I am committed to finding what suits my clients best. I have much guidance and many suggestions that I share with clients. Along with my expertise, I encourage clients to tell me what works and does not work for them. I believe it is important to feel like you can collaborate with your therapist and I make sure to provide a safe environment for clients to do so. To help clients heal, I have several techniques that I often employ as I have found them the most helpful in the work I do. 

 

The techniques I most commonly employ are Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Strength Based Therapy, Mindfulness, and Attachment Focused EMDR. CBT is about recognizing and changing negative thought patterns which ultimately leads to emotional and behavioral change. I am sure to weave in lots of self compassion work along with CBT because it is essential to quieting anxious thoughts and improving our self worth. Strength based therapy helps identify clients' strengths and find ways to use those strengths to overcome challenges and accomplish goals. Mindfulness is about living in the present moment without judgment. It is a technique that can be learned and practiced to bring more gratitude and happiness into our lives. I also teach clients a lot of healthy coping skills that they can use to manage difficult emotions. These skills help clients become more mindful of their emotions because they know they are equipped to handle them instead of feeling the need to avoid them. Attachment Focused EMDR is different from traditional talk therapy. I use this approach when helping clients work through trauma. We identify past traumatic experiences to target and then use bilateral stimulation (movement back and forth for example moving your eyes from one side to the other) to process the emotions, thoughts and physical sensations associated with that memory. By processing in this way the traumatic experiences become less distressing to think about. Clients feel more self confident and are able to let go of negative thoughts and emotions. This approach focuses on attachment because so much of the trauma we experience is related to our close relationships and those attachments need repair.

With couples I use some of the techniques described above as well as Emotionally Focused Therapy and Gottman Method. Emotionally Focused Therapy helps couples identify their negative communication/interaction patterns as well as change these patterns by learning positive communication skills, expressing feelings underneath anger, and practicing empathy. The Gottman Method identifies what makes a good relationship and what things create negativity in a relationship. This examination helps identify strengths in the relationship which can be used to improve it and the weaknesses can be addressed using Gottman’s antidotes to common issues.