A common statement I hear from clients and myself is:

“I don’t feel like it.”

Behavioral Activation (BA) is unique because we heal from the outside-in.

Down behaviors, like returning to bed before bedtime, avoiding friends, hobbies or tasks keep down emotions, like depressed mood, loneliness, isolation and thoughts like “I don’t feel like it” around.

BA says engage in up activities like hobbies, being with supportive friends and family and doing self-care so we can feel up emotions, like happiness, excitement and MOTIVATION!

We can use BA for depression and phase of life transitions (grief, divorce, moving to a new place).

It can be used solo or paired with other therapies such as Interpersonal Counseling, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Seeking Safety, coaching and Solution Focused Brief Therapy.

The Client Centered approach is the backbone of therapy.

You may hear me say this throughout our time together, “You are the expert of your life,” or “You know yourself best.”

Think of me as your guide, Siri or GPS. While we will collaborate on a course of action, you set the starting position and destination. I hope to guide you, using our chosen course of action (or routes) to arrive at discovery and healing.

This course of action is chosen for phase of life transitions (like life after college, divorce, or kids). Solution Focused Brief therapy (SFBT) was developed by Insoo Kim Berg, Steve de Shazar and their colleagues in the 1970’s.

We will focus on your strengths, what’s worked well for you before, and exceptions to the problem.

These sessions will be between 45 to 60 minutes for about 3 months or until we arrive at your destination.

CBT, a talk and behavioral therapy, is a top-rated treatment for depression, anxiety, insomnia and more. Dr. Aaron Beck’s cognitive model says our thoughts and feelings influence to our coping skills and actions.

We can discover and heal unhelpful thoughts that cause depression, anxiety, low self-esteem or behaviors like avoidance, procrastination and poor boundaries using skills such as thought records, core discovery, behavior experiments, and more.

CBT can provide discovery and healing after our sessions and collaboration by practicing these skills in your daily life.

After a consultation or initial appointment, we may discover that your sleep struggles are an insomnia disorder.

Everyone experiences sleep troubles once in a while.

However insomnia means one or more of the following happens at least 3 nights a week for three months:

• trouble falling asleep

• trouble staying asleep

• waking up earlier than you want

Sometimes we sleep much better on vacations or on the weekends.

Insomnia is around regardless of when and where you are.

Insomnia is treatable using CBT for insomnia. We will discover and heal your anxious thoughts about sleep and learn helpful behaviors to reduce insomnia and promote better nights.

This therapy can last a few weeks to a few months. Clients start to see results in 2-3 weeks. No pressure if we need more time!

Cognitive Processing Therapy is a brief therapy program for Posttraumic Stress Disorder (PTSD). CPT can still help if depression or other mental concerns are tagging along.

This program is structured and brief, between 4 and 12 sessions. There is evidence showing that clients may see improvements by the 4th session.

No pressure if we need more time, though!

During sessions, we will discover trauma appraisals, your thoughts about why you think the trauma happened. This therapy does not require you to relive any experience unless you choose to write about it.

Then, we will collaborate using CBT skills like thought records for re-evaluating thoughts, called stuck points, and underlying assumptions from the most significant experience.

There are required assignments given after each session and this work in between session is where the healing happens.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy is helpful by itself or with another therapy, like mindfulness, Interpersonal Counseling and Cognitive Behavior therapies.

It was created by Dr. Marsha Linehan and treats intense emotions, like anger, impulsivity and irritability, suicidal thoughts, unhelpful behaviors, like poor or rigid boundaries, communication struggles, or difficulty with acceptance and being focused.

The DBT therapy we will is more flexible compared to comprehensive DBT, an intensive therapy with groups and coaching.

We will use skills from DBT’s 4 parts to discover and heal:

interpersonal effectiveness

emotional regulation

mindfulness

distress tolerance

We are social beings and need support from others for our survival.

Similar to Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), Interpersonal Counseling (IPC) focuses on the “here and now.” It is helpful for grief, loneliness, isolation and martial, family and other relationship disputes.

It was developed by Drs. Myrna Weissman and Diane Kemper for discovering how our social relationships and interactions cause anxiety, depression, and other unhelpful moods and behaviors.

We may use IPC on its own or with other therapies such as Behavioral Activation or coaching or Solution Focused Brief therapy (SFBT) for reflecting, improving decision making, communication and discovering relationship styles.

Mindfulness and meditation have been found to increase focus, heal self-esteem, release criticisms, reduce stress, improve sleep and more. Mindfulness is we are focused on the “here and now” and aware of our thoughts and emotions without calling them “good” or “bad.”

Meditation is a mindfulness practice and is so much more than sitting still or having no thoughts!

We can meditate while going on walks, doing dishes, folding laundry, in between a busy schedule and with kids.

We can pair mindfulness and meditation with Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and Behavioral Activation.

Visit the apps page under Resources to get a start on mindfulness or your meditation practice!

Apps such as Calm, Headspace, and Insight Timer provide education, classes, and guided meditation, perfect for beginners.

Very similar to my Client-Centered approach, motivational interviewing taps into your strengths, what really works for you and promotes change from the inside out.

Motivational Interviewing will be paired with a therapy but can be used by itself.

Seeking Safety is a treatment that provides skills for managing PTSD, trauma and difficult emotions like irritability, agitation and impulsivity.

Its focus is similar to Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), healing from difficult emotions, managing difficult experiences, and improving relationships.

Dr. Lisa Najavits developed Seeking Safety as a “here and now” treatment and does not require reliving difficult experiences to heal.

We can use Seeking Safety if trauma responses like:

flashbacks, emotions like anger or irritability, suicidal, depressive or critical thoughts, sleepless nights, difficulties doing self-care

are impacting your physical and emotional safety. Thus the name- Seeking Safety!

Cognitive Processing Therapy can follow Seeking Safety after helpful emotions and coping skills are sought and maintained. This outcome various person to person.