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My Approach

The Japanese art of Kintsugi is a great metaphor for my approach to therapy and healing: It is about accepting cracks and breakage as a valuable part of our life experience. With intention and effort, cracks can be mended. When dusted with gold, they become a beautful part of your history, your journey of life. Embrace your imperfections and perceived failures, and view them not as weaknesses but as integral parts of your life story that make you unique, strong and beautiful. We are all dealt a different and unique hand in life: being raised by caretakers of varying skills and abilities,  a continuum of life experiences, and varying coping skills we learn through life.  Our nervous system is the foundation of it all and learning to have a new relationship with your nervous system is empowering.  No matter what you have experienced in life, you are a survivor.  You have survived to this point, as evident you are alive to read this at the moment.  There is a great deal to appreciate about our nervous system....and we can benefit from learning skills to regulate and calm the nervous system.  When we are able to engage our parasympathetic nervous system and decrease the sympathetic nervous system (flight, flight, freeze, fawn, feign) we are able to be more in our thinking brain, rational brain and problem solving brain.  I do a combination of top-down and bottom-up with my approach, which refers to the general areas of the brain and where you start in therapy (from the top or from the bottom).

Top-Down Approach

Bottom-Up Approach

Top-down approaches, in which the mind of the therapist engages the mind of the client, is the dominant approach to therapy.  One learns skills to think and feel differently about their experiences, their emotions and ultimately themselves. Modalities that use top-down approach that we can incorporate in your healing include:

 

  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

  • Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)

  • Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT)

  • Mindfulness Practice

  • Motivational Interview

  • Talk Therapy

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Bottom-up therapy focuses on information acquired through the senses.  It helps one zero in on their raw emotions and defense mechanisms by learning to modulate their bodies.  This approach focuses on the lower parts of the brain, such as the limbic system, which is responsible for the fight, flight, freeze, fawn, feign responses.  Modalities that use bottom-up approach that we can incorporate in your healing include:

 

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I have been using EMDR since 2016 and it is a highly effective modality.  I was trained in ART in 2022 and have been blown away with how effective and impactful this modality is.  

An additional tool we can incorporate in your healing is more a combination of top-down and bottom-up, called Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)

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There is no "one size fits all" or one approach that works for each person and/or each focus of therapy.  In addition, I have found some people are more drawn to one approach than another.  Being able to offer a variety of approaches and evidence based models allows us to customize your therapy to best fit your needs.  I commit to working diligently, effectively and respectfully to help you work towards your identified goals.  We will work together and continually assess what is working for you, and make changes as may benefit you.  This is your healing journey - you are the expert in what is best for you!

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