My approach
My approach is somatic, client-centered, compassionate, relational, and collaborative. I draw from several modalities including: Internal Family Systems, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Relational Life Therapy, ACT, Language of Emotions, Emotion Focused Couples Therapy, and Motivational Interviewing. Here you can learn about some of the modalities that I use to support you in achieving your goals for therapy. How we work is based on what brings you to therapy, whether we’re working individually or relationally, and on what you feel would be most effective for you. Together we forge a path that feels most useful and effective to us in our work together. When the seas of life get turbulent, it is helpful to have a raft to carry you to shore. The frameworks I use in supporting you are like rafts we use to navigate the movement and the flow of life from turbulent waters to calmer seas.
I draw from the following frameworks in my work with clients
Internal family systems
Internal Family Systems is a powerfully transformative, evidence-based model of psychotherapy. It is based on the belief that the mind naturally contains multiple parts and that is a good thing. Our inner parts contain valuable qualities and our core Self knows how to heal, allowing us to become integrated and whole. Through the IFS process we will get to know different parts of you, what drives them, what they need, and what they fear. We will access your core Self and allow this energy that is characterized by compassion, curiosity, clarity, calm, and creativity to support your parts toward living in harmony wholeness.
Emotionally Focused
Therapy
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) is a form of therapy that focuses on adult relationships and attachment/bonding. The therapist and clients map out the relationship blueprint (attachment style) of each partner and how these impact how they relate to each other and their experience of closeness and intimacy. The therapist and clients also look at patterns in the relationship that may be causing disconnection or conflict and take steps to create a more secure bond and develop more trust to move the relationship in the direction of a safe and secure bond.
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is body-based talk therapy that draws upon the natural wisdom of the body to tap into the innate drive in all of us to heal, adapt, and develop new capacities. The effects of trauma, neglect, and abusive relationships with childhood caregivers are held in our nervous systems, posture, and movement habits, as well as in unresolved painful emotions and limiting beliefs. To change these patterns, clients learn to mindfully follow the natural intelligent processes of body and mind. New information that often remains unnoticed in conventional therapies is revealed by paying attention to both aspects - body and mind.
Language of
Emotions
Emotions hold a tremendous amount of energy that can move us toward what is important in our lives, and we’ve all seen what happens when we repress or carelessly express them. Your ability to work intelligently with your emotions is a key factor in determining your overall well-being. But how many of us were taught what to do in the face of overwhelming grief, seething anger, or paralyzing fear? Through experiential exercises covering a full spectrum of feelings from anger, fear, and shame to jealousy, grief, joy, and more, you’ll discover how to work with your own and others’ emotions with fluency and expertise.
Relational Life Therapy
Building deeper, more intimate connections with ourselves and others is at the heart of Relational Life Therapy. RLT educates as much as it heals to equip people with the lifelong tools to live fully-connected, fearlessly authentic lives. RLT therapists use loving confrontation to wake clients up to their negative behaviors in a direct but compassionate way. We show clients the difficult truths about how they are harming their relationships in a way that builds trust rather than resistance. RLT equips people with the powerful tools they need to continue building authentic, healthy relationships long after their time in therapy is over—the key to creating change that lasts.
ACCEPTANCE COMMITMENT THERAPY
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a type of psychotherapy that helps you accept the difficulties that come with life and move toward what’s meaningful and important despite these difficulties. ACT is a form of mindfulness based, cognitive behavioral therapy that helps cultivate greater well-being by becoming more flexible around negative thoughts and feelings and by gaining clarity around what actually matters in your life. Essentially, ACT supports the development of psychological flexibility by reducing avoidant coping styles and leaning into a life based on values, meaning, and purpose.
We don’t heal in a Vacuum
All of our work places your experience in our cultural and historical context. We explore how the forces of patriarchy, capitalism, racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, colonization, classism, and other systems of oppression affect and directly impact your sense of self, your relationships, and your communities. We are working within systems of oppression and between layers of conditioning that are deep-seated in our culture. These cultural and political structures influence how we see and experience the world. They have been used against us, by us, and through us. Developing an awareness and a critical consciousness can begin to help us untangle from these oppressive forces and forge a liberation based lifestyle.
It’s the relationship that heals
The most important part of any process of therapy is the relationship between the client and the therapist. No amount of theory or frameworks can substitute a safe, attuned, and collaborative relationship between client and therapist. I look forward to talking with you to get a sense of what working together may be like. Please schedule a consultation to check-in with each other about your goals and desires for therapy and my approach in supporting you in moving toward them. If it feels right for us, we can move forward with starting the treatment process. If it doesn’t feel like a good fit, I can provide referrals to skilled and trusted colleagues who can better assist you on you journey.