Individual Therapy Offerings
Trauma Therapy
Trauma is a brain and body response to an overwhelming event. This can be more obvious things like violence, abuse, poverty, or sudden loss, but it can also be lesser-known things like criticism, being loved for achieving, or dismissal of your emotions. When we feel alone in our pain and have no one to listen, love, or bring safety and comfort, this is what causes the trauma. Dissociation is the brain's way of coping to survive this distress.
Trauma therapy includes the use of multiple modalities as part of treatment, as there is no one-size-fits-all. Your therapist will provide a thorough assessment and discuss options for treatment collaboratively with you, the client. Goals in trauma therapy may include: stabilization of daily living, increasing awareness of feelings and needs, reducing intensity of trauma responses, addressing attachment-related issues, reprocessing memories, and reducing dissociative distress. Treatment may also include addressing an addiction, working through grief, navigating a life transition, and building social support.
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Trauma therapy is about more than coping - it can lead to transformation.
EMDR Therapy
EMDR is a structured therapy that encourages the client to focus briefly on the trauma memory or other selected target while simultaneously experiencing bilateral stimulation (typically eye movements), which is associated with a reduction in the vividness and emotional distress associated with the trauma memories. It is an extensively researched, effective psychotherapy method proven to help people recover from trauma and PTSD symptoms.
EMDR therapy does not require talking in detail about the distressing issue or
completing homework between sessions. EMDR therapy, rather than focusing on changing the emotions, thoughts, or behaviors resulting from the distressing issue, allows the brain to resume its natural healing process.
EMDR should only be offered by properly trained and licensed mental health clinicians, and can benefit children and adults of all ages. I use EMDR therapy to address a wide range of challenges:
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Anxiety, Panic Attacks, Phobias
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Avoidance & Procrastination
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Defense Mechanisms
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Depression
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Dissociation
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Grief
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Performance Anxiety
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PTSD & Trauma
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Sexual Trauma & Assault
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Shame
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Learn more at: www.emdria.org/about-emdr-therapy/
Christian Counseling
I provide a distinct approach to Christian counseling. At the start of therapy, I will take tremendous care to learn about and honor your faith tradition and theological framework and, if desired, integrate it with other psychological evidence-based approaches as part of your treatment. I have experience working with Christians from many denominational and cultural backgrounds and will hold high honor for your tradition.
I also hold the conviction that in Christian counseling, we can not only talk about God, we can experience God’s transforming power and love. With your informed consent, I will share with you spiritual interventions available, and their Scriptural basis for your thoughtful consideration. I will incorporate interventions that you clearly express consent for, and honor whatever level of faith integration feels best to you.
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I also have a special passion for those in ministry that need healing from trauma and attachment pain. In addition to counseling, I’m a Licensed Minister with Global Awakening and have served in ministry 15 years domestically and internationally. I have experience working with Christian leaders from many denominational and cultural backgrounds with high honor for every tradition.
Parts Work & Dissociation-Specific Approaches
“There’s a part of me that just can’t get past this.”
"I'm my own worst critic."
“I’m just not a very emotional person.”
"No one can be trusted."
"I've struggled with self-hatred for years."
"I've tried all the tools to manage this behavior, but I keep going back."
"I want to feel joy, but it doesn't feel natural."
“I feel alone, like an outsider much of the time.”
"I struggle with the fear of being abandoned."
"I feel like there's gaps in my memory or things I blocked out."
"Sometimes the world around me doesn't feel real."
Perhaps you identify with one or more of these statements. Parts work and dissociation-specific approaches are intended to address deeper concerns such as these. Early experiences with caregivers and peers shape how connections in the brain form, which influences one's sense of Self, capacity for connection, and way of relating to the world (Fernandez, I., in Gonzalez, A. & Mosquera, D., 2012. EMDR and Dissociation: The Progressive Approach, 1st ed.). "Parts" is a general term that refers to different aspects of self that formed to help you cope and survive.
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In working with complex trauma and dissociation, I draw from Attachment Theory, Emotion-Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT), Theory of Structural Dissociation, Ego States Therapy, and EMDR for dissociation to tailor therapy to your needs, as there is not a one-size-fits-all approach.
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SCID-D Assessment
I have completed 16 hours of training to administer the SCID-D interview to assess for dissociative symptoms. We can complete the assessment in sections at a time as part of the flow of regular therapy. During the interview, you will be given space to elaborate and describe your unique experiences.
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"Systematic assessment of dissociation is essential for accurate diagnosis and effective treatment of trauma survivors. The SCID-D is an interactive, semi-structured interview for assessing dissociative symptoms and disorders in adults and adolescents based on Dr. Steinberg's innovative Five Component Model of Dissociation Assessment (amnesia, depersonalization, derealization, identity confusion, and identity alteration). Over 30 years of worldwide research and clinical use have confirmed the reliability and validity of the SCID-D interview, and its universality across cultures. The interview has demonstrated a powerful ability to distinguish people with dissociative symptoms and disorders from those with other conditions, and it is widely regarded as the gold standard in the field" (American Psychological Association, The SCID-D Interview. https://www.appi.org/Products/Interviewing/SCID-D-Interview).