How I Do Therapy
There are a lot of paths into change.
I have been doing this work long enough to know that no one approach is right for every person, every problem, or every session.
Sometimes we need to talk. You may need to tell the story, sort through what happened, hear yourself say something out loud, or have another person truly listen. The relationship itself matters.
And sometimes you have talked, understood, analyzed, and connected every possible dot—but your body still hasn’t gotten the memo. The reaction is still there. The belief still feels true. Something from the past is still showing up as if it belongs in the present.
That is when we have other ways in.
EMDR is at the heart of my work
EMDR changed my own life. I began using it with clients in 2013 and quickly learned from personal experience what it could do, and I have never stopped learning more about it. I am an EMDR Certified therapist and an EMDRIA Approved Consultant, which means I have also helped other therapists become more skilled and confident in using it.
I have seen EMDR change things that years of understanding had not changed. Memories lose their charge. Old beliefs stop feeling like facts. The nervous system realizes that something is over. A person can finally respond from who they are now instead of from what happened then.
EMDR is not something you have to perform and you cannot do it wrong. I am your guide and coach and it is my job to adapt the process to you. Your job is just to be curious and notice what happens.
We will not reprocess memories every time we meet, and you never need to explain or apologize if what you need that day is to talk. Conversation, history, preparation, connection, and noticing what is happening in your life are all part of the work.
You also do not need to arrive knowing which memory needs attention or which method we should use. We can begin with what is happening now and get curious together about what might be holding it in place.
More than one way in
Depending on you and what we are working with, I may also draw from:
EMDR 2.0 and the Flash Technique
These give us additional ways to work with memories or experiences that carry a great deal of emotional charge, including material that may feel too difficult to approach directly.
Internal Family Systems and parts work
We all contain different parts. One part wants to move forward while another pulls back. One knows you are safe while another remains convinced that you are not. Instead of treating those parts as problems, we listen for what they are protecting and what they need now.
Somatic and nervous-system work
Your body is part of the conversation. We may pay attention to sensations, breath, tension, movement, activation, settling, or whatever your body is communicating before you have words for it.
Emotion Code and Body Code
These are optional energy-based approaches that use the subconscious mind to guide the work. I may offer them when talking and conscious insight do not seem to be reaching something, when physical and emotional patterns appear intertwined, or simply when you are curious about what another kind of process might reveal.
Psychedelic-informed integration
You can talk openly with me about psychedelic experiences. I do not provide or facilitate psychedelic substances, but I understand why people are drawn to them and the profound, beautiful, difficult, or simply strange experiences that can arise.
Because psychedelics can create a period of increased openness and neuroplasticity, the time afterward can be especially meaningful. Integration might include talking through what happened, exploring what it means, deciding how—or whether—it changes anything, and sometimes using EMDR while new learning feels more accessible.
EFT tapping
EFT is another way of working with emotional material through the body. We can use it together during a session, and it can also become something you use on your own when life inevitably continues between appointments.
Grief, continuing bonds, and IADC
Grief does not always need to be about letting go. We can work with the pain and traumatic aspects of a loss while also making room for an ongoing relationship with the person—or beloved animal—who died. For those who feel drawn to it, I also offer IADC.
HeartMath
I am a HeartMath Trauma-Sensitive Certified Practitioner. HeartMath offers practical ways to work with breathing, attention, and the rhythms of the heart to create more coherence and help calm and presence become more accessible.
Oxygen Advantage breathwork—currently working toward certification.
I already use breathwork to support regulation and help clients reconnect with their bodies. I am currently working toward Level 1 certification through Oxygen Advantage, a physiology-based approach to functional breathing, to deepen my knowledge and expand the ways I can use breath in our work.
Personality, patterns, and possibility
For clients who are interested, I may also bring in the Enneagram or astrology as ways of seeing patterns and inner design that help shape how we experience ourselves and move through life.
And by astrology, I do not mean simply you are a Leo or Pisces, etc. A birth chart is much more complex than that. Used psychologically and archetypally, it can reveal contradictions, patterns, strengths, developmental tensions, and possibilities that may be deeply meaningful.
I do not use astrology to predict your future or tell you who you’re supposed to be. I use it, when it is useful, to help you see yourself more fully and make your own choices more consciously.
What it is like to work with me
I am an active, direct, and collaborative therapist. I listen closely, but I also ask questions, tell you what I am noticing, offer ideas, and sometimes encourage you to look at something differently. When neither of us immediately knows where the path leads, we stay curious and find our way together.
I also do not believe that all growth happens inside the therapy hour. I will encourage you to keep noticing what feels alive and resonant outside our sessions—a book, a practice, an idea, a teacher, a creative pull, a relationship, or an experience you feel drawn toward. Those things often have something important to show you, and following them can carry the work farther than anything I could simply assign.
You do not have to share my beliefs. Your worldview remains your own. Psychological, energetic, intuitive, symbolic, spiritual, and difficult-to-explain experiences are all welcome. We can explore what something means without having to force it into one correct explanation.
The goal is not to use every tool I know or to turn therapy into another way you have to perform. It is to find what genuinely helps you loosen what no longer needs to govern your life—and become more available for the life that is here now and the one waiting as you open to new possibilities.
If you are curious about working together, visit Fees & Getting Started for the practical details or Contact me to begin.
“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.”
— Carl Rogers