Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR)
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy is used to help the nervous system process the wounds of trauma and other adverse life experiences. An evidence-based practice, EMDR was originally created as a treatment for trauma and PTSD. It has since been proven effective in treating a wide range of issues.
The theoretical model underlying EMDR is the Adaptive Information Processing model (AIP), which asserts that your body is naturally wired to heal. But when we experience “too much, too fast,” or “too little, too long,” these experiences can overload our nervous system and lead to things getting “stuck” in our brains and bodies, resulting in a myriad of associated distressing psychological and physical symptoms. EMDR aids in getting these experiences “unstuck” (also called reprocessing), which reconnects you with your inherent abilities to heal and move past your past.
Internal Family Systems Therapy
Internal Family Systems (IFS) is an evidence-based psychotherapy
that helps people heal by accessing and loving their protective and wounded inner parts. The mind naturally has many parts, and that’s a good thing. But just like members of a family, those inner parts can be forced from their valuable states into extreme roles within us. When a person has been hurt, humiliated, frightened, or shamed in the past, they will have parts that carry the emotions, memories, and sensations from those experiences— the inner critic, wounded child, rebellious teenager are some examples. We also all have a core Self. Self is in everyone. It can’t be damaged. And it knows how to heal. By helping people first access their Self and, from that core, come to understand and heal their parts,
IFS creates inner and outer connectedness through experiential therapy work.
Click here to learn more.Attachment Theory
Attachment theory is based in the neuroscience that human beings are innately relational, social, and wired for intimacy. An attachment-based approach to therapy explores the influences of early attachment experiences and looks at their connections to present-day relationship patterns and coping strategies. These early attachment experiences include those with parents and caregivers, the dynamics of the home while growing up, and other significant childhood experiences. Understanding what your underlying unmet attachment needs were and are can help you learn alternative ways to better meet your core needs and find greater fulfillment in your relationships.
Polyvagal Theory
Polyvagal theory provides a framework for understanding how the human autonomic nervous system evolved to help us survive in dangerous situations and thrive in safe ones. Stories about self, the world, and relationships are based in our autonomic states: fight, flight, freeze, and fawn. The brain takes the autonomic information and creates a story to make sense of what’s happening in the body. Therapy rooted in polyvagal theory believes that if we want to change the story, we start by changing the state. Through understanding our nervous system states, we can find a sustainable path towards healing and wholeness, starting with the body’s inner knowing.
Anti-Oppressive and Liberation-Based
As a liberation-oriented practice, we strive to be anti-oppressive and work to decolonize therapy. We commit to confronting and disrupting oppressive systems in ourselves and in our profession. This looks like unlearning our own internalized -isms and phobias; examining our privileges; minimizing power dynamics between therapist and client; practicing transparency; inviting ongoing feedback; being accountable for our mistakes; and investing in communities and movements that are making systemic change. We invite you to consider how historical, intergenerational, societal, and institutionalized systems of oppression are directly connected to your wellbeing in your body, mind, and spirit. We strive to hold a safe and affirming space to explore this path to collective liberation together.
Health at Every Size® and Intuitive Eating
Health at Every Size (HAES) is a movement—one centered on
body liberation and radical paradigm shifts from weight-central to
weight-inclusive approaches to health and wellness. The HAES vision is about creating a world that advances social justice, celebrates body diversity, challenges scientific and cultural norms about health and weight, and honors eating and engaging in movement from a place of attunement and joy. Intuitive Eating principles are an invitation to end the war with food, trusting your inner body wisdom to make choices around food that feel good in your body, without judgment and without influence from diet culture. Rather than following external rules and restrictions for weight control, we tune into our hunger, satiety, nutritional needs, and pleasure.
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