My practice is currently full and I am not accepting new clients at this time.
I work with my clients to facilitate healthy connection and growth in their most important relationships. I approach therapy from a systemic perspective that is based in clinical training. Assessments and interventions I use come from structural family therapy, Bowen family systems theory, emotionally focused therapy, the Gottman method, lifespan integration and discernment counseling. I value privacy, self-determination and empathy with my clients. I also recognize that a spiritual life can be a foundational source of strength in the healing process, believing that “God heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds" -Psalm 147.
M.A., Marriage and Family Therapy, Whitworth University
Certified Lifespan Integration Therapist
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist: Washington LF61130147
Professional Member, American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
EMOTIONALLY FOCUSED THERAPY (EFT)
EFT is a structured approach, originally developed for couple therapy and based on attachment science. The number of sessions and needs vary for each client, but will generally be effective in 8 to 20 sessions. Goals of treatment are to 1) expand and re-organize key emotional responses and, in the process, the organization of self, 2) create a positive shift in partners interactional positions and patterns and 3) foster the creation of a secure bond between partners.
EFT is a well-known humanistic approach to psychotherapy formulated in the 1980’s and developed in tandem with the science of adult attachment, a profound developmental theory of personality and intimate relationships. This science has expanded our understanding of individual dysfunction and health as well as the nature of love relationships and family bonds. Attachment views human beings as innately relational, social and wired for intimate bonding with others. The EFT model prioritizes emotion and emotional regulation as the key organizing agents in individual experience and key relationship interactions.
EFT is best known as a cutting edge, tested and proven couple intervention, but it is also used to address individual depression, anxiety and post traumatic stress (EFIT – Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy) and to repair family bonds (EFFT – Emotionally Focused Family Therapy). This model operationalizes the principles of attachment science using non-pathologizing experiential (paralleling Carl Rogers) and relational systems techniques (paralleling Salvador Minuchin) to focus on and change core organizing factors in both the self and key relationships. Most EFT research to date has focused on outcome and process of change studies with couples, and EFT for couples is the gold standard for empirically validated intervention in this field.
For more information go to: https://iceeft.com
LIFESPAN INTEGRATION
Lifespan Integration (LI) is a gentle, body-mind based therapeutic method that heals without re-traumatizing, relying on the innate ability of the body-mind to heal itself. All protocols used with LI include repetitions of a time line of memories and images, which integrates past experience and proves to the client’s body-mind system that time has passed. This “proof” occurs at a deeper level than is possible with commonly used talk therapy methods.
Lifespan Integration combines active imagination, the juxtaposition of ego states in time, and a visual timeline of memories to facilitate neural integration and rapid healing. During the integrating phase of the protocol, the client ‘views’ a memory image for each year of their life. The LI method causes memories to surface spontaneously, and because of how memories are held neurologically, each memory that surfaces is related to the emotional theme or issue being treated. The resulting panoramic view of the client’s life gives the client new insights about lifelong patterns resultant from past trauma.
Lifespan Integration is a very gentle method which works on a neural level to change patterned responses and outmoded defensive strategies. LI helps clients connect unpleasant feelings and dysfunctional patterns with memories of past events from which these feelings and strategies originated. Making these connections at a deep level of the body-mind “re-sets” the neural system so that it is more in line with the current life situation. This “re-setting” happens very rapidly for most people.
After several sessions of LI, clients find themselves spontaneously reacting to current stressors in more age appropriate ways. Clients have reported they feel better about life, are more self-accepting, and are better able to enjoy their intimate relationships.