Special areas of interest: Eating disorders, Self-harm and Trauma
I provide individual and group therapy for adolescents and adults. A person may come to therapy for a variety of reasons ranging from suffering severe emotional pain to a search for meaning or personal growth.
Therapy offers an improved quality of life which is truly immeasurable. Benefits that one could derive are:
- recognize and manage emotions
- compassionately move through grief or life transitions
- infuse creativity into areas of their life that were blocked before
- a deeper connection with themselves
- more self-awareness, making sense out of their behaviors or patterns
- love for themselves and learning how to be kind to themselves
- healthier relationships
- empowerment in decision making and choices
- healthier relationship with food and their bodies
- healing past traumas or hurts
EMDR Therapy: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a researched psychotherapy approach shown to be effective in treating post-traumatic stress. In addition, EMDR has been used successfully to treat eating disorders, body dysmorphic disorders, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, and stress. EMDR therapy helps the brain process through material that was too disturbing to be processed through at the time. These memories get frozen with their original images, feelings, sounds, and smells, which can interfere with a person’s daily life. EMDR therapy helps unfreeze this material and make it less disturbing.
Mindfulness: Mindfulness is the opposite of what we all have been told would be best for us. We are told to get rid of, fix, change or ignore anything that causes suffering. Mindfulness teaches us to be with what is in the present moment, even if this is a difficult emotion or life situation. In therapy, mindfulness can help a person build up their ability to stay with difficult emotions rather than seeking a destructive behavior in order to cope. The models I use are acceptance and commitment therapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.
Expressive/Experiential Therapy: Expressive therapy, also called experiential therapy, helps a person express a feeling or pattern. This is done through the use of art (drawing, painting or collages), music, sandtray, and images. In expressive therapy we work with the experience of how something feels. This work is also about the process of creating something that goes beyond the words used in traditional talk therapy. It is about the process, not about the finished product. Expressive therapy increases a person’s understanding of themselves and provides a way to cope with difficult emotions.