Therapy Approaches
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT is an evidence-based therapy that involves identifying maladaptive patterns of thought, emotion, and/or behaviors and developing skills to adapt, cope, and thrive. We also focus on identifying deeply held, implicit, unconscious beliefs about yourself, the world, and other people. These beliefs likely developed in painful spaces, probably beginning in your childhood, and reinforced over time. We work to bring these beliefs into conscious awareness with skilled attention and resources. From there, we work to identify truth systems that already exist, that run counter to the painful and life disrupting beliefs. We create the conditions to help the brain take in the whole story, changing these fixed maladaptive patterns. Other areas: education, learning and practicing new coping strategies, goal setting, relaxation training, and self-monitoring your mood.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-i)
Studies have shown that insomnia plays a role in the onset of depression and cardiac conditions. CBT-i is a highly effective, evidence-based treatment for insomnia. It is non-pharmacological, based on behavioral science and sleep medicine. This therapy does not specifically focus on caffeine use, screen time, eating before bed, or exercise. CBT-i helps you understand the cycle of insomnia and targets the factors that are perpetuating insomnia. We will help you develop a structured step-by-step plan to retrain your brain to sleep when you want to sleep and to restore your natural sleep processes.
“The act of telling the story doesn’t necessarily alter the automatic physical and hormonal responses of bodies that remain hypervigilant, prepared to be assaulted or violated at any time. For real change to take place, the body needs to learn that the danger has passed and to live in the reality of the present”
Bessel van der Kolk
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (2014, p. 68)
Somatic Experiencing
Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a therapy supported by research and developed by Dr. Peter Levine. SE integrates neuroscience research, understanding of anatomy and physiology, and eastern and western theories and therapies. Somatic therapies understand that the experience of trauma and stress lives in the body, that the past is alive in the body. After high stress and trauma, our bodies continue to signal the presence of a threat. Somatic therapies focus on bringing mindful awareness to survival state patterns that are looping on repeat: emotions, sensations, images, and thoughts.
The main goal of SE is to bring resolution of trauma and stress
All aspects of therapy are broken down into small, incremental steps. The goal is to keep you within the range of what you can tolerate instead of complete catharsis. This way, we can help your system to renegotiate and heal rather than reenact the trauma and stress. SE focuses on developing a wealth of resources for self-soothing and the ability to self-regulate. Self-regulation is one’s ability to sense your nervous system state in the moment, and to make a shift to a more present, focused, calm, and connected state.
Parts Work Therapy with Memory Reconsolidation
Many seek therapy because of some unresolved inner conflict. Parts Work attends to conflicting parts of ourselves that sabotage our healing. This therapy works to bring conscious awareness to different parts of ourselves with their unique wants that often unconsciously help or harm our goals as we move through life. The goal is to bring understanding and compassion to these parts. Often our parts can represent younger versions of ourselves that experienced emotionally painful events and hold knowledge that helped you survive. However, these parts are suspended in time, without the updated information about resources and resiliency that the adult self holds. We focus on getting decisively to the root of knowing and beliefs your parts hold, while bringing compassion through understanding the “of coarseness” of what that part knows given your life experiences. We will work to hold the truth of two conflicting parts, which allows your brain to develop a new learning
