What to Expect
BEFORE SESSION
Peruse the website. Submit an inquiry form. This form asks a few questions so I can best gauge if we will be a good fit. Depending upon my availability, I will reach out via email to let you know of open sessions. At best, I try to offer once-weekly sessions at the beginning of treatment. Frequently, we may begin on an every-other-week basis due to availability. Once you are scheduled, you will receive a portal link to complete paperwork. Insurance and payment methods are set up with the operations team prior to session, either over the phone or arriving early before our first session.
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THE FIRST SESSION | INTAKE
The first session is history gathering. While opening up to someone new can be challenging (and I view holding your story as a great honor), the more context I have of what has brought you to the present day will be helpful to best meet you where you are. This is not to be overwhelming. Always only share as much as you feel comfortable and safe to do so. I also tend to extend the intake out over the course of one to three sessions as needed. This allows us to pause on areas that feel most impactful or pertinent to you, while also maintaining a gentle pacing for your system to be guided along the way.
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THE COURSE OF TREATMENT
First and foremost, I am assessing the level of safety your system feels and the intensity of work you are ready for. This can be based on level of insight, current life crises or circumstances, transitions, health, woundedness, and so on. As a foundation, emotion regulation and coping skills are established alongside the ability to be present with your emotions.
Outside of safety, I look at the connections throughout each of the systems you have been a part of. What beliefs, experiences, circumstances, giftings, woundings, and people have shaped you to be who you are in the here and now. We will gauge how your nervous system is doing and explore “window of tolerance,” and the foundations of mind-body connection. We will consider your potential genetic predispositions, and the nurturance those dispositions have been given through experiences, patterns, cycles, and habits. I will start to insert and explore holistic considerations here, offering referrals as needed or desired.
Support is a major component in your life that will be assessed. Maintained positive outcomes for healing and growth are most assured when in community, no matter how introverted, independent, burnt out, or wounded one may claim be. Barriers to support are explored together. Support looks different for every human. We will begin a framework for what support needs to look like for you.
We will do a lot of pattern exploration. What about your past and/or present have informed how you function today? Today, we are building your foundation for tomorrow. Sometimes, we may be immersed in your past, as your old foundation may no longer be conducive to the life you want to build your future upon. Looking at your past, we will Identify values, beliefs about self and the world, and how wounds may be informing your present day. We take an in depth look at where your old way of functioning came from, and sift out what is no longer working, or even causing dysfunction or harm.
Whatever word you are using for your journey – treatment, healing, growth, sanctification, deconstruction – all of these elicit an ebb and flow. None of these are ever linear nor would I use the word “easy,” but our trajectory can generally remain on the path of long-term good and health. We will have a general plan of action to guide us and refer back to, but we will also give space to respond to needs your system may bring to session that week. I can hold an undercurrent of structure to carry us through yet remain open and flexible to the needs that are presenting.
When the timing and capacity are right, we may engage in Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) to hone in on layers of trauma, complex childhood wounds and beliefs, specific phobias, and so on. You can read more about ART here: https://acceleratedresolutiontherapy.com
Explicitly and implicitly, IFS and mind-body exercises are being integrated into most every part of our time together. Other evidenced-based modalities are incorporated to respond with more immediacy when a situation or trajectory invites the need. When communicated by the individual, faith interventions are also openly invited and incorporated into session.
Generally, and to put over-simply, we are looking at faulty core beliefs, dysfunctional and stuck patterns, and re-establishing the mind-body connection for a more authentic and discerned experience of self and the world.
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TAPERING TO “AS-NEEDED” and/or TERMINATION
My goal is for you to feel confident, assured, safe, and equipped to need counseling less. I also believe that healthy individuals maintain optimal functioning by being proactive and scheduling maintenance or “as needed” sessions as wisdom and discernment inform you.
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PERINATAL & POSTPARTUM POPULATION
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Perinatal and/or postpartum work can often overlap with what was described above. Interwoven into that framework and generally more emphasized during pregnancy, we also look at birth and postpartum plans, boundary setting surrounding the birth of baby and extended family, role transitions and expectations, and assessing and communicating needs.
Welcoming a new life into the world is filled with emotion we expect and invite, alongside layers of emotions or challenges we may not have expected nor could have planned for.
Attunement, regulation, and co-regulation can be explored and implemented in specific ways in the postpartum period to foster attachment. And, coping and regulation skills alongside cognitive restructuring can be used to help any mama struggling with dysphoric milk ejection reflex (D-MER) to aid with breastfeeding challenges.