Our therapists provide treatment for many issues that adults face. These could be related to life adjustment, relationship dissatisfaction, job stress, or parenting concerns, or they could be driven by clinical disorders, such as depression, anxiety, trauma, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, impulse control disorders, or suicidality. We can see clients as individuals or in a family format. Sessions can be conducted in person and online. While COVID is still an active public health concern, therapy sessions will only be conducted online, until it is safe to meet in person.
Individual Therapy
Our therapists are well-trained in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which is a kind of therapy that helps clients understand how their thoughts and feelings are underlying and influencing their behavior. CBT has extensive research behind it that shows how effective it is in helping people change. Our therapists also draw from many other evidence-based methods as well. These include:
- Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT). CPT is an evidence-based treatment that helps clients heal from trauma. It is a specific form of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy that helps clients to challenge and modify unhelpful beliefs related to trauma.
- Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). ERP is a type of behavior therapy commonly used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and other anxiety disorders. It has been well-researched and is considered a gold standard treatment for those with OCD. ERP involves exposure to a feared situation partnered with work on preventing the ritual that is typically performed when confronted with the anxiety-producing situation. This is done to prevent compulsive responses and help free people from this response cycle. Exposure work is done in a gradient fashion and can also be used to treat other anxiety conditions, as well.
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). Poor coping with frustration and distress can cause many problems for relationships and career success. DBT teaches mindfulness, self-compassion, and strategies for tolerating distress. One goal of treatment is to form a stronger, more positive self-identity and sense of self-worth.
- Mentalization-Based Therapy (MBT). Sometimes we think we know how others are perceiving and judging us, and we can automatically react protectively and defensively against that assumed judgment—but we might be wrong! MBT is a kind of therapy helps clients better understand how others may be thinking and feeling and to stop and think through those judgments before acting.
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). We often spend a great deal of energy avoiding uncomfortable feelings, which actually makes the problem worse. ACT uses mindfulness to help clients understand that difficult emotions are appropriate responses to stressors and to accept these, rather than trying to control or suppress them.
Though our therapists are highly trained in these research-supported methods, they also know that the relationship between the therapist and the client is the backbone of treatment. They approach sessions with warmth and a sense of humor, with the goal of making you feel heard and validated.
Click here to learn more about our therapists, or click here to book a time to speak with them.
Life Coaching
Like therapy, life coaching is an intervention that can help a client identify strengths and weaknesses and work to overcome barriers that may be interfering with forward movement. Coaching can be therapeutic, but a big difference between coaching therapy is that coaching looks at the client’s present to help create future goals, while a therapist looks at a client’s past to help manage his/her present and meet future goals. Sessions tend to be more directive than in typical therapy where the client often chooses the direction of the session.
Click here to learn more about our therapists, or click here to book a time to speak with them.
Parenting Support
In addition to their expertise with adults, our therapists also have extensive training and experience in working with children and parents. Many adults feel stress stemming from their role as parents. It may be that individual therapy for you may help you become the parent you’d like to be. Sometimes your own anxiety, dysregulation, trauma, and stress can get in the way of your best parenting; individual therapy like what’s described above can be extremely effective, giving you the space to parent as you’d like.
Or it may be that parent training may directly help manage your child’s behavior. For some dysregulated children, treatment with parents is actually more effective than individual treatment with a child. In these cases, we utilize the following research-based programs:
- Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT). This is a specialty treatment for children (aged 2 years to 6 years, 11 months) who have out-of-control tantrums, meltdowns, and aggression. Using a structured program over the course of 12-15 weeks, our therapists observe parents interacting with their children and coach them in how to set better boundaries, avoid emotional escalation, and teach self-regulation methods to their children. Parents and children are one-on-one during this time, while the therapist observes over a video camera and provides live coaching via an earbud. This program can be adapted for use in online therapy.
- Parent Management Training (PMT). This structured program is designed to help dysregulated children between ages 3-13, with an adaptation for older teens as well. The training is conducted with only the parents and the therapist, but it’s designed to help children reduce their disruptive and out-of-control behavior. The therapist uses modeling and role-play to teach positive reinforcement to parents, who then try new strategies with their children and report back to the therapist for modification and fine-tuning. This program is also very effective when carried out online.
- Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE). This program is a treatment for anxiety in children, but it is conducted solely with parents. The goal of the treatment is to help parents identify how they accommodate their children’s anxiety, and, in that way, reinforce it. Many anxious children have built up very effective means of avoiding the things that make them anxious, and this makes their anxiety more entrenched and pervasive. SPACE helps parents recognize how they’ve inadvertantly contributed to this and helps them take steps to change this, carefully and empathetically. Research shows this parent-focused method to be very effective in some family situations, even when a child is not open to therapy themselves. SPACE can be conducted online as well.
Whether your direct goal is a change in yourself or a change in your child, we can help you!
Click here to learn more about our therapists, or click here to book a time to speak with them.
Family Therapy
We are all products of both individual factors (how you are and what you do) and environmental factors (how the external world influences you). Our families are strong sources of environmental support and stress, and sometimes it’s most helpful to engage in treatment together, as a dynamic family system. Our therapists will help family members identify and become more readily aware of interactions between specific individuals and among the family as a group. When problematic patterns occur, the therapist will help the family learn and implement new strategies, designed to create healthier, more supportive interactions. Families may involve your parents and siblings (your family of origin), your partner and/or your children, your extended family members, or close friends.
Click here to learn more about our therapists, or click here to book a time to speak with them.