Therapy Styles

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Somatic psychotherapy is one of the best ways to help patients suffering from psychological traumas cope, recover and live a normal life. The word somatic is derived from the Greek word “soma,” which means living body. Somatic therapy is a holistic therapy that studies the relationship between the mind and body in regard to the psychological past.

According to somatic psychologists, our bodies hold on to past traumas, which are reflected in our body language, posture and also expressions. In some cases, past traumas may manifest physical symptoms like pain, digestive issues, hormonal imbalances, sexual dysfunction and immune system dysfunction, medical issues, depression, anxiety, and addiction.

How It Works

The main goal of somatic therapy is recognition and release of physical tension that may remain in the body in the aftermath of a traumatic event. The therapy sessions typically involve the patient tracking his or her experience of sensations throughout the body. Depending on the form of somatic psychology used, sessions may include awareness of bodily sensations, dance, breathing techniques, voice work, physical exercise, movement and healing touch.

Somatic therapy offers a variety of benefits. It reframes and transforms current or past negative experiences, inculcates greater sense of oneself, confidence, resilience and hope. It reduces discomfort, strain and stress while developing a heightened ability to concentrate.

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Narrative therapy is a form of counseling that views people as separate from their problems and destructive behaviors. This allows clients to get some distance from the difficulty they face; this helps them to see how it might actually be helping or protecting them, more than it is hurting them. With this perspective, individuals feel more empowered to make changes in their thought patterns and behavior and “rewrite” their life story for a future that reflects who they really are, what they are capable of, and what their purpose is, separate from their problems.

Individuals, couples, and families can all benefit from narrative therapy. Those who define themselves by their problems, whose lives are dominated by such feelings as “I am a depressed person” or “I am an anxious person” can learn to see their problem as something they have but not something that identifies who they are.

This form of therapy can be helpful for people who suffer from these conditions, among others:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Trauma
• Addictions
• Eating problems
• Anger
• General difficulties with emotion regulation

If you are interested in learning more about Narrative Therapy, Schedule An Appointment Today!

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Matrix Reimprinting is a new technology that creates immediate-transformative healing at a cellular level. It beautifully and brilliantly weaves the best of the East, West, and Indigenous practices into one holistic modality that stimulates rapid and long-lasting healing. It is a gentle approach that allows us to heal from painful past memories, and also allows us to co-create our future realities.

It has a long and impressive history of resolving physical and emotional health issues. It works by bringing to mind an issue that you want to work with in a specific manner, while simultaneously tapping on the meridian points. This process releases stress and trauma from the body’s energy system, allowing the body-mind to return to a healthy physical and emotional state. Years of peer reviewed research supports the efficacy of EFT. The results are phenomenal and provide a nice addition to our Western medical model of healing. EFT is evidenced-based, is as effective as EMDR and more effective than hypnotherapy.

The Matrix Reimprinting technology is rooted in several branches of science including the Science of Quantum Physics, Quantum Biology, Epigenetics, and Psychology. It utilizes knowledge found in the Traditional Chinese Medicine meridian systems, which have been used in acupuncture for thousands of years and proven to be effective. Finally, it is infused with the power of intention, visualization and imagery.

For those familiar with epigenetics, it teaches us how to become epigenetic engine

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Imago therapy focuses on collaboratively healing childhood wounds couples share. It is believed by imago Clinicians that a person’s brain constructs an image of characteristics from their primary caretakers including both their best and worst traits. The brain’s unconscious drive is to repair damage done in childhood, and address needs that were not met, by finding a partner who can give us what our caretakers failed to provide.

This is why traits of a future partner often reflect our parents’ traits. Our unconscious drives towards this is to seek healing and to resolve unresolved childhood wounds and trauma, in order to grow. In this way, wounds received by a person, from their parents, tend to be re-stimulated by new adult partners and potential partners. The re-stimulation triggers old, unresolved emotions.

In Imago therapy, both people in the relationship can learn how to heal one another and appreciate each other for who they are. Couples must engage in a specific type of dialogue for Imago therapy to work. The conscious self may not be able to see and understand clearly the reflection of unresolved parental issues in his or her current marriage partner. Nonetheless, our unconscious connects with this person in its best (unconscious) effort to heal old wounds and allow love into your life again.

Imago relationship therapy is a form of 

What is the Gottman Method for Couples Therapy?

The Gottman Method was developed by the psychological researcher John Gottman, and is a therapy model which focuses on the process of conflict within the relationship, and less on the content.

