MY APPROACH
I recognize that committing to therapy is a commitment to yourself. It can feel difficult to give yourself the time and attention you often reserve for others; however, when caught up in being good at the many roles we often embody (employee, partner, parent, child, friend, etc.) we can lose sight of ourselves. I am here to support you.
After learning about who you are and what you are looking to get out of therapy, I offer a tailored, collaborative approach to meet your specific needs, drawing from multiple modalities including:
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Psychodynamic Therapy
Relational Therapy
Dialectical-Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
Mindfulness-based practices including breath work (pranayama), meditation, and yoga
I will work with you to process your experiences, while providing you with feedback to gain insight. I will work with you to clarify what is most important to you, while providing you with practical tools to live in ways that are aligned with your values.
I believe that a strong and comfortable therapeutic relationship is an important component of therapy, and I often check in for your feedback and reactions. It's important to me to make sure that I am understanding your experience both in and out of session, so our work together may involve exploring how your unique identity impacts the way you see the world and the challenges you bring to session.
See below to learn more about some of the modalities that I incorporate into my therapy sessions. All three styles below are active, and frequently incorporate both experiential work and out-of-session tasks. These approaches are especially powerful during times when anxiety, fear, and depression are so overwhelming that you find it difficult to engage in everyday life. I often use the metaphor of living inside a cocoon, because when experiencing intense inner experience, it’s easy to zoom in on your thoughts and your physical discomfort. The primary goal of these therapy styles is to help you develop the skills to re-engage with the world around you, participate in the activities you used to enjoy, connect with people who are important to you, and engage in value-based living.
COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL THERAPY
We all see the world through different lenses, which are formed and strengthened by our genetic makeup, the messages we received growing up, and our accumulated experiences. Sometimes, this lens can become distorted, causing us to interpret and interact with the world in unhelpful ways. Certain thinking and behavioral patterns may get in the way of relationships with others, with work, and with ourselves.
In cognitive-behavioral therapy, we look at the lens in which you see the world by examining the relationship between your thoughts, your feelings, and your behavior.
Your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors all influence one another. For example, your thoughts can influence the way you feel, and the way you feel can bias what you remember, what you look for, and how you interpret your experience. In cognitive-behavioral therapy, we will get a better sense of your habitual ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving and work together to develop healthier patterns, targeting unhelpful thinking styles and behaviors, and/or anxious and low moods.
Many studies have found CBT to be as effective as medication for many common psychological issues. CBT has been proven to be effective at treating problems such as panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and depression.
MINDFULNESS
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."- Annie Dillard
How do you spend your days?
Are you often caught in a spiral of worrisome thoughts? Do you notice that your mind is often fast-forwarding to the future or replaying the past? Does it feel like you are often acting on automatic pilot? You are not alone. In our fast-paced, multitasking society, it's quite difficult for our minds to meet our bodies in the present moment. In other words, it's very hard to be mindful. Given that this very moment is the only moment we truly have access to, it is remarkable how much time we spend planning, replaying, scrolling, pushing things off… missing out on it.
Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention to what is happening in each moment, without judgment. Mindfulness helps you feel more connected to your present experience, allowing you to take in the richness and nuances of everyday life that you might otherwise overlook. In a society that focuses on the need to constantly be “doing," mindfulness helps you to channel your “being" mode, cultivating self-awareness and acceptance as you get to know yourself (and your habits) better. It provides space between a situation and your conditioned automatic reactions, empowering you to utilize more flexible, skillful responses. One of the most effective ways to work on the "mindful muscle" is through meditation, which often uses some sort of cue to anchor you to the present moment (a mantra, the breath, body sensations, sounds).
Mindfulness practices have been shown to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression, lower blood pressure, and ease perception of chronic pain. Brain imaging studies show that mindfulness meditation reduces activation in the amygdala, or "fight or flight" center, and alters regions of the brain associated with memory, worry, self-awareness, and compassion.
I often incorporate mindfulness practices into my sessions, and lead mindfulness skills and meditation training for individuals and groups. Please contact me for more information.
ACCEPTANCE AND COMMITMENT THERAPY
ACT stands for:
Accepting your experience as it is in the present moment
Choosing what you want to be about
Taking action in a direction that matters to you
In ACT, we integrate mindfulness, acceptance, and behavioral change tools to help clients become less entangled with painful thoughts, feelings, and sensations, figure out what truly matters to them, and move from fear-based living to value-based living.