Psychotherapy | Theraplay Psychotherapy
Therapy is designed to meet your individual needs and assist you in meeting struggles and challenges as they are defined by you. I work with a diverse population of clients working through issues as depression, anxiety, relationship issues, shame, abuse,OCD, anger management, impulse-control, identity struggles, grief, LGBTQI issues/gender affirmation, trauma and chronic illness.
Drawing on gestalt, psychodynamic, client-centered, cognitive-behavioral, vipassana meditation and yoga therapies, I can help you to cultivate greater self-awareness and an understanding of how you engage with yourself, others and the world. I can help you to accept and/or shift challenging experiences, emotions, debilitating shame/self-criticism, life patterns and relationships. I can help guide you on your path of awareness, acceptance, reduced reactivity, desired change and healing.
Wellness is an active process of becoming aware of and making choices toward a more peaceful existence. Wellness is the interaction of body, mind, and spirit - the appreciation that everything we do, think, feel, and believe has an impact on our state of health. Wellness is the positive acceptance of oneself...
“When someone says to us, as Thich Nhat Hanh suggests, "Darling, I care about your suffering," a deep healing begins.”
? Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha
More Information about methodology:
Client-centered therapy incorporates the following:
- An attentive understanding of how things are from the client's point of view.
- Communication with a client to verify understanding.
- Respectful interaction.
- A mandate for the therapist to be "congruent" or "transparent" -- which means being self-aware, self-accepting, and having no mask between oneself and the client. The therapist knows herself and is willing to be known.
Gestalt psychotherapy emphasizes overall awareness, in which perceiving, feeling, and acting are distinguished from thinking and re-thinking preexisting attitudes. Emphasis is placed on what you are experiencing physically, emotionally and intellectually. The goals of therapy are client-driven; the goal of gestalt process is for clients to become aware of what they are doing, how they are doing it, and how they can change, accept and value themselves.
Gestalt therapy focuses more on process (what is happening) than content (what is being discussed). The emphasis is on what is being done, thought and felt at the moment rather than on what was, might be, could be, or should be.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) combines two kinds of psychotherapy -- cognitive therapy and behavior therapy.
Behavior therapy helps an individual to weaken the connections between troublesome situations and your habitual reactions to them. Common habitual reactions may include fear, depression, rage, self-defeating or self-damaging behavior. CBT can also facilitate calmness, clear thinking and easier decision-making.
Cognitive therapy teaches you how certain thinking patterns are causing your symptoms -- by giving you a distorted picture of what's going on in your life, and making you feel anxious, depressed or angry for no good reason, or provoking you into ill-chosen actions.
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Lifeforce Yoga for depression and anxiety®
Lifeforce Yoga for depression and anxiety® utilizes breathing (pranayama), postures (asanas) and meditation to clear a pathway through symptoms to the ground of your being, that which is your natural state. Depression is seen as the feeling of separation from self and a yogic approach to treating depression and anxiety is informed by the knowledge that there is no separation. It begins with the question of what is "right with me" rather than "what is wrong with me." Breath and affirmation are utilized to slow the negative, spiraling thoughts and root yourself in positive mental heath.
Yoga Therapy
Yoga therapy is based on phoenix rising yoga therapy techniques and theory (rooted in kripalu and bikram styles of hatha yoga), client-centered and gestalt psychotherapies, Through safely assisted hatha yoga postures, breathing techniques and non-directive dialogue, I will guide you to experience the connection between your physical body and your emotions. Yoga therapy requires no previous yoga experience and is suitable for all levels of fitness. Yoga therapy is entirely non-directive; rather than providing any counseling or advice, yoga therapy fosters release, personal growth and healing, the depth of which is entirely within the clients' control and desire.
Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy Classes and Workshops
PRYT workshops coming soon to Andersonville/Edgewater locations. PRYT yoga classes are 1 1/4 hour in length and use a "yoga therapy" approach. The focus of yoga therapy classes is not fitness, although fitness may be improved. PRYT classes emphasize an inward focus and increased presence and awareness of body, mind, spirit. PRYT classes and workshops are firmly rooted in yogic philosophy and offer an opportunity for growth and healing.
PRYT workshops are 1 1/2 hours in length and are offered in an 8-week series. The eight yoga experiences emphasize the following themes: befriending your body, awareness, acceptance, choice, discernment, truth, truth in action and flow.
Theraplay
Theraplay® is a short-term, therapist-directed play therapy for children and their parents. It is designed to enhance attachment, raise self-esteem, improve trust in others and create joyful engagement. Theraplay is based on the natural patterns of healthy interaction between parent and child, and is personal, physical and fun. Theraplay interactions focus on five essential qualities found in parent-child relationships:
- Structure
- Engagement
- Nurture
- Challenge
- Playfulness
Theraplay sessions create an active and empathic connection between the child and the parents, resulting in a changed view of the self as worthy and lovable and of relationships as positive and rewarding. Parents are actively involved in the treatment and empowered to continue on their own the health promoting interactions of the treatment sessions.
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