Counseling

slide-counselingMy Approach

The foundation of my work with individuals, couples, and groups is relational. Before any other work can occur in counseling, an atmosphere of respect and safety must be developed within the relationship.

Believing in the innate capacity of individuals and couples to grow, heal, and thrive, I work as a facilitator and guide to help people discover and access their strengths and inner resources.

Whether you have clear goals for therapy or feel unclear about what exactly is troubling you but know you need support to move through it, we can work together to create a plan to bring about meaningful change.  I believe strongly that everyone makes sense when you know their story. Instead of focusing on what people may feel is wrong with them, we explore instead what happened to them – and how it has impacted their development and shaped their responses in the present. I love partnering with people to unlock the mystery of their symptoms, so they can move toward greater freedom and joy in their lives.

Solution-Focused

Solution-Focused Therapy is based on the premise that no problem exists 100% of the time. Knowing this, we can build upon the strengths and strategies that are already working. What if anxiety and depression are actually signs that one’s life is off track? Being curious and experimenting with new behaviors may pave the way towards greater happiness and ease.

Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy helps clients learn to identify how their thoughts can contribute to or help lessen their difficulties and pain. I teach clients methods for slowing down their mind so that they can more fully experience the present moment – including meditation strategies, visualization, breath focus, and grounding exercises.

Trauma-Informed Perspective

Through my work and training, I have found that unresolved grief and pain are often at the root of individuals feeling stressed, “stuck”, or unhappy. Painful life experiences include an emotional response that is often held in the body. These stored, unprocessed memories from the past can result in heightened emotional reactivity to everyday situations in the present. Listening deeply to clients as they share feelings and triggers in the present, I act as a guide, helping people explore the connections their irrational beliefs today (such as “I am incompetent” or “I am worthless”) and the earlier experiences where these beliefs began.

EMDR Therapy

EMDR Therapy is a comprehensive, trauma-informed therapy that integrates knowledge from neuroscience with mindfulness, cognitive therapy, and body-awareness approaches. EMDR Therapy facilitates transformational change by helping people access their inner resiliency and process previously unhealed traumatic memories so that they no longer have an influence in the present. In addition to healing trauma, EMDR Therapy has been found effective in treating a wide variety of current-day struggles, from depression and anxiety to phobias, public speaking fears, anger, addictions, pain disorders, and sleep difficulties.

I am a Certified EMDR Therapist and an EMDRIA-Approved Consultant and offer individual and group consultation to therapists seeking to strengthen their EMDR Therapy skills, gain certification, and deepen their effective use of EMDR Therapy in practice, even beyond certification. I am also the Regional Coordinator for EMDR International in the Philadelphia Suburbs, bringing together EMDR Therapists in the area to learn, connect, share trainings, and support one another.
» Learn more about my EMDR services

Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS)

Internal Family Systems (IFS) is another comprehensive trauma-informed therapy approach that I love, as it promotes insight, self-compassion, and transformational healing. IFS asserts that every person is comprised of Self and parts. Parts are what make up our personality, and Self is at the core of every individual with qualities of Calm, Curiosity, Confidence, Courage, Presence, Patience, and Perspective. While parts may be in conflict with one another (an impulsive part and a disciplined part, for example), Self connects us to our inner wisdom and offers healing to the places where we struggle. IFS Therapy is a wonderful process for getting to know and understand yourself on a deeper level. If you’ve ever seen the Pixar movie, Inside Out, you’ve gotten a mini-introduction to the world of parts. Jay Earley’s book Self Therapy is an informative, introspective guide to understanding yourself through the IFS lens. I have completed both Level I and II trainings in IFS and served as part of the training team with Bruce Hersey for his Introduction to IFS Therapy and Integrating IFS and EMDR trainings over the past several years.

Expressive Arts

The expressive arts provide a vehicle for play, self-expression, seeing new perspectives, and creating a vision for positive change. I encourage interested clients to experiment between sessions with collage, poetry, painting, photography, journal writing, and other expressive mediums as tools to deepen self-awareness, growth, and insight.
» Read Creativity as Healing from The Resiliency Center newsletter