What we treat

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Anxiety Disorders

Everyone experiences anxiety from time to time - it’s a great way to help us respond to potential threats. However, when anxiety becomes persistent and uncontrollable, it can start to interfere with daily life.

I work with individuals navigating generalized anxiety, panic disorder, and other forms of anxiety. I work with you to not only develop skills to better manage anxiety when it arises, but to also get to the root of your anxiety. Once we know what led to you developing such a strong threat response, we can begin to change those messages to actually reduce your anxiety, not just manage it better.

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Trauma

Trauma occurs when individuals face a life-threatening event, and it’s too much for our nervous systems to handle. In response, our bodies "hang on” to an energy and stays prepped to handle this threat and keep us safe in the future. This energy is stored in the body as tension and a “freeze response,” and is also stored in the brain as an “implicit memory” which drives automatic behaviors to keep us safe in the future. And all of this happens in the absence of an “empathic witness”- someone there with you during your experience to support you.

My approach to treating trauma, including both PTSD and C-PTSD draws of a variety of evidenced-based approaches. We will focus on releasing this stored energy from the body, creating new implicit memories to replace those created in response to traumatic events, and providing you with an empathic witness to be with you in this new experience of healing.

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Chronic Illness and Chronic Pain

Individuals navigating chronic illness and chronic pain experience unique mental health challenges. Many experience increased anxiety because of an increased activation in the body due to pain, tension, and other symptoms associated with their diagnoses. Individuals may also have increased anxiety due to uncertainty about the future of their health, or concerns about treatment. Chronic illness and chronic pain also lead to more interactions with the health care system placing individuals at higher risk of experiencing medical trauma, and developing PTSD.

As a chronically ill individual, I have a passion for supporting those navigating these issues. While lived experience is not necessary to support those with chronic illness and chronic pain, I do believe it gives me a unique perspective on the challenges that our community faces. I commonly work with clients on navigating medical trauma, improving advocacy skills, grieving what has been lost due to illness and pain, and gaining skills to break the anxiety-pain cycle.

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Positive Discipline Parenting

Positive Discipline is an evidence-based approach based on the work of Alfred Adler, the founder of individual psychology. Positive Discipline focuses on building strong relationships with our children, and utilizing approaches that are kind and firm- also known as authoritative parenting. Years of research support the use of authoritative parenting approaches, like Positive Discipline, rather than rigid or passive parenting styles.

If you are interested in learning more about Positive Discipline Parenting packages, please click here.