My Services
Individual therapy is just that - individual. All individual sessions scheduled after your initial intake are for 55 minutes, unless a shorter or longer session is deemed necessary. Sessions are typically scheduled once a week.
We will explore treatment goals together to determine the length of time needed to accomplish your goals. Each individual is different. Some people benefit from brief therapy (4-8 sessions), while others require more long-term treatment to process what is bringing them in. We will continually assess and explore treatment progress together to determine when you have met your goals. In the event that my services are no longer benefiting you, we will explore the option of a referral to a different clinician who is better equipped to provide you with what you are looking for in treatment.
As you begin to find relief and a different way to navigate issues, we will explore meeting less frequently and ultimately end our time together. We will discuss the progress you have made in treatment, brainstorm about ways to continue to live a more authentic and healthy lifestyle, and how to reengage in therapy if you need to. The door is always open.
I offer monthly check-ins at a reduced rate to help you as you navigate life after therapy. This entails a 30-minute session each month for the first year after ending therapy.
I do not believe therapy is meant to be forever. We will frequently be discussing the therapy process and your progress to ensure you are receiving excellent care. My ultimate goal is to empower you to have the tools to create a life worth living.
Trauma Work
Trauma is the Greek word for “wound”. Some wounds are large and obvious while others are more subtle and weave into our lived experiences. No matter the amount or size of the wound, our response often is to minimize, suppress, or banish them from our consciousness in order to survive the unspeakable.
Dr. Judith Herman observed “The conflict between the will to deny horrible events and the will to proclaim them aloud is the central dialectic of psychological trauma…But far too often secrecy prevails, and the story of the traumatic event surfaces not as a verbal narrative but as a symptom.” These symptoms (irritability, anger, restlessness, inability to trust, depression, emotional numbness, difficulty with impulse control, chemical dependance and addictions, dissociation, apathy) are most likely what prompted you to seek help.
When I engage in trauma work, I follow the Stage Model of Trauma Recovery (created by Dr. Herman) where we approach trauma recovery in 3 stages:
· Stage 1 – Establishment of Safety: Our primary goal is creating a safe and trusting relationship to be able to engage in trauma work. We do not dive right into your trauma. That serves no purpose but to retraumatize you. Trauma lives in your body and when you become triggered your nervous system becomes dysregulated. We focus on self-regulation and skill-building to find tools that work for you to regulate your nervous system and manage emotions effectively in your daily life.
· Stage 2 – Remembrance and Mourning: We begin by engaging in talk therapy and then explore the option of EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) (https://www.emdria.org/about-emdr-therapy/experiencing-emdr-therapy/) to help you reprocess stressful or traumatic memories in an intentional and organized way. Somatic and Attachment Focused (S.A.F.E) EMDR is the model I use in my practice. (https://www.emdr-training.net/somatic-attachment-focused-s-f-e-emdr-different/). We focus on repairing and strengthening the Mind Body Soul connection.
· Stage 3 – Reconnection with Ordinary Life: We identify and challenge unhelpful coping tools and relational patterns that no longer serve you. We work to create new meanings based on the experiences you have had in the past and solidify new belief systems about yourself, relationships with others, and your lived experiences.
EMDR
(Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
EMDR directly targets the physiological patterns that keep you trapped in your stress response: fight, flight, fawn, or freeze. Even when you understand your trauma, name your triggers, and connect the dots, you may often remain stuck in your trauma. You may have intellectualized your trauma as a way to cope and protect yourself. To truly heal, you need an approach that works where trauma actually lives: in your memory networks and neurobiology. By engaging the brain's natural information-processing system, EMDR helps restore balance to the autonomic nervous system and promotes integration, regulation, and resilience.
EMDR is a psychotherapy that helps the brain process traumatic or distressing memories, reducing their emotional intensity and promoting healing. This therapeutic approach involves moving your eyes a specific way while you process traumatic memories. EMDR’s goal is to help you heal from trauma or other distressing life experiences.
I do not dive right into reprocessing memories but instead spread out the sessions to ensure I know your triggers and you know how to regulate and what your window of tolerance is for sitting with the disturbing and traumatic memories.
EMDR therapy consists of eight phases:
Patient history and information gathering. We gather information about you and your past. This helps us determine if EMDR is an appropriate treatment option. It includes asking about upsetting or disturbing events and memories that you want your therapy to focus on, as well as your goals for this therapy.
Preparation and education. During this phase, we talk about what will happen during EMDR sessions and what you can expect. I provide you with tools to help you manage your emotions.
Assessment. This part of the process is where we identify themes and specific memories that you may want to work on during reprocessing. We identify both negative beliefs about how the trauma has made you feel, as well as positive beliefs that you would like to believe about yourself going forward.
