Therapy can be artful, creative, expansive, informative, profound, unexpected, humorous, and compassionate.

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My theoretical orientation is a combination of trauma-informed therapy, EMDR, narrative therapy, and parts work. This means a few different things:

 

As a trauma informed therapist, I place emphasis on nervous system regulation and grounding techniques (often somatic) that help give you a place to rest as we gently explore and process past trauma. I value authenticity and strive to be a real person in the room with you. In my experience this often helps people feel that they too can be their authentic selves and comfortably explore. I am also a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional and continue to stay up to date with evidence based practices for trauma healing.

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EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is an evidence based modality that works specifically for reducing nervous system arousal in trauma, anxiety, and high intensity emotions. While much of my style involves talk therapy, EMDR is a somatic technique that doesn't require a deep dive into memory or story. One benefit of this kind of technique is that we can quickly reduce distress without potentially triggering more dyregulation that could come from spending an excessive amount of time recounting trauma history. EMDR blends beautifully with narrative and parts work because in reducing distress, it can allow us to more effectively work with our parts that might otherwise be too overwhelmed to allow for curious, compassionate exploration.

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Narrative therapists take a philosophical approach by separating out the problem from an individual because you are so much more than that which plagues you. This certainly doesn't mean ignoring the problem, but that we might look beyond the narrative of: "I am this person with this problem." Looking beyond can help us gain deeper insight as we deconstruct problems and question beliefs and assumptions. It is common that as we process trauma, new narratives will emerge naturally.  By slowing down to really flush out a new narrative, we can help strengthen the new neural pathways involved in the processing of trauma, which helps with long-term recovery.

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Parts work is wonderful for the treatment of trauma and for managing overwhelming emotions. Parts work is based on the idea that we all have lots of different parts with different jobs and roles. These parts work hard for us and often protect us from feeling emotions that would be overwhelming to our system. By developing a relationship with our parts, we can learn to gradually get to know the parts that we have shut out, for fear of being overwhelmed. This process can be immensely helpful for fear in all of its forms.​ 

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As a sex positive, LGBTQIA+ affirming therapist, I strive to continuously improve my allyship to all marginalized groups.