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Treatment Modalities

What is EMDR?

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is an extensively researched, effective psychotherapy method proven to help people restore balance and wholeness back into their lives.

Our brains have a natural way to recover from overwhelming memories and events. Just as when we get a splinter in our physical body and the body works at pushing the splinter to the surface trying to remove it, the brain works at trying to resolve unprocessed overwhelming traumatic and adverse life events. The brain and body is amazing! It is constantly pulling from what we already know and what we’ve already experienced, these are “chains of association” that our brain uses to make sense of new experiences and to store information. The problem is when we have “unprocessed” information or “stuck” experiences, it can feel like we are reliving these events mentally, emotionally or physically. Sometimes adverse life circumstances can affect the brain and the body causing experiences to get “stuck.”

How do these experiences become stuck?

When we have negative experiences that tell us something about ourselves, we begin to believe it. In our “logical” brain we can know these things are not true, but it can feel impossible to “feel” that they are not true. These experiences can be issues of abuse, neglect, bullying, domestic violence, grief/loss, attachment wounds, PTSD, abandonment or other adverse life circumstances such as a car accident or health and medical issues. Our brains have a natural process to work through and recover from difficult and overwhelming events. When these experiences become stuck, the Adaptive Information Processing engine of the brain breaks down. Stress responses engage our flight, fight, freeze (submit) response and activate our central nervous system. When the distress from these events remain, this can cause upsetting images, thoughts, emotions and even sensations to remain stuck and can cause feelings of overwhelm resulting in the experience of being stuck in reactive patterns. Our minds can trick us into feeling that we are still experiencing the negative experience, instead of it being something that happened in the past that we’ve moved through.

Who can benefit from EMDR therapy?

EMDR therapy is used to address a wide range of challenges:

  • Anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias
  • Attachment trauma
  • Chronic Illness and medical issues
  • Depression and bipolar disorders
  • Dissociative disorders
  • Eating disorders
  • Grief and loss
  • Pain
  • Performance anxiety
  • Personality disorders
  • PTSD and other trauma and stress-related issues
  • Sexual assault
  • Sleep disturbance
  • Substance abuse and addiction
  • Violence and abuse

How will EMDR help?

Trauma treatments such as EMDR help the brain and the body to move past these traumatic experiences so that the brain and the body are not still responding as if they are in danger now. It is useful and effective for clients across the life span with children through adulthood. EMDR allows normal healing to resume. The experience is still remembered but the flight, fight or freeze response is resolved. EMDR therapy integrates elements of many traditional psychological therapies and models and is based off of the Adaptive Information Processing model. This is the inherent information processing system in the brain that gets blocked when traumatic or adverse events occur, causing these events to get locked in the brain. EMDR allows the trauma to be “re-digested” by the brain and the body, linking it to this adaptive information and allowing for healing. Healing from trauma can feel impossible for those who have experienced the overwhelm and helplessness that traumatic events can cause. However, healing is possible and I excited to meet you on your journey of transformation.

What is Somatic Experiencing?

Somatic Experiencing (SE) is the groundbreaking work of Dr. Peter Levine, which works to restore goodness and vitality at the core level where trauma takes root – the nervous system.

How It Works

Somatic experiencing is a three year program that takes a deep dive into understanding and working with the autonomic nervous system. SE integrates body awareness into the psychotherapeutic process while increasing the mind body connection. That’s where somatic (meaning “of the body”) therapy comes in. This approach prioritizes the mind-body connection in treatment to help address both physical and psychological symptoms of certain mental health concerns. SE and trauma work will teach you how to tolerate life. SE aims to restore the body’s ability to self-regulate in order to achieve more capacity, balance and resilience.

Who can Benefit From Somatic Experiencing?

Symptoms of undischarged stress stuck in the body:

  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Excessive crying
  • Emotional overwhelm irritability, anger, rage or fearfulness
  • Flashbacks or replaying the experience in your mind
  • Nightmares or trouble sleeping
  • Digestive issues
  • Physical symptoms like stomach pain, migraines or headaches
  • Chronic fatigue
  • Hypervigilance
  • Jumpiness, excessive sweating, or a racing heart rate
  • Disassociation and disconnection
  • Restlessness, racing thoughts
  • Fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome

The good news is that we can restore and reconnect at all levels. Our bodies innately possess the capacity for healing and transformation. We are all hard wired for healing.

What is Post Induction Therapy?

Post Induction Therapy (PIT) is a type of trauma therapy created by Pia Mellody. This style of therapy is largely used at The Meadows, a world renowned trauma and addiction treatment facility. It is often referred to as “The Meadows Model”.

How It Works

PIT helps adults heal by addressing the trauma and adversity that occurred during childhood, which are believed to be the root causes of codependent behaviors and many adult attachment disorders. By addressing past experiences and events, post induction therapy can help encourage healthy coping strategies, improved relationship with self and others. Developing healthy coping and healing old wounds reduces the incidence of ongoing mental and physical ailments. This model was created for childhood trauma, attachment ruptures or anything that is less than nurturing that occurred in the developemental years. This therapy lays the groundwork for one to increase self-esteem, identify and maintain healthy boundaries, discover authenticity while owning their reality, establish personal needs and wants while discovering balance in daily life.

Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy

Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a therapeutic approach that helps individuals cultivate a compassionate and nurturing relationship with themselves. By increasing awareness of thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations referred to as “parts” in IFS, individuals can recognize the value of every aspect of their psyche, including those that bring pain or challenges.

Grounded in mindfulness, IFS therapy aims to foster a deeper awareness that leads to self compassion and healing. This heightened awareness promotes emotional regulation, enabling individuals to think more clearly and solve problems effectively, which reduces anxiety and enhances the quality of their relationships. Developed in the 1990s by Richard C. Schwartz, Ph.D., IFS arose from his observations of clients discussing their internal, often conflicting parts. Schwartz discovered that when clients’ inner parts felt safe and relaxed, their overall sense of self became more confident, open, and compassionate. He recognized that individuals possess an inherent ability to heal, with the therapist acting as a supportive guide in this process. IFS addresses recurring patterns that negatively impact various aspects of life, including emotional and physical symptoms and relationship issues, making it beneficial for those facing challenges such as anxiety, depression, addictions, and compulsive behaviors.

How IFS Therapy Works

Although IFS therapy may occasionally explore a client’s family background, the term “family system” primarily refers to the internal family of parts within each person. IFS clinicians believe this internal family often mirrors external family dynamics, providing clients with insights into the origins of their thoughts and behaviors. In IFS therapy, all parts of the individual are welcomed, including those that complicate life, such as anxiety or anger. Unlike traditional behavioral therapies that focus on correcting distorted thinking, IFS aims to understand and integrate these internal parts for healing.

IFS nurtures a loving relationship between the self and its many parts. Throughout the therapeutic process, clients learn to mindfully separate from the parts causing obstacles in their lives, examining those parts’ roles within their internal system. For example, if a client experiences significant anxiety, they will learn to create distance from that anxious part, allowing them to explore and eventually befriend it in a way that fosters self compassion and healing. The goal is for clients to express themselves from their whole selves rather than from their individual parts, ultimately reducing internal distress.

In the short term, IFS therapy helps alleviate feelings of overwhelm and emotional reactivity. Over time, it can heal the parts of oneself that hold pain or long-standing wounds. Within you lies an innate capacity for healing, all it requires is curiosity, awareness, and compassion for your many parts.