The following is a list and description of approaches I am trained in that may be used  during therapy.

Mindfulness involves deepening nonjudgemental awareness of experience in the present moment. It has the power to activate executive function and regulate emotional. Body-centered approaches are a form of mindfulness therapy that help us strengthen our ability to track somatic and physiological processes, giving us ways to further quiet the mind, ground ourselves and strengthen the connection between our mind, body and feelings.

Attachment approaches conceptualize human behavior in terms of the fundamental need to positively give and receive love and support. Secure attachments are safe, loving, reliable, validating, “organizing,” protective, nurturing, delightful. A securely attached person feels loved and accepted for who they are, not conditionally and not primarily for what they do or provide others. Attachment experiences are at the root of our sense of ourselves and the world, and impact our psychological and perhaps  physical well-being. An inability to form secure attachments, and/or a tendency to avoid attachments, often leads to stress, anxiety, fear, loneliness and depression.

Emotionally Focused Therapy is attachment-based therapy commonly used with couples (or families) which allows us to recognize, track, understand and disarm  protective and maladaptive patterns of interrelating in order to experience more “authentic” and secure attachment. EFT can help us heal our current relationships and overcome the lingering effects of old relationships.

Psychodynamic approaches involve learning to comprehend how and why negative coping, or defenses, came into being and how underlying conflicts persist to interface with the present. Through talking and insight we can resolve issues, uncover  corrective and healing  responses, and gain mastery over our life in deep ways.

Within this realm there are numerous rich and interesting models of psychological development and of the therapeutic process in general.

Narrative Therapy focuses on the stories we tell and/or internalize about ourselves and our lives. These stories form the nexus of our identity and influence how we experience the world. Working from this perspective we take apart, or deconstruct, the “problem-saturated” stories that have dominated and been destructive. We utilize strategies to intentionally “re-author” a “preferred” story and/or identity wherein we gain power, an effective stance in relation to our problems.

EMDR (stands for Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is used for trauma. EMDR entails a rhythmic pulse or stimulation to the right and left side of the body (which is non-invasive) combined with the activation of your trauma responses in the context of a structured cognitive-behavioral protocol. EMDR is notable also for its explicit emphasis on somatic or body experience as an integral facet of doing trauma work.

Motivational Interviewing helps us recognize and work through ambivalence or mixed feelings about making change. Internal motivation is enhanced as we uncover the desire and build toward the commitment to make sustainable changes. This modality is commonly used for addiction and compulsive, destructive behavior, but relates to any type of change a person seeks to make.

DBT and CBT emphasize the acquisition of certain skills and strategic approaches to changing behaviors and dealing with emotions. Therapeutic exposure to challenging or distressing events can decondition us and enable us to tolerate the things we fear most. Concrete plans to modify and change how we think, feel and act is effective and at times necessary to keep therapy moving in a positive direction.

Existential and Humanistic approaches provide context to explore larger questions in life, about the extent of personal responsibility for one’s destiny, or the challenge to create meaning and truth in the face of an increasingly disorienting world. Or to be able to choose a path in life while accepting the extent of one’s radical freedom. License is given to explore feelings and beliefs about death, god and religion in ways that may be constructive and necessary.