The modalities listed below are identified separately in order to give a full picture of the kinds of services I offer. Many of these modalities work well when woven together into the course of therapy to meet the client’s needs and interests. Each modality can also be used on its own for those wishing to do more specific types of work.

Traditional Talk Therapy

Traditional Talk Therapy can be an effective modality for those wishing to gain greater understanding of an issue or dynamic in their lives and to learn new skills for change. I use cognitive behavioral strategies to help clients gain insight and learn new ways of evaluating and transforming beliefs and the feelings and actions associated with them. I also use psychodynamic and family theories to help clients look at the roots of an issue and the unconscious patterns that may be impacting the client’s present life.

Adolescent Therapy

I find the adolescent stage of life to be one of the most dynamic and exciting to work with. My work with teens addresses issues of self-esteem, trauma, depression, anxiety, grief/ loss, attachment, and adjustment difficulties. I believe that one of the most effective elements of working with teens is to bring my own authenticity into the work. I also use motivational interviewing and expressive arts therapies. I focus on helping the teen to find and develop her/his own strengths to increase self-confidence and create healthy and successful interpersonal relationships. Ritual can also be incorporated as a way to mark the important transitions occurring at this stage of life.

Play Therapy for children

Play Therapy is used for children ages 3-11 to address issues of self-esteem, trauma, depression, anxiety, grief/ loss, attachment, and adjustment difficulties. Play therapy perceives that the child’s natural impulses towards play are the child’s own self-healing process. The role of the therapist is to facilitate an environment that supports the play, to listen and understand the themes that arise from the play, and to respond to the child’s play with therapeutic interventions that support the child’s healing. I integrate the use of both nondirective and directive play therapy techniques, which allow me to present opportunities for growth when a child’s own healing process has become blocked.

Rituals for life transitions

Ritual or the use of symbolic acts within a spiritual context is a powerful way to honor and support life transitions. Birthdays, preparations for birth or marriage, or any event that marks some kind of transformation can be made more meaningful through the intentional use of ritual. I will work co-creatively with you to help you identify intentions and design a ritual to support their manifestation. This co-creative process is embedded in your own spiritual beliefs and can incorporate nature, music, sounding/ toning, dance/ movement, art, meditation/ mindfulness, affirmations, the four elements, writing, and more. The ritual can be completed in solitude, together within the context of our work, or with your friends and/or family.

Ritual Therapy

Ritual Therapy uses the concepts outlined above to address issues that arise within the larger context of therapy. Ritual is used as a symbolic process to respond to the issues arising in one’s life and to support the fulfillment of one’s intentions. The use of ritual can be a powerful modality for supporting transformation. Within the context of our work together, we will co-create rituals using nature, music, sounding/ toning, dance/ movement, art, meditation/ mindfulness, affirmations, the four elements, writing, and more.

Authentic Movement

Authentic Movement is a process that uses movement and witnessing to help an individual find deep connection with their own authenticity. There is no music. Instead, the mover follows the impulses within their own body, which can lead to the emergence of gestures, movements, images, sensations, memories, and feelings. This experience can help people access new aspects of themselves, gain powerful insight, and create profound emotional healing. Similarly to the use of play therapy with children, authentic movement is based on the belief that people have a natural impulse towards healing and self-actualization that can be accessed through the body. As the witness, I hold a safe and non-judging container and use my presence to attend fully to the experience of the mover.

Expressive Arts Therapy

Expressive arts therapy uses dance/ movement, visual art, writing, drama, and music to support an individual’s healing and personal development. This type of therapy makes use of free creative expression and experiential exercises. It is founded on the belief that creative expression can be a powerful modality for supporting an individual’s growth. These approaches also work well for people with diverse learning styles and interests.

Ecopsychology

Ecopsychology holds that our own personal well-being is deeply impacted by our relationships with the natural world. Ecopsychology is essentially a practice that supports the experience of our interconnectedness with the earth and the visceral truth that we are of the earth.In a therapeutic context, we can create experiences of profound connection with the natural world that facilitate accessing power, guidance, safety, and support.

Despair and Empowerment Work

Based on Deep Ecology and Ecopsycholoy, despair and empowerment work uses experiential exercises and ritual to address peoples’ grief, anger, fear, and numbness about the state of the world including the devastation of the natural world and issues related to social justice. This work is based on the belief that many of us hold these feelings inside out of the fear that they are too big or that there is no safe place to express them fully. The intention of this work is to create greater capacity for accessing our own power to make change by creating a safe space to fully explore and release these feelings.

Carpet Work

Carpet work is an experiential form of therapy that creates a shame-free container to address aspects of ourselves that we have disowned in order to function in challenging childhood situations. The power of this work begins with helping an individual gain greater clarity about the different aspects of the self that contribute to difficult patterns in their life. Each of these parts is honored fully for the role it has played and is invited to bring its wisdom into transforming these patterns. Experiential opportunities are then offered for shifting these energies in the body. The series of steps in this work create a powerful and integrated foundation for deep and lasting change to occur in an individual's life.

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