My evidence based approach to effective treatment has three key components:
Processing
I can guide you through organizing and understanding your thoughts, memories, and emotions in new ways that help create insight and meaning
Learning
I can teach you new mental and behavioral coping skills that are proven to help
Integrating
I can help you understand how to create new habits based on new skills and insight
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT guides you through analyzing your thoughts and forming new, healthier ways of thinking. We explore the connection between your experiences, thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and results. We identify with specificity how you can intervene on your own thinking patterns to help influence your emotions and actions, thereby increasing the likelihood of more desirable outcomes.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
DBT provides what I call an encyclopedia of excellent behavioral coping skills which fall into four categories: mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal. We work through these skills to identify which ones will be most beneficial for you to integrate into your own behaviors and how you can best utilize them. The key concept in this therapy is a balance between reason and emotion.
Strength-Based
This means we work together to identify your strengths and build them up to help you reach your goals. This approach focuses on solutions, encouragement, and looking forward. This helps us find motivation by emphasizing the benefits of change. The research shows this is the most effective form of motivation for long term change.
What does a typical individual session look like?
This varies depending on the client including their needs and preferences as well as what is most pressing at the time. Some sessions are entirely dedicated to processing and building awareness and insight which always has its place and value in the treatment process. Many sessions start with a review of the previous week and a discussion of anything you want to get off your chest. If there is nothing in particular or we have more time remaining, we can work on building new skills together directly from CBT and DBT as well as some other various sources. I will teach you about the skills and talk you through applying them to your own life and circumstances. A good majority of recovery happens between sessions, not just in the one hour per week or so in which we are meeting. I typically provide suggestions for exercises to complete, skills to practice, or ideas to reflect on to help you continue the process throughout the week.
