT emphasizes both acceptance and change, and is a helpful approach for anyone struggling with their emotions, behaviors, thinking patterns, and relationships. In therapy, you’ll learn skills, practice them in real-life situations, and receive support and guidance to help break harmful patterns. The goal is to reduce emotional suffering, improve relationships, and create lasting stability and well-being.

Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)

I use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help clients understand the connection between thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. CBT focuses on identifying unhelpful or distorted thinking patterns that can contribute to emotional distress or problem behaviors. Together, we explore these patterns and learn practical strategies to challenge and replace them with more adaptive, balanced ways of thinking. Through CBT, clients develop skills to recognize triggers, reframe negative thoughts, and change behaviors in a way that promotes healthier emotional responses and more effective problem-solving. It is a goal-oriented approach that emphasizes real-world practice, helping clients gain insight, build coping skills, and create lasting change in how they think, feel, and act.

Schema Therapy

Schema Therapy is a long-term, evidence-based talk therapy that focuses on identifying and changing schemas—deeply held patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving that shape how people understand themselves and the world. Schemas often begin forming in childhood, especially in response to unmet emotional needs within the family or immediate environment. When these needs aren’t adequately met, schemas can become rigid and lead to unhealthy patterns, difficulties in relationships, emotional struggles, and other mental health challenges in adulthood. In Schema Therapy, clients work to recognize these patterns, understand their origins, and gradually develop healthier ways of thinking, feeling, and responding, creating lasting improvements in emotional well-being and relationships.

Psychodynamic

Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP) is a structured psychodynamic treatment developed specifically for people with Borderline Personality Disorder and related personality difficulties. TFP helps patients understand how past relationship experiences and unconscious emotional patterns influence current thoughts, reactions, and relationships. A central focus of treatment is exploring the emotions and interpersonal dynamics that emerge within the therapy relationship itself (“transference”), as these often reflect patterns that occur in everyday life. Through a consistent and collaborative therapeutic process, patients learn to identify intense emotional states, reduce “all-or-nothing” thinking, improve impulse control, and develop a more stable and integrated sense of self and others. TFP aims to reduce symptoms such as emotional instability, fear of abandonment, self-destructive behaviors, anger, and chaotic relationships while strengthening emotional regulation, self-awareness, and interpersonal functioning. Treatment is structured, goal-oriented, and grounded in clear therapeutic boundaries to support safety, accountability, and long-term change.

Psychoanalytic

Psychoanalytic therapy is a form of talk therapy that explores unconscious thoughts, feelings, and past experiences—especially from childhood—that influence current behavior and emotional challenges. Through techniques such as analyzing dreams, free associations, and patterns in relationships, the therapist helps clients uncover hidden conflicts and gain insight into recurring life patterns. The goal is to increase self-awareness, resolve inner conflicts, and foster lasting emotional growth. I am a Registered Art Therapist (ATR) with a specialization in Psychoanalytic Art Therapy, which integrates psychoanalytic principles with the creative process of art-making. This approach uses art as a tool to access thoughts and feelings that may be difficult to express verbally. Clients create images freely, and together we explore the symbolic meaning of the artwork—often connecting it to early experiences, inner conflicts, or recurring emotional patterns. Like traditional psychoanalysis, the goal of psychoanalytic art therapy is to bring unconscious material into awareness, promote insight, and support emotional healing—but through a visual, nonverbal medium that can reveal what words alone sometimes cannot.