Desensitization and reprocessing. During this phase, we activate your memory by helping you identify one or more specific negative images, thoughts, feelings and body sensations. Throughout the reprocessing, I help you notice how you feel and any new thoughts or insight you have about what you’re experiencing.
Installation. We focus on the positive belief you want to build in as you process a memory. This positive belief can be what you said in phase 3 or something new you think of during phase 4.
Body scan. We focus on how you feel in your body, especially any of the symptoms you feel when you think about or experience the negative memory. This phase helps identify your progress through EMDR therapy overall. As you go through sessions, your symptoms should decrease until you don’t have any. Once your symptoms are gone, your reprocessing is complete.
Closure and stabilization. This phase forms a bridge between later sessions. During this phase, we talk about what you should expect between sessions. You will know how to stabilize yourself, especially if you have negative thoughts or feelings during the time between sessions. We ensure each session ends with you feeling safe and calm.
Reevaluation and continuing care. The final phase of EMDR therapy involves going over your progress and how you’re doing now. This can help determine if you need additional sessions or how to adjust your goals and expectations for your therapy.
These phases occur over multiple sessions, with one session sometimes using parts of several phases. For a single disturbing event or memory, it usually takes between three and six sessions. More complex or longer-term traumas may take eight to 12 sessions (or sometimes more).
Grief and Loss
Often individuals arrive in session begging to not feel the profound pain that consumes their entire being as they learn to live through grief and loss. Kübler-Ross’s five stages were originally devised for people who were ill and are widely misunderstood. It is not a roadmap through grief or steps you take to be done grieving. Rather denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance are similar destinations that most people explore in their unique and complex grief. The amount of time and frequency at each destination varies from person to person and loss to loss.
Dr. Robert Neimeyer, an expert in bereavement and grief, introduced a model that focuses on meaning-making in the grieving process. He suggests that part of the work of grieving is to actively reconstruct a new narrative that integrates the loss into our life story. This model recognizes that part of grieving is finding a way to integrate the past with the present and future. It supports individuals to actively engage with and befriend their grief, and to start to transform the pain into a source of wisdom and growth.
Neimeyer’s Meaning Making Model of Grief
Active Narrative Construction: At the core of Dr. Neimeyer’s model is the process of actively identifying and deconstructing old narratives and engaging in constructing new narratives following a significant loss. These narratives help us to make sense of the loss within our life story.
Integrating the past, present and future: Navigating grief with purpose goes beyond mourning the past. It also involves finding a way to bridge the present and the future. It means acknowledging the importance of what was lost and understanding how there can be a continued connection or legacy to who / what has been lost, by finding a way to carry the memories and lessons from the past forward into the future.
Transformation of pain: Neimeyer’s model encourages us to view our grief as a transformative process and an active meaning-making process, which can lead to personal growth, increased resiliency and deep wisdom.
The flexibility of this model is flexible allows us to heal different types of loss, including grief after divorce, job loss, the ending of a significant relationship, death of loved ones, infertility, or another major life change that brings feelings of grief. We work together to find meaning and healing in the process. This is done with:
Active Listening and Validation
Storytelling
Exploration of Beliefs and Assumptions:
Identifying Grief Triggers
Integration of the Loss
Creating a New Narrative
Rituals and Symbolism
Support Networks
Goal Setting
Continued Self-Reflection
Maternal Mental Wellness
Mom, Mommy, Mama…such a complex and profound role. Motherhood rarely unfolds how we imagined it would be. The loneliness, shame, and sadness that accompanies any infertility or loss before birth can feel crippling. It may unravel all your beliefs about yourself and the world. The initial entrance into this role is all consuming and you may find yourself questioning who you are or longing for that version of yourself that existed before you became someone’s entire world. Often the expectations that come from our families, ourselves, and society leave us feeling that we are inadequate or somehow always doing it wrong when it comes to motherhood. Mommy guilt can sabotage our entire experience of motherhood. You may find a version of yourself you no longer recognize. Worried about every possible thing that could go wrong. Weighed down by the enormous mental load of running the household, keeping track of appointments, making sure your child(ren) are happy and healthy, navigating the endless to do list. Stressed and isolated while trying to make it look like you have it all together. Perhaps you have a supportive partner. Perhaps you have a partner that cannot begin to understand how to support you. Perhaps you don’t even know how to support you. The reality is you aren’t doing it wrong, it just really is this hard. No matter where you are on your motherhood journey – infertility, miscarriage, infant loss, new motherhood, surviving toddlers to teens, child loss, or navigating an empty nest – I am here to support you.
