MY THERAPY ORIENTATION

LOVING KINDNESS

My training in contemplative practice & psychotherapy was focused on Maitri (Tibetan), which can be translated as "making friends with oneself. Having gentleness, kindness, friendliness and warmth towards oneself & others." We Westerners are not very skilled at being gentle & kind to ourselves. Often the opposite is the norm, which is self-aggression & an endless barrage of thoughts riddled with "shoulds." It's impossible to connect to your life from this place of self-judgement. You can't fake it. Loving ourselves is not fluffy, unimportant stuff. It is the most essential ingredient to living a life of purpose & connection.

REDUCING ANXIETY & STRESS

All of us have fear, whether it be emotionally-based or fear survival instinct that has become overwhelming, flooding our body with anxiety & panic attacks. Many of us have in many ways told ourselves a story that we should not be or feel a certain way, which causes conflict and stress in the body & mind. Perhaps you'd like to move to a place in your life where fear does not hold you back? Together, we work with mindfulness techniques and body-centered practices to regulate fear & anxiety as well as recognizing the thoughts that fuel your fears.
​
I utilize all the research & insights related to the brain, nervous system, the gut, sleep science, movement & early attachment information. One of the ways I work is by helping you retrain nervous system dysregulation, anxiety & panic attacks as well as depressed or frozen nervous systems.

EMPOWERMENT & PERSONAL GROWTH

Empowerment means that you trust yourself to know how to align with your intuition as well as know when your body is saying "NO" or "YES"....& to act in alignment with that truth & trust in yourself. My therapy is client-centered, meaning you decide what you want to work on. Personal growth happens when we collaborate based on your goals combined with my insight of what I'm seeing and hearing from you. ​

HEALTHY BOUNDARIES

Boundaries are an extremely important focus & effects every area of our life. Let's reaffirm healthy boundaries & what it means to "clean up" already damaged boundaries in your relationships to others & your relationship to yourself.

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

If emotional intelligence is not modeled for us as we develop & grow we simply do not learn how to know what we feel or, worse we learn that some emotions are not okay & others are acceptable. Emotional intelligence begins with knowing how to identify feelings & to learn to attune to ourselves.

MINDFULNESS & EMBODIMENT

Mindfulness has become a broadly used term that in some ways has become watered-down due to overly broad use. From my point of view, Mindfulness is our effort to turn our attention & awareness to the present moment in an intentional way. When we use mindfulness specifically to work with the body, breath, movement & posture this creates an effort towards embodiment. Being present within our body creates a higher potential for healing especially in relationship to trauma.

---

---

"Attention is the beginning of devotion."
-Mary Oliver from UPSTREAM

---