I am Sandra Treston, a licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC). I have worked with individuals, couples and families seeking mental health services for over 15 years, in multiple different settings. I am very passionate about helping individuals like yourself live happier, healthier, and more fulfilling lives. It takes courage and wisdom to seek help, and I’m so glad that you’ve decided that you deserve more out of life. Life struggles are painful and can feel overwhelming. But they can also be gifts in disguise, pushing us to get out of our comfort zones, get out of auto-pilot, examine why we do what we do, and break free of old patterns that are not working for us. In essence, pain is a signal for an opportunity for growth. I would be honored to work in partnership with you to inspire, motivate, educate, empower and support as you work towards the life that you want. I have a great deal of experience counseling others suffering from depression, anxiety, relationship issues, trauma, addiction, and life transition issues to name a few. My counseling style combines empathy with a strengths based approach. An analogy I use is that I am the catalyst for the life changes you want to make, to inspire and encourage but ultimately it is you who will be doing the work.
What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?
The first session will be a lot of information gathering. I will ask what brought you to therapy, and start having you think about therapy goals. What do you want to get out of our sessions? I like to ask the "miracle question", which is, "if everything changed overnight, and you woke up the next morning and everything was the way you wanted it, what would that look like for you?"
Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.
My greatest strengths are my empathy, compassion, and ability to really listen and "meet you where you are" in order to focus on the areas you want to focus on - and move forward by use of your own strengths.
Describe the client(s) you are best positioned to serve.
I am very passionate about working with professionals who have had some work and life experience, but are feeling "stuck" where they are at, and are questioning their decisions and asking, "does life get better than this?" They are generally experiencing stress at work, issues with their relationships, or dealing with some level of depression, anxiety, and possibly substance abuse. Additionally, they may be finally realizing that past trauma has started to manifest in their lives in self-destructive ways.
About Sandra Treston
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VirtualMy treatment methods
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
I've found cognitive behavioral therapy to be an extremely useful tool in my practice. It helps my clients identify and challenge both self-limiting and self-defeating thoughts and behaviors, in order to create and begin to utilize more realistic, positive thoughts and behaviors. Having my clients journal, keep a thought log, and practicing mindfulness are all ways to help identify "stinkin' thinkin'", and once identified, anything unhelpful can be challenged and replaced with healthier ways of thinking and behaving.
Dialectical Behavior (DBT)
Dialectical behavioral therapy is very effective in helping my clients who struggle with overwhelming emotions and have trouble self-soothing. I use DBT to teach coping skills which include: distress tolerance, radical acceptance, mindfulness, emotional regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. I will have clients work on coping statements, distraction techniques, ways to evoke the relaxation response including breathing techniques, grounding techniques, self-affirmations, ways to practice mindfulness in everyday life; how to use the "wise-mind", and ways to communicate wants and needs that are based on client-identified values.
EMDR
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing has proven to be very helpful for my clients who have experienced some type of trauma. In an EMDR session, I have my clients use bi-lateral tapping (for example butterfly tapping on the chest, or tapping alternatively on the legs). This tapping can bring forth memories that have been stored in the unconscious mind to the surface so that they can be reprocessed in a more helpful way. These memories can be connected to a self-limiting belief, and once this belief is identified it can then be reprocessed as the conscious mind works through the memory - working towards something called the "future template", this is the more positive thing the client wants to believe about themselves. In essence, this technique builds a "bridge" over the traumatic memory so that future thoughts of the memory are not so distressing.
Existential
In existential therapy, I focus on client concerns and explore their beliefs about life. We will engage in philosophical questions to help them develop their own understanding of life's meaning and their place in the universe. I will often use creative methods such as art, or writing to express thoughts and feelings, or even role-playing scenarios to address potential outcomes of choices and actions. I will encourage clients to take risks and challenge them out of their comfort zones to create new perspectives and new potential life paths.
Exposure Response Prevention (ERP)
I have found exposure and response prevention to be a helpful tool with clients struggling with social anxiety and obsessive and compulsive types of disorders. For example, with social anxiety I have clients create a SUDS list (subjective units of distress). The client will create a list of situations that create social anxiety, and rate their level of anxiety from 1 (low) to 10 (high) for each situation. Then, starting from the low end, I will have them use various cognitive and behavioral techniques as they expose themselves to the feared situation. As they master the lower end situations, they work their way up until even their highest situation (say speaking in front of a bunch of people!) is mastered without distress.