Approach
Traditional Approaches
My clients choose to work with me because I offer a non-traditional approach to dealing with trauma. Therapists untrained in trauma often try to apply common tools with little luck. This includes:
Left-Brain Oriented — focusing on logical thinking, analysis, and verbal processing. These approaches can be helpful and necessary in the early stages of therapy, but overall they do not lead to lasting change because trauma is stored in the right-brain.
Vintage Therapy — an emotionally disconnected therapist silently takes notes while the client verbaly processes. This is unhelpful because ( 1 ) trauma therapy needs to be relationship-based and ( 2 ) because therapists are trained in specific tools of healing that are not being utilized. Even empathy, while being powerful, is not enough to heal deep wounds.
Behaviorist — problematic behavior is seen as what presents on the surface; the clients taught to control themselves as they would a pet: through reinforcements or punishments. These changes are temporarily because they don’t address the underlying root causes.
Pathologizing Clients — viewing trauma responses as mere symptoms of mental illness rather than natural reactions to overwhelming events. These therapists typically underestimate or minimize the effects of trauma, invalidting a client’s feelings and experiences.
Clients who truly want to heal trauma will need a different approach.
My Approach
Relational Container
Unlike going to the doctor, trauma therapy isn’t something that’s done to you. All tools and techniques are done with the context of a healing relationship. Trauma is relational and must be healed in a relationship. Research has shown that across all approaches, the most important aspect of therapy is the therapeutic relationship. It increases neuroplasticity and neurogenesis, and can even increase the amount of serotonin in the brain.
Self-Parenting
If trauma is a swimming pool, it’s unwise to jump into the deep end. Instead of facing your darkest moments right away, it’s best to help you learn how to be in a relationship with yourself first. Overwhelming thoughts and emotions can finally become calm when we provide curiosity and connection.
Body Psychotherapy
As we now know, we cannot analyze or rationalize our way to healing. It must move beyond talking about our pain in a detached way. By using the tools below, we can work directly with the source of your pain. This has several benefits:
Clients can heal a painful past even if they don’t remember it.
Clients are relieved from having to intellectualize and solve why something is happening.
Clients can heal in an intuitive way that doesn’t rely on willpower to make something happen.
The ability to work with pre-verbal as well as intergenerational trauma
Common Symptoms I Work With
Feeling too much (high anxiety, panic, easily startled, anger, sleep problems, flashbacks, “overwhelmed”)
Feeling too little (numbness, dissociation, chronic depression, shame, lack of past memories, low self-esteem)
Physiological Symptoms (fibromyalgia, fatigue, muscle tension, nausea, digestive issues, headaches, heart palpitations, or rheumatoid arthritis)
Behaviors (perfectionism, hyper-rationalism, caretaking, enabling, obsessive behaviors, people pleasing, substance abuse, eating disorders, or self-harm)
Attachment issues (feeling “needy” or “clingy,” craving intimacy, fearing abandonment, being over-sensitive to a partner’s moods; avoiding closeness or vulnerability; a combination of desiring closeness but pushing others away)
Some Professional Influences
Dr. Bessel van der Kolk — his work introduced me to a holistic approach to treating trauma and many of the primary modalities that I’ve trained in.
Dr. Richard C. Schwartz — his development of Internal Family Systems has been the most transformational modality I’ve discovered. His believe that all humans have a core essence or “Self,” is truly powerful.
Relational Therapies — including Dr. Irving Yalom, Dr. Patricia Deyoung, Dr. Diana Fosha (AEDP), Dr. François Le Doze (IFS).
Dr. Janina Fisher — combining structural dissociation, EMDR, IFS, and sensorimotor therapy for CPTSD and DID.
DID Therapists — Onno van der Hart Ph.D. and Kathy Steele.
Dr. Gabor Maté —a Canadian doctor who had the radical idea of talking to his patients and hearing their stories instead of just treating their symptoms. I love his books and teachings. His compassionate presence is an inspiration to me.
Dr. Bruce Perry — an expert on childhood trauma
Dr. Marshall Rosenberg — A psychologist who pioneered an amazing communication approach called “Non-Violent Communication.”
Bonnie Badenoch — her translation of Interpersonal Neurobiology into therapy, including Sandtray and Group therapy.
Dr. Lawrence Heller — his work on NARM as a somatic approach focusing on CPTSD.
Dr. Stephen Terrell — his movement to discover a way therapists could add table work to treat CPTSD.
Dr. Deb Dana & Stanley Rosenberg — the use of Polyvagal Theory in Therapy
Carl Jung