My therapeutic approach is eclectic and integrates elements from person-centered therapy, IFS therapy, expressive arts therapy, ecotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and dialectical behavior therapy.
Person-Centered Therapy
As a person-centered therapist, I believe you are the expert on your own life. My role in our relationship is to hold therapeutic space and offer genuine, unconditional, and nonjudgmental support as you forge your own path toward finding and embracing your authentic self.
Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy
From an IFS perspective, we are all made up of sub-pesonalities called parts. Think of a time when you said to yourself, “A part of me wants this, and another part of me wants this.” Each of our parts has its own wants, needs, beliefs, and intentions. A basic assumption of IFS is that there are no “bad” parts, though there are parts that have become imbalanced or wounded through trauma or painful life experiences. Another assumption of IFS is that we each have a Self, a curious and compassionate presence that brings balance and healing to our parts. My role in IFS is to help you cultivate greater access to your Self and its healing impulses, helping you find the resources that are already inside of you to attain greater inner harmony.
Ecotherapy
With my background in therapeutic horticulture and forest therapy, I love to include nature in my sessions. Being in direct contact with nature improves our cognitive functioning, our mood and sense of well-being, and our feelings of connectedness. By inviting clients to be in deeper relationship with nature, I am inviting them to slow down, open their senses, and find the healing that the land has to offer. Ecotherapy techniques I often use include mindfulness in nature, nature-based expressive arts, spending time in the therapeutic garden, and exploring the land to discover healing messages.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) invites you to reflect on the core beliefs you hold about yourself, others, and the world; beliefs that often develop during early childhood in response to life events. When these core beliefs become distorted because of trauma or adversity, we filter information about our environment through a lens of automatic and unhelpful thoughts, beliefs, and interpretations. Perceiving events through an unhelpful lens impacts the emotions we experience and the behaviors we use to cope. Using the framework of CBT, I will help you unpack and process your distorted core beliefs, identify your automatic and unhelpful thinking patterns, and restructure your beliefs and thoughts in a way that offers you a greater sense of safety within yourself and contentment within the world.
Expressive Arts Therapy
People often assume that engaging in expressive arts therapy requires proficient and technical artistic skills, and that is actually not true! Expressive arts therapy emphasizes the process of creation rather than the aesthetic of the product. Expressive arts activities like drawing, painting, collage-making, and creative movement can help you communicate what is difficult to verbalize, can make the unconscious conscious, and can break through the defense mechanisms that keep you from making contact with your own emotional experience.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) teaches essential coping skills to reduce suffering, which include mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. DBT emphasizes the importance of both radically accepting yourself and your emotions and empowering yourself with coping strategies to recognize and effect the changes you wish to see in your life. Using a DBT framework, I will help you to understand the ways in which your environment has impacted your ability to self-regulate, increase your awareness that you are a worthy person deserving of peace, and provide you with tools to more effectively connect with and respond to your emotional and social needs.