We must be willing let go of the life we planned,
so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
-Joseph Campbell
Our Therapeutic Style
We believe that in order for therapy to work both parties have to come to the relationship with a level of authenticity. So while we rely heavily on our evidenced based approaches to therapy we always let you guide the session. We have taken the deep dive into ourselves and use what in therapy is called “a conscious use of self” in order to create a more genuine connection between therapist and client. We have dedicated our lives to learning what helps people. We want you to have that knowledge and be empowered in your own healing. When you leave our time together our goal is for you to feel strong and prepared to live the life that is waiting for you.
Therapy Jargon Explained….
Trauma
These days you hear a lot about trauma. Trauma is a whole body experience that impacts our sense of safety, our emotions, thoughts, beliefs as well as our nervous system. New research shows that trauma is not so much about the content of the experience but how the body processes and experiences it. That means that something that may not fit your definition of trauma could be affecting you in the same way and having the same effects on your mental and physical state. We are watching for signs of a trauma response at all points in therapy and will process this with you along the way, identifying which method will work best for you and your body to work through it.
Grief and Loss
Grief is a natural response to any form of loss in our lives. Often people only relate grief to the death of a loved one but it is much more common then that. The process of grieving a loss can happen from a move, a change in job, a loss of a relationship or even the loss of a dream once had. Through our work we have identified grief with most of our clients in one form or another. There is no one way to grieve but one common thread is that healing can begin by simply acknowledging that grief and loss are present.
Grief tends to surface at different times in therapy and when it does we choose to use the Companioning Model of Grief and Kubler Ross’s Stages of Grief to focus our work. The stages of grief help give some context and normalcy to what you are feeling in that moment. The companioning model states that the client leads and the therapist is just holding a space to explore the feelings as much or as little as you want.
Turning towards the grief when you are ready in a safe space can move along the healing process and make you feel relief sooner.
Attachment based therapy
Attachment-based therapy focuses on the relationships you develop with your caregivers starting in infancy and how that influences the way you connect with others today. We all have a strong biological drive to attach with our caregiver. Sometimes these styles can be dismissive or even abusive. This can cause difficulties for you when trying to start new relationships later in your life because we often choose partners that match what feels comfortable for us. Just because it is comfortable does not mean it is healthy. By taking a deeper look into your style of attaching and how that has affected you over time you can learn to build more meaningful and healthy connections with others.
This approach leads a lot of our work with relationships and is a foundation for other approaches we use.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR) was created to treat trauma patients, but is frequently used for depression and anxiety. The basic idea is the body has a natural drive to repair itself and return itself to wellness. Through systematic steps the goal of EMDR is to remove the memory or trauma that is blocking the body from restoring mental health.
This modality often helps where traditional talk therapy is not able to. This is an exciting new area in therapy and has had some profound results, especially in dealing with trauma.
Interpersonal Therapy
Interpersonal Therapy(IPT) is an evidenced based therapy that foundation is is found within Attachment Theory. IPT focuses on improving relationships with others in order to reduce internal distress. It is a short term approach that has developed useful tools to identify and improve interpersonal deficits (relationship issues), unresolved grief or difficult role transitions(becoming a mom, divorce etc.).
Somatic Relational Therapy
Somatic Relational Therapy (Bioenergetic Analysis) is a treatment that focuses on how trauma is stored in the body and how the body continues to react in our day-to-day lives as we interact with people and the world around us. The goal is to help clients heal from trauma at a pace that works for them. This is done by learning how each individuals nervous systems responds, in order to reduce the disturbances in the persons present functioning.
This approach is very useful to help the client maintain functioning outside of therapy while possibly dealing with some very difficult issues within the therapeutic process. It guides the therapist to only work as quickly as is safe for the client.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive behavioral therapy believes that most of our issues come from distorted thinking or unhelpful learned patterns of behavior. It is a skills based model that can be very effective at reducing symptoms that cause distress related to anxiety or depression.
We often use this model early on in order to help reduce symptoms while using another approach to look at the underlying reasons for distress.
Dialectal Behavioral Therapy
Dialectal Behavioral Therapy is a talk therapy that uses the Cognitive Behavioral Theory lens while adding the focus on our social relationships. It is a skills base approach that focuses on, mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness (improving personal relationships), distress tolerance (ability to handle an emotional problem without getting overwhelmed) and emotional regulation (ability to have an emotional response that is appropriate for what has occurred).
We would use this approach if people came to us with a history of friendship issues or lost connections with family. It is a very supportive therapy that uses validation and concrete tools to move towards more health relationships.