My approach to therapy and to healing is a blended approach integrating theoretical understanding and maps, body awareness techniques, mindfulness practices and exploration, emotional release and regulation work, and an exploration of meaning and purpose.
Overview
I have studied and trained in mindfulness and body-centered methods of therapy that combine present-moment mindful exploration of body sensations and emotions with naming and mapping of core beliefs and core material. I weave in these methods as appropriate to deepen the work in sessions and more quickly identify core issues. I am a Certified Hakomi Therapist and draw largely from the Hakomi Method and from somatic approaches to healing attachment wounding in my work. I can help you address areas of life that are currently a struggle in some way and shift the underlying patterns. I will work with you to change negative beliefs, restore a sense of wholeness and resiliency internally, help your nervous system to regulate and relax, and help you find a greater sense of peace and fulfillment.
Core Intactness
All of us often unintentionally create and perpetuate suffering and unwanted experiences in our lives because we are engaging strategies and defenses that were necessary to us earlier in our lives but no longer support us or our growth. I can help you to become aware of and shift these patterns, change negative, limiting beliefs, and develop new ways of showing up in your life. The goal is not to change who you are on a core level but to change outdated ways of operating, and to bring greater awareness to your own process so that you have choices and feel re-connected to your authentic core self that is secure and calm and intact and can sustain you through challenges.
Compassionate Presence
My goal is to hold a compassionate, gentle presence in sessions and create a safe space for slowing down and getting in touch with feelings, body sensations and beliefs in order to move gently towards change and anchor into what is most true in the deeper Self. It is important to do transformational work within a container of compassionate presence because we are never able to truly shift patterns from a place of self-criticism and judgment. There is always a reason we feel and act in certain ways, even when those feelings and actions are painful, and I bring curiosity and compassion to the exploration. Helping you to develop greater self-acceptance and self-compassion is an important part of my therapeutic process so that you can meet your own internal experience with more acceptance and understanding. You can then become more authentic, conscious, happy and fulfilled in your life and accept who you are.
Releasing Judgment
It is a common and shared human experience to judge ourselves harshly when we struggle rather than bringing a sense of curiosity to ourselves and our experiences. Often this is because there is a sense of hopelessness about being able to change, or we have been without support during key developmental times and this sense of aloneness caused us to doubt ourselves and cycle into feelings of guilt and shame that keep us trapped. This is where the guidance of a skilled counselor is helpful. On our own we are often blind to habitual patterns, and the layer of self-criticism we bring to self-observation only solidifies these patterns. Many of us have experienced a lack of consistent, nurturing support in our lives, and without this support we turn more easily towards self-criticism and feelings of guilt and shame. Within a supportive therapeutic relationship change and healing can happen more quickly, and it is easier to break out of the shame and self-blame cycle.
Working at the Core
In sessions I provide support and acceptance and will gently explore with you to discover what no longer works and help you learn to trust yourself and your own knowing rather than operating in outdated, conditioned ways. You can become more self-aware, more resourced in your life, more authentic, more hopeful, more vulnerable, more self-accepting and more connected to your own feelings and needs, and more able to respond to the feelings and needs of others building stronger relationships. Working with core material allows us to transform because we are working to understand how we built our beliefs about ourselves and the world and identify what may have been missing for us. New resources and competencies come on board and what previously felt impossible or out of reach becomes possible. I will help you anchor new beliefs and possibilities in, and the work we do in session provides a new imprint helping new things to happen outside of the sessions.