Specialties
There are five key components to what I believe comprises effective healing around mental health. (1) Health and Nutrition (2) Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (3) Emotional Focused Therapy (4) Deep Dive Work (i.e. trauma focused work), (5) Somatic / Body Focused Therapy and (6) Meditation. I believe therapy when effective is about completing the cycle of emotional, cognitive, somatic (body) energy that has not been fully processed through. At the most basic level, it is growing in the capacity to sit with old pain and process it through. My role as the therapist is to know how and when to help you complete the process. Sometimes, it is wise to not immediately jump into old traumas and instead we work to install healing resourcing (tools). Other times, it’s our refusal of being present in the body that elongates the pain. There is a delicate balance with both.
trauma focused work
I have found that in order for one to process trauma and deep wounds we must access the subconscious. Talk therapy typically does not provide the significant shifts / changes that is necessary to bring the change. Therapy that gets one out of the prefrontal cortex to processing in the Limbic system tends to be more effective. In other words, it shifts us back out of the Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn to the CEO part of brain. Therapies such as EMDR, Brainspotting, Integrative Modeling, Internal Families Systems are the recommended modalities for such therapy.
ideal parent figure protocal
This is a visual practice that treats early attachment wounds. Our attachment style plays a very significant and subconscious role in the way we behave particularly in relationships. This practice helps heal old attachment wounds through visualizations and imagination through the development of ideal parent figures during key developmental years of one’s life. Recent studies, using fMRI brain scans, have shown that imagination alone can help rewire the brain.
grief Therapy
Grief is one of the hardest seasons to go through. When we are in the middle of it, often times we just want some relief. It can also be a time of clarity of what really matters. Often times, the last thing we want is to be told is "it’s going to be ok" or "all things work together for the good..." and "God's got a plan". Grief can also leads us to ask some really big and powerful questions.
Schema Therapy
I valued schema therapy because it allows us to look at our patterns without pathologizing ourselves. This model provides a helpful mirror of seeing oneself in various modes that we shift “dissociate” into. The more we see these various modes / patterns we can begin to catch ourselves falling back into less than ideal patterns. This allows for change.
meditation
Meditation is integral in that it allows for a practice so we don’t have to practice when difficulties arise in the moment”. Meditation can take many forms and not just “sitting meditation”. It is the practice of being present to the moment whether it is walking, washing dishes, sitting, running, etc. It is the practice of being connected to the present moment verses a form of dissociation by being caught up in our “thinking mind”. We still utilize that rational mind but it is not what is driving life anymore. Rather it is from our heart. I utilize meditation so that you can develop your own practice.
Body work
Body work often gets overlooked in the west. Somatic (body) focused therapy is very important in the integration of body, mind, and soul / heart. Two very effective practices are with Qi Gong and energy work. Qi Gong has been around thousands of years and is a way to practice meditation in connection with body movement and breath. Energy work is another form through Chakra focused types of therapy. At the core, it is about releasing energy in the body and to bring integration and alignment.
Comprehensive Resource Modeling
This is one of the most effective models of therapy because it helps resource you in a more grounded and contemplative place. I have found some of the most effective deep work has happened through the flow of processing which incorporates visualizations, breath work, energy work, Ideal Parent / Spiritual Figure Resourcing, Brainspotting.
Narrative therapy
Our life’s story matters and part of therapy is seeing one’s own personal arch of a heroic path. And it is seeing the shadow side as well, in ways we may be sabotaging our deep inner calling. The process is knowing how and when to tap into these deep dreams, desires, and calling from the soul. Identifying one’s Hero or Heroine’s journey is so important.
Brainspotting (BSP) / EMDR
I utilize both of these modalities often during the same session to treat trauma, anxiety, depression, shame, and addiction. EMDR / BSP uses a common phrase which says, "past is present". The process accesses those past disturbing memories as well as our emotions, negative beliefs about oneself, body sensations, and images around those past events. EMDR / BSP then helps reprocess those target memories. The goal is that we are looking for a shift / release from those negative experiences getting one back to peace. This model incorporates cognitive, emotional, and somatic reprocessing.
Internal family systems (IFS)
IFS is a wonderful and very effective mode of therapy. Basically, it helps us understand the inner contradictions of one’s life. It also allows us to reconnect with “parts” of ourself and begin to unburden those parts that have been holding unprocessed energy/emotions/thoughts and integrating them back into our overall system of “being”. It basically is a westernized form of meditation where we grow into the benevolent observing witness allowing us to slowly unhook from reactions, pattens, and beliefs.
cognitive behavioral therapy
Often times it is our thinking mind that creates our suffering. Our thinking can distort actual reality of “what is”. Therapy is about challenging our false / negative beliefs to the truth of the moment. Part of one’s therapy is learning to not only notice our negative thinking patterns but to catch ourselves in the dissociative act of “negative thinking” and to come back to the moment.
Life transitions
Transitions in life can be very difficult and bring forth an ‘undoing’ of oneself. Life flows continually threw order, disorder, then reorder. One central truth is that life is impermanent. But it usually is in the ‘in between’, thresholds of life, that real growth can be realized. Part of the therapeutic process is asking the questions we don’t want to ask or fully answer.