Psychotherapy
Individual psychotherapy sessions for adults. Areas of healing and specialty include :
Helping people develop fulfilling relationships, process difficult emotions and overcome excessive worry.
Make peace with your past: heal from family of origin issues.
Heal from chronic pain and chronic health problems using mindbody techniques, see below.
Helping the chronically nice or anxious-to-please individual heal: explore self-doubt and stop obsessing. Learn to set boundaries and to empower your inner voice.
Recover from anxiety, depression, grief and trauma.
Helping prenatal and postpartum women navigate mental health issues.
Clinical Brainspotting
Brainspotting (BSP) is a powerful focused treatment method for healing trauma, strong negative emotional states and maladaptive patterns of behavior.
We begin by identifying an emotional issue that we would like to focus on. We feel this issues charge internally. How strong is it on a scale of 0-10? We notice where/how it is experienced in the body. We find an eye position in your visual field, that either activates the distress or enhances a sense of calm. These eye positions are called Brainspots. A brainspot helps us access the identified issue on a neurobiological level. This facilitates the start of deep processing of the issue in the body and the brain. While gazing at a brain spot you will be asked to notice and allow, whatever sensations, thoughts, memories or feelings might arise. My job is to support, track and attune to your experience. To facilitate this healing bilateral stimulation, either in the form of calming music or vibrating pulsers, will also be used to calm your nervous system.
This method is very effective for mood disorders, anxiety disorders, PTSD, accidents and injuries, mind-body stress illness, sexual, physical and emotional abuse, grief, stress and relational distress.
To learn more about BSP go to:
David Grand the founder of Brainspotting has many videos online and two books.
Brainspotting Consultation
I am a certified Brainspotting consultant. If you are a therapist who has completed Brainspotting trainings Level One and Two and are interested in becoming a Certified Brainspotting Therapist, I can help. I am available to work with you to complete the consultation sessions needed. Please reach out to learn more.
Treatment for Chronic Pain: Pain Reprocessing Therapy
In recent years, as our understanding of the brain has increased, innovative treatments have been developed to treat all types of chronic pain. Research shows that pain is a danger signal that our brain sends to our body to alert us of a perceived threat. This threat can be real or imagined, physical or psychological. It can also come from outside of our conscious awareness.
Our nervous systems responds to threat by activating our flight/flight/freeze response. When the danger has passed we relax and move back to rest and digest mode. However, our brain can develop a hypersensitivity to perceived danger. The longer danger and fear are activated in our system, the more at risk we are of developing chronic pain and pain that spreads to other areas.
This new understanding has many names: It can be called Psychopysiologic Disorders (PPD), Mindbody symptoms, Neuroplastic Pain or TMS (Tension Myositis Syndrome). The good news about PPD or Neuroplastic pain, is that conditions that were once thought to be long term and pervasive are now curable.
Some examples of conditions that are often not the result of structural causes, but of psychophysiologic processes that can be reversed are: Chronic pain in the back/neck/shoulder/etc., headaches, repetitive strain injuries, irritable bowel & fibromyalgia, along with many others.
Research has shown that pain is often caused by learned neuropathways in the brain. Just as these pathways are learned, with time, they can also be unlearned. Pain Reprocessing Therapy is a method to rewire neuropathways, thus deactivating pain.
As you begin your journey to learn more, remember that ALL PAIN IS REAL PAIN and there is a road to recovery.
Some resources to learn more about Neuroplastic Pain:
The Book, The Way Out, by Allan Gordon
Dr. Howard Schubiner: www.unlearnyourpain.com
The Daring Way™
The Daring Way™ is an empirically based healing program based on the research of Dr. Brené Brown that can be done individually or in groups. The work focuses on courage building, shame resilience, and uncovering the power of vulnerability. It is designed to help people learn how to show up, be seen and live braver lives
In individual therapy I incorporate her research and methods to help people examine the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that are holding them back. Then we work to identify new choices and practices that will move you toward more authentic and wholehearted ways of living.