Our primary services include:
Clients can participate in all services either in-person or via telehealth.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
DBT is a broad-based cognitive-behavior treatment. As stated within the DBT Skills Training Manual written by Marsha Linehan, “The overall goal of DBT is to help individuals change behavioral, emotional, thinking, and interpersonal patterns associated with problems in living”.
Behavioraltech.org states, “Problematic behaviors evolve as a way to cope with a situation or attempt to solve a problem. While these behaviors might provide temporary relief, they often are not effective in the long term. DBT assumes that clients are doing the best they can, AND they need to learn new behaviors in all relevant contexts.”
In working with a DBT trained therapist, therapy is fairly structured and includes skills training. While learning new skills, a client will often be asked to participate in practices within and between therapy sessions. Between sessions, telephone consultation is available to help clients in using these new skills they are learning within their daily lives. Calls are short in nature, but provide assistance in building adaptive coping behaviors in difficult situations. Skills training focuses on several important areas including:
Mindfulness Skills: To help improve awareness, attention, and decision-making.
Emotion Regulation Skills: To help work through strong emotions and increase more positive emotional experiences.
Interpersonal Effectiveness: To learn improved communication and relationship skills.
Distress Tolerance Skills: To help manage through and learn to better tolerate emotional distress.
Behavioral Activation
Behavioral Activation is often a treatment of choice for people suffering from depression. “When we are depressed we become less active. The less active we are the fewer opportunities there are for positive and rewarding things to happen to us. And the fewer rewarding things that happen to us the lower our mood becomes. Behavioral Activation is the way out of this vicious cycle.” (https://www.psychologytools.
Behavioral activation helps us understand how behaviors influence emotions, just like cognitive work helps us understand the connection between thoughts and emotions. (https://medicine.umich.edu/
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). This is a form of treatment that helps people reprocess disturbing thoughts/memories. It works by allowing a person to naturally heal from trauma. It helps to activate new beliefs associated with past images.
As described by the EMDR Institute, Inc. reprocessing can be seen similarly to ways the body recovers from physical trauma. Often the body can work on its own to close a wound. However, if there is an object in the way or a repeated injury, the healing cannot occur and remains painful. Likewise, if there has been a disturbing event or trauma that results in a person feeling imbalanced or stuck, there can be a feeling of ongoing suffering. Once the block is removed, your brain and mind can continue to naturally move towards mental healing. EMDR helps re-activate your natural healing processes.
Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy (IPSRT)
This is designed to help people with Bipolar Disorder improve their moods by understanding and working with their biological and social rhythms (IPSRT.org). Role transitions, role disputes, and grief/loss are some areas that can negatively affect Bipolar symptoms and are addressed in this therapy.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT is a short-term therapy technique that can help people find new ways to behave by changing their thought patterns. Engaging with CBT can help people reduce stress, cope with complicated relationships, deal with grief, and face many other common life challenges.
Prolonged Exposure Therapy
Prolonged Exposure Therapy is an intervention strategy commonly used in cognitive behavioral therapy to help individuals confront fears. Prolonged exposure is a specific type of cognitive behavior therapy that teaches individuals to gradually approach trauma-related memories, feelings, and situations. Most people want to avoid anything that reminds them of the trauma they experienced, but doing so reinforces their fear. By facing what has been avoided, a person can decrease symptoms of PTSD by actively learning that the trauma-related memories and cues are not dangerous and do not need to be avoided.