Individual therapy is a challenging, deeply rewarding, and life-changing experience. I specialize in providing integrative, holistic, and empowering therapy to culturally complex people like you. I offer therapy both in-person and online using telehealth. Below you will find some of the ways that I work with people.
Somatic therapy can be seen as the bridge between psychology and neuroscience. This therapeutic approach enhances your sense of aliveness and vitality by targeting “the story of your symptoms” as it is embodied. Change is achieved through attuned and intentional focus on “micro” states in your body and minor adjustments to your nervous and motoric systems.
My role as your somatic psychotherapist is to help you learn how and what to attune to in your body. As a result, you may experience a profound shift in how you connect with and understand yourself and the world around you. Deep insight may arise. Your state of being is less rigid and more fluid, allowing for greater expression of emotions and experiences.
There are various kinds of somatic therapies, some offered by healing arts professionals like dance/movement therapists and bodyworkers, not just psychotherapists. Many body psychotherapists come from these other fields, including me. This is the primary way I work with people.
Somatic therapy can be especially helpful to people who are:
* very familiar with their own story and feeling “stuck” in it
* disconnected from their bodies
* struggling with symptoms from PTSD and/or chronic illness
On the use of touch in somatic therapy
Touch, and more importantly safe touch, is a fundamental human need. I do incorporate touch in therapy when it could be helpful and with your informed consent. This means that we have a thorough discussion about how, why and when touch might be used. You are free to withdraw this consent at any time.
Not all somatic therapists use touch with clients.
Depth therapy encompasses many approaches to psychotherapy, all based on the important role of the unconscious in human life. Included in the unconscious is a plurality of perspectives stemming from your unique interpersonal, sociocultural, and spiritual influences. Depth therapy aims to uncover these unconscious forces, understand how they influence your identity and functioning, and shift your engagement with yourself and others into a newly integrated state.
In your relationship with your depth therapist, you will work with the expressions of your personal unconscious, including difficulties in your personal or work life, your engagement with art and culture, your dreams and fantasies, and your feelings and behavior in the therapeutic relationship itself.
DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) and CBT (Cognitive Behavior Therapy) are structured types of therapy that help people build skills to handle current life challenges. They typically do not explore the past, the unconscious, or the origins of problems.
DBT and CBT empower you to change unhelpful thinking patterns (i.e., cognitive distortions) and adapt more effective behaviors (e.g., boundary-setting, assertive communication). DBT, which developed out of CBT, adds mindfulness, acceptance, and the notion of the dialectic—opposing or contradictory ideas which, when in dialogue, resolve into a greater and balanced truth. DBT is a powerful intervention for Borderline Personality Disorder. While I am not certified in either CBT or DBT, I have a lot of working experience using them in my practice and find them helpful to people new to therapy who need or desire a structured approach.