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My approach

 

Your unique inner life and relationship with yourself are the foundation for how you move through the world. My work is rooted in mindfulness-based techniques that allow you to cultivate greater self-compassion, awareness, and acceptance. Healing your relationship to yourself gives you the freedom to trust your feelings and to tap into your own resources as you move forward in your life. 

I work with emotions in a way that helps you understand why you are feeling what you feel, and how to move through it in a productive way. This may mean uncovering a pattern of thinking and feeling, or it may mean building and using tools to help you feel better. Rather than just talking about what is going on with you, together we will actively engage your embodied experience to uncover personal blocks and unlock new paths for growth. 

Through our work together, you will develop a stronger sense of who you are, who you’ve been, and gain more clarity about where you might like to go. This openness to yourself is empowering and leads to greater self-confidence and more fulfilling, healthy, and vibrant relationships. 

I warmly invite you to explore experiential therapy tailored to work with your specific needs. My integrative approach draws upon a blend of several different types of therapy, including:

  • Mindfulness-based techniques and Self-Compassion

  • Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy

  • Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP)

  • Internal Family Systems (IFS)

  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Internal Family Systems (IFS)

Internal Family Systems therapy helps you to connect with your Core Self so that you can interact with your feelings in a healthy, productive way—with clarity about who you are and how you want to live. 

The Core Self is the most authentic, wise expression of who we are; a grounded, healthy version of ourselves capable of guiding us effectively through our lives. In addition to the Core Self, each of us has an internal ecosystem of different parts that interact with each other, fulfilling different roles for us. Some of these roles offer distraction from challenging emotions and others manage the mundane aspects of ourselves and get us from point A to B, while still others are more hidden and carry deep pain and trauma. When operating from your Core Self, you can compassionately connect to these separate parts — even those you might normally push away or avoid. By exploring and understanding the different parts of ourselves, we develop self-awareness and over time can achieve deep, enduring healing.

The Internal Family Systems model offers an experiential approach to therapy, where you are encouraged to interact with each part of yourself with openness and curiosity. IFS therapy teaches you to embrace each part — even those that are centered in anger, anxiety, judgment, and shame — as valuable, unique aspects of yourself that have something to teach you. 

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is a transformative approach designed to help individuals navigate through past traumas and distressing experiences. EMDR is a well-established psychotherapeutic technique that facilitates the processing and resolution of emotional wounds and traumatic memories. Through a structured series of sessions, clients are guided to recall distressing memories while simultaneously focusing on bilateral stimulation, often in the form of rhythmic eye movements. This bilateral stimulation helps unlock and reprocess the negative emotions attached to these memories, allowing for the integration of more adaptive beliefs and perspectives.

I will work closely with you to identify and address the specific memories or triggers that have been causing distress. The process involves a series of phases, starting with building a foundation of coping skills and trust, followed by pinpointing target memories for reprocessing. While EMDR may evoke intense emotions during sessions, I provide guidance to ensure you feel supported and in control throughout. Over time, clients often report reduced emotional charge surrounding traumatic memories, decreased symptoms, and a greater sense of empowerment. EMDR holds the potential to pave the way for lasting healing and a renewed perspective on life's challenges.

Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP)

Accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy (AEDP) is a mind-body therapy based on up-to-date neuroscience that is deeply rooted in creating a safe and caring relationship. When you experience a positive, safe, responsive relationship, your body releases chemicals and hormones that improve clarity and help you to regulate your stress and emotions. 

Working through the lens of attachment theory, we strategically use emotions to bring about positive transformation. Within a safe, nurturing environment, it becomes possible to explore emotions or parts of yourself that might have been too difficult or shameful to delve into before. AEDP taps into our innate emotional resilience and capacity for healing, ultimately encouraging neuroplasticity and long-lasting positive change. 

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is a type of behavioral therapy based on Buddhist psychology and mindfulness. ACT draws from, and it teaches you how to accept your emotions rather than avoiding or denying them. You are encouraged to identify and allow your emotional responses, while at the same time committing to living in line with your values.

 ACT focuses on letting things be what they are: pain is a part of all of our lives, as are difficult thoughts that arise in our minds. In this type of therapy, you commit to working on issues directly, even if doing so means embracing uncomfortable feelings instead of rejecting them. Unlike therapies that follow specific protocols, ACT allows a therapist to tailor mindfulness techniques for the client. By cultivating psychological flexibility — the ability to stay present in the moment and to choose your behavior even in the face of difficult emotions — ACT makes it possible for you to live in a way that is authentic to you and aligned with your values. 

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is the most researched evidence-based model of behavioral therapy. This approach centers on how thoughts and emotions can influence your behavior. CBT is solutions-focused and aims to shift negative patterns of thoughts and feelings to produce new behaviors.

CBT breaks problems that feel overwhelming into smaller parts, offering specific exercises and tools to manage them. Rather than delving deeply into the past, CBT mostly focuses on your current experiences, exploring your current thoughts and beliefs that inform the way you are moving through the world. CBT helps you to develop vital coping skills that will allow you to move forward independent of therapy. 

My Philosophy

Early in our lives, we develop effective strategies that help us adapt to our environment, however difficult. These same strategies of relating to ourselves and others can create struggles later in life if they are not updated. Together, we will put words to your thoughts and feelings, and the different parts of yourself that both attempt to protect but also prevent you from thriving. Once we can empathize with the reason for our protective strategies, we can begin the work of transforming these old ways of being.

Through our work together, you will have an increased sense of who you are, who you’ve been, and gain some clarity about where you might like to go. This openness to yourself often leads to greater self-confidence and more fulfilling, vibrant, and healthy relationships.

Advanced Training

I continue to pursue advanced training using innovative therapeutic approaches. Doing so gives me the opportunity to continually learn and grow both personally and professionally, and to bring these advances to my work with clients.

I have advanced training in the following approaches:

Mindfulness

  • Attended a day-long mindfulness training with Jack Kornfield

  • Trained in mindfulness-based stress reduction

  • Trained in self-compassion practices

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy

  • Trained in EMDR by Philip Manfield, Ph.D.

  • EMDR consultation with Gina Ornelas, LMFT

Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP)

  • Completed AEDP Immersion Course with Dr. Diana Fosha, founder of AEDP

  • Completed AEDP Essential Skills Course

  • Ongoing consultation with AEDP experts

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

  • Completed 1 year of pre-doctoral training at the Berkeley CBT Clinic

Internal Family Systems (IFS)

  • Completed a training with Dr. Richard Schwartz, founder of IFS

  • Completed a consulting partnership with a colleague, involving self-study using IFS

  • Participated in 2-year peer-led consultation group related to IFS

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

  • Completed a one-year training focused on ACT

  • Received supervision from Dr. Maggie Chartier, leading ACT expert for Veterans