Areas of Expertise include:
- Marriage & Family Therapy: Vulnerability comes much more readily when we feel safe. Without safety, we feel like walking onto the battlefield with no armor. We require a safe space, free of emotional weaponization, projections of fear, shame and disgust, judgement – to truly own and accept our hurtful behaviours. There can not be forgiveness without first ownership and acceptance – responsibility of deep healing is within the individual, not temporary relief is seeking change in your partner. I will help guide you to your truth.
- Couples Counseling: I have seen marriages and relationships come back from the brink. These couples all have one thing in common willingness verses willfulness. Growth in each individual serves best functioning within the relationship. Are you willing to take a look at yourself for the betterment of your relationship? If the answer is Yes, I can help you achieve that goal. There are certainly more complex situations such infidelity, addiction or personality disorders that negatively impact continued connection, however with relational trauma exploration and acceptance therapy, forgiveness and compassion can happen. I am trained in Imago Relational Therapy, Family Systems Therapy and Complex Relational Trauma and Acceptance Therapy to enhance clarity and direction.
- Addictions or Substance Abuse / Couples in Recovery: Addictions continue to invade families throughout our community. Taking your first step towards sobriety is a big step and I am here to support you. I have worked with all aspects of how addiction can eat away at the family system and erode even the best of relationships. I will help you and your loved ones break free from codependent behaviors within the family system while healing the feelings of isolation and pain that results. In individual treatment I will help you to assess your best next steps to a more rewarding lifestyle.
- Anxiety or Fears: As a Certified Specialist in the treatment of anxiety I will assist you in becoming more mindful of how your brain communicates with itself and how self triggering can increase your anxiety responses to fight, flee or freeze. My goal is to help you create new brain pathways for a more joyful and productive life.
- Women’s Issues: The glass ceiling has burst open and I know the challenges facing women today. Addressing feelings of being stretched to your limits while raising children, married or single and building a career that is rewarding and efficient is a struggle. I assist women to address all aspects of their health. Self-care is essential for your best functioning as an individual and within your family system. Woman soar when they model their best selves for their children.
- Codependency: Specializing in treating the family system allows me to assist individuals to fully understand how the relationship between two people can trigger past relational traumas causing an emotional brain response ultimately distancing the system itself. Through exploration of family of origin experience I assist you in identifying maladaptive relational skills and create new pathways for connection.
- Divorce: Divorce is the dissolution of a marriage as well as a restructuring of the family system. Parents concerned for the well-being of their children’s experience of divorce seek out direction. Finding a therapist who understands how to effectively support all memebers best functioning. . Children statistically do well when parents remain focused on the needs of the children and shift their perspective on their co-parent. Family restructuring therapy helps to support all members of the family system to establish a new way of functioning.
- Eating Disorders: Eating Disorders are a means to give the individual a sense of control so there is much be honored in order to release the safety blanket it has served. I assist individuals to understand how complex trauma increases the urge with in the emotional brain to foster the illusion of control. Working with the client to uncover their strengths to heal complex trauma through narrative therapy techniques, cognitive behavioral and dialectical behavioral therapeutic interventions will increase their acceptance of self and enhance emotional regulation.
- Infertility or Adoption: As an Adoptive Competent Therapist, 7 year infertility patient, mother who built her family through adoption and adoptee, I have an in-depth professional and personal perspective. Specializing in topics such as identity formation, attachment, closed and open adoptions, loss and grief work and marital stressors. Assisting parents with life- stage challenges within the family built through egg/sperm donation, adoption and blended family systems.
- Complex Trauma and PTSD: Trauma treatment is multifaceted requiring specialized training to assist the individual in healing direct and indirect trauma. Complex trauma is more difficult to fully understand and often expressed through difficulty in emotional regulation, relational stability , addiction, and other maladaptive behaviors. I have extensive experience in addressing the depths of familial traumas which challenge highest functioning in a plethora of systems. Addressing the complex trauma allows opportunity fo rebuild strong relational foundations with self and others to strengthen overall functioning.
Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy
- Trauma
- Addictions
- Past Life Regressions
- Pychosomatic Issues
