What happens to you affects you.
How you respond changes everything.
Psychotherapy for Change & Resilience
Major life changes — whether a career shift, loss, relationship transition, or health challenge — can bring significant anxiety and stress. Psychotherapy facilitates depth and insight work as well as practical strategies to simplify your life. Techniques like EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and IFS (Internal Family Systems) can help you process and understand your experiences, making them easier to manage. I integrate traditional psychotherapeutic methods and cognitive-behavioral interventions with innovative and transformative approaches to guide you toward your goals. Treatment is tailored to facilitate change and foster resilience.
Ever feel like part of you wants to move forward while another part holds back? Or react in a way you don't fully understand — shutting down, overreacting, people-pleasing — and not know why?
IFS therapy is built on the idea that we're each made up of multiple inner "parts," each with its own feelings, fears, and motivations. When life gets hard, some parts go into overdrive: overworking, lashing out, or numbing out. IFS helps you get curious about those reactions instead of frustrated by them.
In a session, we might ask: where do you feel that in your body? How old does that part of you feel? Almost always, it traces back to a younger version of you who learned that reaction for a good reason — to protect you from being overwhelmed, just like you were back then. In IFS, the past is present. And the work is helping those parts understand that you're not that age anymore.
At the center of it all is your Self — think of it like being underwater at the ocean. On the surface, the waves are crashing. But underneath, even in the middle of a storm, there's stillness. IFS helps you find that deeper place and stay rooted there, even while you're aware of the chaos above. From that ground, you can meet whatever comes up with compassion and clarity instead of being swept away by it.
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
EMDR-Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
Have you ever found yourself reacting to something in the present that reminds you — consciously or not — of something painful in the past? A smell, a tone of voice, a situation that shouldn't feel as big as it does, but does?
EMDR is built on a simple but powerful idea: sometimes painful experiences don't fully process. They get stuck — filed away in the brain in a raw, unfinished form, which is why they can feel just as vivid and overwhelming years later as they did the day they happened.
During EMDR, you briefly revisit a difficult memory while following a rhythmic stimulus — usually eye movements, sound, or gentle tapping. This bilateral stimulation helps your brain do what it couldn't do at the time: process the experience and move it into the past, where it belongs. You don't need to describe every detail out loud. The brain does most of the work.
People are sometimes skeptical of the eye movement piece — it can sound strange. But EMDR is one of the most well-researched trauma treatments available, recognized by the WHO and the American Psychiatric Association. Most people are surprised by how much will shift, even in the first few sessions.
EMDR is particularly helpful for trauma, PTSD, anxiety, grief, and distressing memories that feel stuck on repeat. Treatment typically involves 8–12 sessions, though a more complex history may take longer.
The course of treatment:
Initial Call
Initial calls are to determine if we are a good fit. They generally last about 15 minutes. If my practice is a good fit for us both, I will mail you the initial paperwork, which will also involve some self-reported diagnostic assessments.
2.Initial intake Session
The initial intake session involves reviewing your paperwork, completing basic assessment tools, and gathering a personal and family history. Together, we'll set goals and begin developing a treatment plan.
3. Follow up sessions
New clients typically meet weekly for at least the first 8 weeks. This consistent contact builds rapport and trust, establishing the therapeutic alliance essential for meaningful progress. In some cases, a modified structure may be arranged. As symptoms improve, we can reduce frequency gradually until your treatment goals have been met.
4. Closure
As symptoms feel resolved, we plan to conclude treatment. We review what was helpful and discuss resources to help you maintain gains after treatment concludes.
FAQs
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IFS and EMDR are both supported by empirical evidence.
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IFS therapy helps people deal with parts of their mind causing trauma. It creates safe connections with these parts, freeing up energy from defense mechanisms. EMDR helps reprocess traumatic memories using bilateral stimuli. It deactivates distressing experiences, so you still remember what happened, but it's no longer overwhelming. Both interventions work well and compliment each other in treatment.
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The decision regarding which intervention to choose is made during the intake process. Sometimes, people specifically request EMDR or IFS as they have heard about these interventions and believe they are a good fit for them. In some cases, IFS is used to support the EMDR treatment process.
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IFS and EMDR can be used in a powerful combination for addressing trauma and other mental health concerns. Following IFS, EMDR therapy can be used to desensitize traumatic memories and reduce the distress associated with them.