Blending Experience and Insight

Sometimes feelings are intense and hard to explain, and words just might not do the trick in expressing them. Much of the work I do involves experiential methods, which are more action-driven methods that go further than having a conversation. This may include setting a scene, acting things out, connecting with the body, drawing/painting/working with clay, movement, writing, etc.

Though the experiential work is powerful and transformative, sometimes, talking things through is exactly what we need. We will work as a team to explore your past and understand what your past self needed. My hope is by doing this, you can begin to give that to yourself now.

We may also tackle difficult thoughts, behaviors, and feelings with skills used in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy when specific guidelines for coping feel needed.

Experiential Therapy

Gestalt methods involve being in the here and now and honoring what comes up. Like I keep saying, you may have had to numb to survive. If that’s the case, it may not feel safe or even possible to connect with your feelings, whether physical or emotional. Methods like somatic work, psychodrama, empty chair, and expressive arts can help you learn to find safety in noticing, acknowledging, and expressing what you are feeling or were unable to express in the past. Because eating disorders and co-occurring symptoms involve disconnection from the body, learning to reconnect with yourself and process what you have been carrying also eradicates the “need” for numbing behaviors. Of course, this doesn’t happen over night. But we will work towards this goal in a way that feels tolerable at your own pace.

Parts Work

My work often comes from a parts work perspective. Many of us who have experienced very difficult things (whether we consider that trauma or not) have had to disconnect from ourselves to get through it. As we disconnect, we do things that helped us cope, whether those things were “healthy” or not. Since it worked (we got through it), we may keep doing it and it may feel automatic. As we work together we may explore these parts that were born out of particular experiences and may cause internal conflict. As we understand these parts and their roles, we can work together to help you have some more compassion for yourself and find more beneficial ways to cope and get these needs met. This may be done through Internal Family Systems and Inner Child work.

Psychodynamic Therapy

Part of reconnecting with yourself is understanding yourself. Psychodynamic therapy involves methods of exploring your past, particularly experiences in your childhood and adolescence that led to the current beliefs and patterns you feel stuck in. The point is to understand how your not-so-helpful ways of coping formed, understanding how they helped you meet your needs to survive, and work towards forming new patterns that meet your needs in a more beneficial way. I incorporate psychodynamic therapy with a trauma-informed, attachment-based lens. Our work may involve exploring early recollections, processing repressed feelings, exploring your defense mechanisms, and exploring past and present relationship dynamics. A lot of people say, “I don’t remember much” or “it’s all blurry”. That’s okay! We can still do this work. It is less about processing every specific detail of a memory and more about understanding how your present self is carrying what your past self experienced, especially in terms of the “messages” you received that formed how you interact with others (and yourself).