Addictions & Trauma Counselor

I started my professional work in the alcohol and drug recovery field, and became a trauma specialist, working with those who were experiencing unresolved sexual and physical abuse.  I also treated codependence, sexual addiction, compulsive debting and spending, and eating disorders.  The theoretical framework from which I worked in addictions recovery was cognitive-behavioral, and the primary modality was group work, with family systems work and 12-Step support.  In addictions recovery, I have helped clients develop spiritualities, including meditation techniques, of their own choosing.  In trauma recovery, I helped clients feel safe, taught skills for expression, gave witness to their story, helped clients gain power over their bodies and their sexuality, and connect with supportive others.

Experiential:  Gestalt, NLP, Ericksonian Hypnosis

I trained in Gestalt therapy, which is interactive and expressive, does “parts” work and stays in the "here and now" of the therapeutic relationship.  I sometimes use "empty chair" enactments in my work.  I also studied Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) which taught me good techniques for short-term solution-based therapy.  I studied Ericksonian Hypnosis, and often use visualization and metaphors in my work.

Body Work

I have trained in various body and energy work, including yoga, Bio-Energetics, Holotropic Breathwork and the Feldenkrais Method.  I have studied Focusing, which is based in a “felt sense” and symbols, and Hakomi, based in mindfulness meditation and a body-centered approach to the unconscious.

Carl Jung & Psychoanalysis

I have read and studied a good deal of C. G. Jung and his followers, and been in personal Jungian analysis, and have studied some psychoanalysis, in particular the Self and Relational schools, which has helped me understand the role that the unconscious plays in our lives, and the necessity of our developing a relationship and understanding of this part of ourselves. I appreciate working with dreams, helping one find one’s own interpretation, pointing out aspects which could be overlooked.  I encourage the creative and expressive arts with clients, and have had particular success using the creation of mandalas for wholeness and integration.  Part of our work in psychotherapy together will be to pay attention to the unconcious, and to the "field" created by us.

EFT for Couples

Starting in 2007 I have been working with Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples (EFT), a model which helps couples achieve safe attachment so that they can get out of their cycles of distress to share deeper, often unnamed emotions with each other, and thus be brought into deeper intimacy.  Research shows this model to be the most effective couples therapy available today.  I am a Certified Emotionally Focused Therapist for Couples and a Supervisor Candidate.

AEDP

In recent years, I have studied and worked with other systems of emotions, the works of Silvan S. Tomkins and Donald L. Nathanson, and most importantly, Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) with Diana Fosha.  AEDP is a system that incorporates and integrates much of what has come before in my professional development.  AEDP is a transformation-based, healing-oriented model of therapy.  It creates a safe environment and relationship for our innate transformation and healing to take place (as opposed to pathologizing us).  AEDP has roots in many disciplines, including psychoanalysis, attachment theory, affective neuroscience, body-focused approaches, and transformational studies.  In AEDP we process difficult emotional and relational experiences in a therapeutic relationship as secure base.  We express our truest self, our core self.