Therapy Modalities
Although, most importantly I prioritize joining with you where you're at in your life and building rapport, these are 4 therapeutic models I go to when individualizing my work with you and or your partner. Please feel free to bring any questions regarding these modalities into our sessions.
Couples Therapy- EFT/Attachment
In couples work I come from an attachment perspective and use Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT). The understanding with EFT is that couples often find themselves in the same content focused pattern of arguments and conflict. When there is pain or hurt from one partner to another, it is rooted in your connection or attachment to your partner. To really heal and move away from these patterns, we must look at how we are either attaching or detaching to each other and begin to have conversations focused more on the emotion in the relationship than the content. For more information, please check out Dr. Sue Johnson's work with EFT and attachment at drsuejohnson.com.
Somatic Experiencing
I have also invested in a 3 year training process to complete my certificate in Somatic Experiencing. This is a fascinating study that reminds us that we all hold trauma and tension in our body from our past experiences. My practice incorporates the understanding and awareness of how your body may be telling your story of your past and pain in different ways than you are communicating verbally. I don't put hands on, but I do help you explain to me where you hold emotions in your body through your sensations as your talk. I then assist you in releasing these emotions by giving your body time to process your story. To learn more, feel free to visit this the Somatic Experiencing website, traumahealing.org.
CBT/DBT
In addition, Iwork with distorted or unhelpful thinking through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). This approach supports you by building awareness of thoughts that may be connected to your anxiety and depression and actually reinforcing negative symptoms. With an increase of awareness, I can then give you tools to reduce negative thinking and reduce your attachment to these thoughts. For more information about CBT, feel free to explore this website, file:///Users/lauren/Desktop/Cognitive%20Behavioral%20Therapy.
When these thoughts mentioned above are so entangled in your emotions that you begin to feel run by your emotions and often feel emotionally unstable, I also teach and implement Dialectal Behavioral Therapy (DBT) to increase emotionally stability. This practice can be similar to CBT, but with more focus on mood stabilization and mindfulness of your environment and emotions in the moment. For more info, feel free to explore this website, http://www.dialecticalbehavioraltherapy.net/.