My Approach:
The research on psychotherapy outcomes is clear: the most important factor is the client’s strengths, resources, abilities, and values. My job is to help you build, access, and deepen these qualities in yourself.
Strength-based therapy means working to support your growth, empowerment, and agency. What do you want more of in yourself and your life? That’s what orients the work we do. Change happens a lot more easily when this is the focus.
The science tells us that therapy that does not make the client the star of the show…is ineffective and unscientific. And, frankly, ugly. I don’t do cookie cutter therapy. You as a client deserve better than cookie cutter therapy.
Yes, I care about the science, and I’m hard nosed about doing what actually works. I also care about beauty, and beautiful therapy puts the client in the centre.
Sometimes I work long-term with clients. Sometimes the work is brief, focused on more specific goals.
Either way, my approach always entails:
Consent: Informed consent is far more than a form you sign when you do your intake. Consent has to guide every session. You are the one who gets to say yes and no. This can be a radical practice just by itself.
Pace: Some therapists take forever to do anything. Others rush their clients and re-traumatize them. I work collaboratively so that we move at the pace that is most healing for you personally.
Customized: Every client deserves their own unique therapy experience. I draw on the rich wealth of my learning, as well as my empathy and creativity, to help your shape your own inner work in your own way.
Listening: I genuinely, deeply listen, far below the surface of your words.
Curiosity: I don’t do shallow conclusions. I’ll help you sift through the layers until you can see yourself fully enough to make real change.
Practical: I’ve spent many years acquiring techniques for nervous system regulation, healing, communication, mindfulness, empowerment, and transformation. These are teachable, specific, and you can change your life with them.
Political: Political injustice and oppression shape the human psyche in myriad ways. We can explore how this might be informing your experience, and create ways to increase your agency in the face of larger social forces.
Depth: If you want shallow, I’m not your girl. The unconscious mind is exquisitely beautiful and waiting for you to befriend it.
Creativity: I care about the science, and I care about the art. Let’s weave all that together. I’m playful, intuitive, and I’ll work with your ideas any time.
Authenticity: I truly believe that when a therapist is comfortable with themselves, the client automatically benefits. We don’t do pretense around here.
I am trained and experienced in a number of powerful therapeutic approaches:
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: A somatic method for treating trauma through mindfully embodied, inner communication; not just words. Survival responses are not just in the skull, and neither is trauma recovery. I particularly love Sensorimotor Psychotherapy because it allows treatment of trauma without having talk about painful memories repeatedly.
Clinical Hypnosis: Use trance to resolve symptoms and achieve deep healing. Not just a treatment you receive, but a skill you can learn to further your own growth and evolution. With clinical hypnosis you can profoundly surprise yourself with your abilities for healing, learning, changing, and growing.
Internal Family Systems: Work with the relationships between parts of self to resolve inner wounds. Nothing inside has to be rejected; as you welcome yourself, you can recover wholeness.
Solution Focused Therapy: Grow what is right about you, and find unique paths to creating what you want, not what you don’t.
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy: Develop radical new relationships to your thoughts, feelings, values, and life direction.
Pain Reprocessing Therapy: Treat persistent pain through scientific knowledge, somatic processing, and empowerment.
Nonviolent Communication: Practices to cultivate compassion, understanding, and boundaries with self and others.
Neurophysiological Science: Your brain is part of your body! There are many ways this knowledge leads to healing practices (such as Heartmath, TRE, and the ever-wonderful “Basic Exercise”).
Depth Psychology: I am a particular fan of Carl Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz, who offer rich insights for inner work, and lineage that spans thousands of years.
Spiritual Practices: the evidence for the healing benefits of ritual is extensive. I can support you to make that a part of your life.
I’ve worked in a wide spectrum of clinical settings, with all sorts of folks:
Inpatient substance use treatment
Inpatient mental health
Partial Hospital/Intensive Outpatient mental health
Integrative, team-based persistent pain treatment
Outpatient trauma treatment
I’ve done everything from ‘one session cures’ to multi-year complex trauma healing. I am deeply practiced in both group and individual psychotherapy. I’ve seen a LOT in my career. If there ever was any judgment in me, it evaporated long ago.