What To Expect


1

Fill out the paperwork

Prior to your first appointment, you will receive paperwork such as consent forms through your email account.

2

Come to your initial visit

This is a chance to share a bit of your history and voice the concerns that you’re bringing to therapy.

3

Develop a plan

Based on your initial visit, we’ll devise a treatment plan that makes sense for you. Whether it’s for healing, processing, or learning coping skills, having a plan helps us stay on track.

Sessions typically last between 45-50 minutes, unless you schedule an EMDR extended session or day-long intensive. Regardless of where the session takes place, we will explore feelings, provide support and education, develop coping skills, and process events. This is a safe place to problem-solve with someone who is specially trained and more objective than family and friends. You can be completely honest and not worry about hurting someone’s feelings. There tends to be a focus on you holistically and across the lifespan with a strengths perspective.

You will not be judged or criticized. Typically, and preferably, sessions are weekly to begin. Once clients begin experiencing positive outcomes, then we can adjust the schedule to fit your needs. Sometimes clients request different scheduling for other reasons. Sessions are individual and kept in strict confidence. If you are bringing a teenager, they get privacy, and their sessions are also typically individual. I do not offer couples or family therapy.

Types of therapy

It can sometimes be helpful to know a little about the different approaches I can take when exploring what therapy looks like for you. Read about some of the approaches I am experienced in below.

  • Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a form of treatment that has been demonstrated to be effective for a range of problems including depression, anxiety disorders, alcohol and drug use problems, marital problems, eating disorders, and severe mental illness. Numerous research studies suggest that CBT leads to significant improvement in functioning and quality of life. In many studies, CBT has been demonstrated to be as effective as, or more effective than, other forms therapy or psychiatric medications.

    CBT is based on several core principles, including:

    • Problems are based, in part, on faulty or unhelpful ways of thinking.
    • Problems are based, in part, on learned patterns of unhelpful behavior.
    • People can learn better ways of coping with them, thereby relieving their symptoms and becoming more effective in their lives.

    CBT treatment usually involves efforts to change thinking patterns. These strategies might include:

    • Learning to recognize one’s distortions in thinking that are creating problems, and then to reevaluate them in light of reality.
    • Gaining a better understanding of the behavior and motivation of others.
    • Using problem-solving skills to cope with difficult situations.
    • Learning to develop a greater sense of confidence in one’s own abilities.

    CBT treatment also usually involves efforts to change behavioral patterns. These strategies might include:

    • Facing one’s fears instead of avoiding them.
    • Using role-playing to prepare for potentially problematic interactions with others.
    • Learning to calm one’s mind and relax one’s body.

  • EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences. Repeated studies show that by using EMDR therapy people can experience the benefits of therapy that once took years to make a difference. It is widely assumed that severe emotional pain requires a long time to heal. EMDR therapy shows that the mind can in fact heal from psychological trauma much as the body recovers from physical trauma. When you cut your hand, your body works to close the wound. If a foreign object or repeated injury irritates the wound, it festers and causes pain. Once the block is removed, healing resumes. EMDR therapy demonstrates that a similar sequence of events occurs with mental processes. The brain’s information processing system naturally moves toward mental health. If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound festers and can cause intense suffering. Once the block is removed, healing resumes. Using the detailed protocols and procedures learned in EMDR therapy training sessions, clinicians help clients activate their natural healing processes.

  • The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) is a powerful and innovative listening therapy designed to reduce hearing sensitivity and help regulate the autonomic nervous system.

    This process helps build the foundation for awareness, embodiment and resilience. The music of the SSP has been specially filtered to highlight frequencies of sound that typically make us feel safe.

    The SSP has helped over 100,000 children, adolescents and adults in more than 70 countries worldwide. Uniquely, many families experience the SSP together and in support of one another.

    The SSP may be helpful in reducing symptoms and supporting overall health and resiliency for people seeking support for:

    • Trauma history

    • Depression and anxiety

    • Autism, hyperactivity and attention

    • Chronic pain

    • Chronic health conditions

    • Sensory and auditory processing

    • And more

    Learn More >

  • Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) is a short-term goal-focused evidence-based therapeutic approach, which incorporates positive psychology principles and practices, and which helps clients change by constructing solutions rather than focusing on problems. In the most basic sense, SFBT is a hope friendly, positive emotion eliciting, future-oriented vehicle for formulating, motivating, achieving, and sustaining desired behavioral change.

  • Trauma-Focused Therapy is a specific approach to therapy that recognizes and emphasizes understanding how the traumatic experience impacts a client’s mental, behavioral, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. This type of therapy is rooted in understanding the connection between the trauma experience and the client’s emotional and behavioral responses. The purpose of trauma-focused therapy is to offer skills and strategies to assist the client in better understanding, coping with, processing emotions and memories tied to traumatic experiences, with the end goal of enabling the client to create a healthier and more adaptive meaning of the experience that took place in his/her life.

FAQs

How many sessions will I need?

Clients have a treatment plan created based on their individual history, symptoms, and goals. I now offer EMDR extended sessions (2-3 hours) and all-day EMDR intensives. Please feel free to ask about these longer sessions.

How do we measure success?

We use tools to measure symptoms and monitor them during treatment as well as client report and my observation.

Do you do psychological testing or custody evaluations?

No. I do not conduct testing or evaluations for custody or court.

Are there limits to confidentiality?

Yes, I must abide by my state's laws and ethics. For example, if a child or an elderly person is suspected of being harmed, then I am mandated by the state to share that information with proper authorities. We will discuss confidentiality as a standard part of our intake appointment.

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