We will always create a safe, comfortable environment where you can feel trusting and in control of the therapy process. Trauma-informed therapy means we will always be looking at what happened to you and how you can regain power and control in your life. We will examine and gain understanding around triggers and patterns and how to cope through them.

Our priority through this lens is to actively listen to you, validate your feelings, normalize your experience, and unconditionally support you without judgement. We will hold space for you to process your thoughts and feelings at your own speed.

Existential work examines how you make meaning and where your choices and freedoms lie despite hardship. We will explore deeper roots to surface challenges, what your emotions are trying to tell you, and how to lean in to your needs and values. We will examine who you are and how you conceptualize your sense of self.

This approach works through the different parts of self that may be acting to protect you. We might examine the parts of you that are in pain, and the parts of you that are compensating for that pain. We will explore what the functions and purposes are of each part of you, and we will get curious to see if those parts can step out of helping you survive and rather help you thrive instead.

There are no bad parts! IFS is a wonderful approach to understanding yourself more thoroughly and healing internal attachment and past wounds.

The body has the ability to remember danger/threats, just as the brain does. In this approach we will work to understand the nervous system and how different states correlate with different feelings, behaviors, and body sensations. With more understanding of the physiological reactions to trauma or anxiety, the more control you can gain over resetting and calming your automatic responses. Here we might do somatic exercises, breathing, tapping, and grounding work to settle your system and help you get comfortable with new ways of processing triggers.

Please note only some therapists offer this modality.

EMDR is a helpful tool in reprocessing traumatic events, but it can also be helpful for complex trauma, anxiety, and depression. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation, often through eye movement but also through sound and physical tapping, that is paired with the process of eliciting a difficult memory. Bilateral stimulation helps bring both hemispheres of the brain together for more efficient processing, as well as regulates the nervous system. EMDR facilitates new processing of feeling, nervous system response, and distress around memories by helping the brain and body pair real time, here and now safety with the memory of the event.

Have you ever felt both excited and terrified to do something? Holding both opposing forces in your experience and allowing them to co-exist, while gently being curious about them, is known as dialectic. This work focuses on accepting and tolerating emotions. Life is confusing and hard, and we naturally have reactions to it. We might focus on ways of tolerating distress, recognizing where we can take a step back and think through a reaction, and creating space between a stimulus and a response. We will also look at how to practice presence and mindfulness in order to manage impulsivity and automatic reactions. This helps you to fully process emotions and slow down.

In this approach we will investigate how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors influence one another. A lot of trauma, anxiety, and depression can involve automatic negative thoughts, overthinking, intrusive thoughts, and negative core beliefs or views about the world. We might work to challenge and reframe thoughts. We might also look for evidence to support thoughts and try to identify where fear is creeping in to shape your outlook.

There are no bad thoughts! We blend this approach with other approaches in a way that does not feel dismissive or invalidating.

These elements can be fantastic to bring into therapy if it is of interest! Art and music are amazing ways to process, elicit emotions, and find different ways to express what is going on in your world. Nature is additionally grounding and calming to the nervous system.

In addition to all other modalities, we draw on concepts from emotionally focused therapy (EFT) and Gottman method. These modalities focus on emotional and attachment safety, inviting compassion and understanding into the picture, and increasing sustainable communication. These modalities aim to break down blocks to connection. We also take a trauma-informed approach and work to break down triggers/blocks that perpetuate disconnection.