Therapy With Me
Therapy with me is not just pushing you into overwhelm or just talking about your past or "triggers". We work together to help your mind, your nervous system and your inner world work together in a more regulated and supported way.
My work is guided by the following framework, which I adapt based on your individual needs and pace:
STABILIZE
We start by helping your nervous system feel more regulated, grounded and supported. This creates a sense of safety and builds the foundation for deeper work.
This may include:
Breathwork to calm and regulate your body
Vagus nerve interventions
Gentle Movement
Mindfulness practices
Building internal and external resources
Expanding your "window of tolerance" so you handle more without shutting down or avoiding
Creating stabilization in the body helps the amygdala to fire less easily, helping the body to stop scanning for threats constantly. This increases access to the thinking brain, allows for better emotional regulation and increases psychological flexibility. We will spend as much time is needed creating safety in the system.
UNDERSTAND
This phase focuses on gaining more clarity about your internal patterns and experiences.
We will explore and identify different "parts" of you- thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and protective responses- and how they interact.
You might notice things like:
Part of you wants to move forward while another part feels stuck.
Part of you wants to speak up while another stays quiet.
Part of you feels overwhelmed while another pushes you to keep going.
Part of you wants to change while another parts resist it.
Together , we begin to understand these patterns with curiousity rather than judgement.
From there, we can identify what needs attention and create a clear, supportive path forward with deeper processing
PROCESS
This phase focuses on deep processing of experiences that are still stuck in the nervous system and feel active or unresolved. When you are ready and resourced, we may use EMDR processing (bilateral stimulation) to help the body and brain process, or "digest" the experiences so that they are no longer held with the same emotional intensity.
This phase is where:
your system updates how those experiences are stored,
allowing them to feel more distant,
less activating,
and more integrated.
They become memories you no longer try frantically to forget or push away, but instead, experience in a new way.
EXPAND
This final phase focuses on integration and forward movement. In EMDR this includes a "future template", and includes strengthening belief shifts, rehearsing new responses from a regulated state, and strengthening new patterns of responses, increasing self trust, and strengthening inner connection amongst parts.