My Approach
INTEGRATIVE, STRENGTHS-FOCUSED, EVIDENCE-BASED THERAPY
Strengths-focused
This means I believe human beings are inherently resilient, and in particular contexts, our once-healthy coping styles may suddenly prevent us from bouncing back to baseline functioning. We, humans, are wired for healing. In therapy, I urge clients to explore how they understand the world, learn to tolerate emotions more effectively, and access their instinctive coping capacities to cultivate flexibility. This method allows clients to uncover their masteries and deepen their sense of hope, leading to more vital, more exuberant lives. Healing happens from the get-go.
Integrative
Signifies that I fuse different schools of treatment into a single combined theoretical approach. My approach is dynamic, relational, and rooted in attachment among parent, child, and others, as well as between therapist and patient. I have extensive training in, among other therapies.
Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP)
Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), where I am Level III and currently pursuing certification.
Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation. Healing is an act of communion.” – Bell Hooks, All About Love (1999: 215).
Bell Hooks’ quote captures what is transformative in Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy simply by co-healing. We deepen our innate capacity for healing by moving beyond merely comprehending our difficulties into viscerally experiencing the generative aspects of emotion and interconnectedness with the therapist, and generalizing that internalized other into other settings. AEDP is an attachment-based therapy, wherein healing from the very first session and all of its visceral iterations are collectively cultivated. Dyadic affect co-regulation (the relational dance of two nervous systems finding rhythm together) transpires exuberantly between co-conspirators of the patient and therapist. To learn more, please see my blog post, “Contemplating AEDP: What is it?”
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Internal Family Systems (IFS) by Richard Schwartz is another framework I draw heavily from, as it is utilized in AEDP, whereby we build healthier current selves with parts of us caught in the past. The therapeutic idea is never to make therapy worse than the actual adverse experience. The focus is on promoting a self that can heal all the split-off parts of us. Our younger parts, at different ages, can lead to transformative changes into strengths. Nevertheless, across frameworks, I ensure I never open up an old narrative that could potentially lead to false memories, and being attuned ot the most up-to-date trauma literature helps me do this safely.
Evidence-based
This means there exists an abundance of statistically significant research supporting the efficacy and effectiveness of these therapies for specific psychiatric conditions. In other words, I practice therapies supported by extensive scientific studies showing they are effective for treating particular conditions. I adapt techniques from these therapies for each client, creating a highly individualized treatment approach. I have extensive training in the following therapies:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Is the treatment of choice for a wide range of problems in children, adolescents, and adults. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is time-limited, varies in length depending on the client, and focuses on the present issues bringing the client into therapy. Treatment systematically addresses the client’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors through active, goal-directed interventions that teach effective coping strategies and focus on changing the client’s current repertoire of behaviors. Extensive research studies have shown that CBT successfully treats Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, Complicated Grief or Loss, family/relational problems, Anxiety, Depression, discomfort in social situations, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, panic attacks, and self-criticism.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy is a type of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for individuals who struggle to regulate their emotions and behaviors. Although originally this treatment was developed for suicidal and self-injurious adults formally diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, it has been adapted with great success for suicidal and self-injurious multi-problem adolescents and their families. DBT has also been modified for other problems such as trauma and anger management. While I do not offer DBT proper in my outpatient practice, as it entails an entire treatment team, I therapeutically provide DBT-informed therapy, which targets the issues that cause distress and teaches clients healthier skills to deal with them. DBT and DBT-informed therapy combine an orientation toward acceptance and validation with a dialectical orientation toward change, teaching us that we are doing the best we can while also learning new ways to manage our problems more effectively. Part of my evaluation with clients involves determining whether DBT proper or DBT-informed therapy might be a better fit for them.
DBT blends a powerful dose of CBT and adds mindfulness and Buddhist principles. I was profoundly fortunate to train with one of the co-creators of DBT for teens, Alec Miller. This version includes a blend of the following modules: “Distress Tolerance,” “ Emotion Regulation, “ “Interpersonal Effectiveness,” Mindfulness,” and for teenagers, “Walking the Middle Path.” For more information, see more in my blog post about DBT.