I like to do phone consultations with clients first to make sure they want to participate in the type of therapy I do (spoiler, it’s not your typical talk therapy) and to make sure I can provide the type of support they need.

Once we’ve decided we’re a good fit, we’ll have our first session. It is a typical “I’m going to ask you a million questions” assessment session but I try to keep it brief, and just skim the surface of the story of your life. I find that if we get deep into your family stuff or traumatic events, it brings up a lot of emotions in clients without first providing skills and ways to manage those emotions. It didn’t feel good for me or my clients when I approached it that way, so I get the bare information that I need so that you feel safe. We’ll get to all the information later when it’s time.

Because my focus is on increasing your sense of internal safety, we start with the deep therapy work, using Lifespan Integration (LI), immediately. I want to give client’s practical skills to manage emotions/symptoms in the day-to-day but I find it’s pretty difficult to stop and remember to use a skill before you have some sense of inner stability and emotional resilience. We’ll build that together with LI therapy and mind-body practices in session.

We’ll usually begin by creating a very basic and brief timeline of your life. That is the basis of LI therapy and the tool we will use to create new pathways in your brain and increase emotional stability and resilience. Each LI session will be different and we’ll continue to build on the basic timeline to repair attachment wounds, increase positive self-regard, disrupt reactive patterns, and recognize the passing of time in your life.

We’ll do some talking in session, of course. We’ll catch up on the week, especially if something “big” happened. There will be “just talk” sessions and, sometimes, movement sessions where we’re processing strong emotions or reducing muscle tension using somatic and yoga therapy practces. I try to balance the intellectual processing and practical skill development with the deep healing work. I know that this balance is what brings growth and healing. I help clients get out of their heads, lean into truly facing and processing their emotions so daily life doesn’t feel so hard. If this sounds interesting to you, reach out! Let’s get a consultation on the books to make sure this is a good fit for you!