MY MODALITIES
TRAUMA-INFORMED
Trauma-informed is both a philosophy and a style of therapy. As a trauma-informed therapist, my mindset is seeing “what happened to the client” versus there being something wrong or needing to be fixed in a client. I attend to each client’s individual nervous system in terms of how to approach, educate, and collaborate on tools and ways to heal the layers of trauma that may have affected an individual’s system.
I believe our culture is traumatizing and that most of us may have acute or complex trauma from development, an incident, relationships, and more. Because of this, I approach all my clients with a trauma-informed way of relating. The language I use, the choices I provide, and the container I set all aim for creating safety and support. Finding out what each of those mean to clients is my priority, while building individual resources to build a sustainable and meaningful life.
Educating clients in a big part of the work I do as I believe it empowers individuals and heals trauma. Most of my trainings and readings for working with trauma come from The Relational Center, David Treleaven, Resmaa Menakem, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, The Trauma Resiliency Model, and The Recovery Model.
INTERNAL FAMILY SYSTEMS
Internal Family Systems (IFS) was started by Dr. Richard C. Schwartz, who initially worked with families and clients primarily with eating disorders. Through this work, he discovered that his clients were made of a multitude of sub-personalities or parts. He believed, as do I, that we have our own system inside made up of our own family of ourselves. At our core, we have a capital S “Self,” the curious, calm, and wise part of us, that through life experience and trauma often become obscured. Think of a critical part, judging our behaviors or beating ourselves up for what we have done. We work to get to know this judger, how they developed, what job they serve in the system, and how to support them more. There are “no bad parts,” as Dr. Schwartz says, although it may feel that way. The idea is to get to know as many parts as possible in our system to access our Self and lead a more integrated life. I am excited to work with you to get to know your parts, witness, and gain more acceptance of yourself and others.
DEPTH PSYCHOLOGY
Depth psychology looks at unconscious and underlying reasons for our feelings, thoughts, and actions. This approach was developed by Carl Jung in order to further build on Freud’s theories. Depth psychology explores how the collective affects an individual, and incorporates creativity, imagination, and soul work to therapy. I use depth psychology by offering creative tools and practices in the room (or zoom). I believe that our culture brings us far away from our soul and spirit, which is a factor that leads to symptoms of suffering. I aim to reconnect individuals to their souls in order to discover what lies underneath and yearns to be seen. What our society or an individual may see as a problem or issue, depth would see as a call to look inward and at the collective. Depth can involve dream work, active imagination, visualization, art therapy, and other tools that awaken and feed unconscious parts and motives.
RELATIONAL THERAPY
Relational therapy emphasizes how relationships and our environment impact and create our world and self view. As a relational therapist, I will show up authentically. The focus is on my relationship with you, giving you an enriching experience of what it means to show up for someone in a present and compassionate way. I will share my experience and feelings in relation to what you share. I, like you, am a relational being, and together we will co-create the session with one another in the moment.