Gottman developed multiple models, scales and formulas to predict marital and relationship stability and divorce in couples. Gottman Method concludes that the four negative behaviors that most predict divorce or relationship failure are criticism of partners’ personality, contempt (from a position of superiority), defensiveness, and stonewalling, or emotional withdrawal from interaction usually due to feeling overwhelmed by criticism. On the other hand, stable couples handle conflicts in gentle, positive ways, and are supportive of each other.

Gottman therapy aims to increase respect, affection, and closeness, break through and resolve conflict, generate greater understandings, and to keep conflict discussions calm. The Gottman Method seeks to help couples build happy and stable marriages or partnerships.

If you and your partner are interested in the Gottman Method, Schedule An Appointment Today!

Expressive Art Therapy

Expressive arts therapy combines psychology and the creative process to promote emotional growth and healing. This multi-arts, or intermodal, approach to psychotherapy and counseling uses our inborn desire to create; such a therapeutic tool can help initiate change. For some people who have a hard time articulating what they are feeling, self-expression through art can be useful. Expressive arts therapy draws from a variety of art forms, and this integration of methods can help patients access their emotions. Meanwhile, art therapy tends to be based on one particular art form.

If you are interested in learning more about Expressive Art Therapy, Schedule An Appointment Today!

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The approach of Emotionally Focused Therapy is seeing relationships – as an attachment bond – and shaping more loving relationships is leading the couple relationship field into a new understanding of romantic love. We now have a map to the territory called love and we can empower couples by showing them new systematic ways to take control of dances of disconnection and conflict and, even more important, help each other move into the open close embrace that is a secure loving bond.

Emotionally Focused Therapy is based on 50 years of research into human bonding and 30 years of research from our research into helping couples connect and thrive. We really don’t have to simply fall in and out of love anymore. Of course, Emotionally Focused Therapy also helps families who are in distress and individuals who want to understand how they connect with others and how best to deal with their needs for support from others.

If you are interested in learning more about EFT, Schedule An Appointment Today!

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EFT uses elements of Cognitive Therapy and Exposure Therapy, and combines them with Acupressure, in the form of fingertip tapping on 12 acupuncture points. Over 100 papers published in peer-reviewed medical and psychology journals, including dozens of clinical trials, have demonstrated that EFT is effective for phobias, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, pain, and other problems. EFT is a powerful self-help method based on research showing that emotional trauma contributes greatly to disease. Clinical trials have shown that EFT is able to rapidly reduce the emotional impact of memories and incidents that trigger emotional distress.

Once the distress is reduced or removed, the body can often rebalance itself, and accelerate healing. Tapping or EFT can be used on both physical and emotional ailments. You’ll notice that many people report that their physical ailments such as fibromyalgia, migraines, skin rashes and other problems diminish or disappear as their mental health improves after EFT. This technique uses the same basic recipe for every problem, since most of them involve stress. You can enhance regular therapy by incorporating EFT. Many users report better results from medical treatment or psychotherapy after they begin to use EFT.

If you are interested in Lifespan Integration, Schedule An Appointment Today!

Therapy in Washington

EMDR therapy uses bilateral stimulation, which is done by activating the right and left hemispheres of the brain, to reconsolidate traumatic memories. Bilateral stimulation can include different therapeutic elements such as eye movements, taps, or tones to maximize treatment effects. EMDR therapy involves attention to the past, present, and future. Focus is given to past disturbing memories and related events. Also, an emphasis is placed on current situations that cause distress, and there is a focus on developing the skills and attitudes needed for positive future actions. With EMDR therapy, these items are addressed using an eight-phase treatment approach.

Initial EMDR processing may be directed to childhood events rather than to adult onset stressors or the identified critical incident if the client had a problematic childhood. Clients generally gain insight on their situations, the emotional distress resolves and they start to change their behaviors. The length of treatment depends upon the number of traumas and the age of PTSD onset. Generally, those with single event adult onset trauma can be successfully treated in under 5 hours. Multiple trauma victims may require a longer treatment time.

A goal of EMDR therapy is to produce rapid and effective change while the client maintains equilibrium during and between sessions. EMDR therapy focuses on the vivid visual image related to the memory, the negative belief about the self, related emotions and body sensations and lastly a positive cognition to help r

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a structured program of psychotherapy with a strong educational component designed to provide skills for managing intense emotions and negotiating social relationships. Originally developed to curb the self-destructive impulses of chronic suicidal patients, it is also the treatment of choice for borderline personality disorder, emotion dysregulation, and a growing array of psychiatric conditions. It consists of group instruction and individual therapy sessions, both conducted weekly for six months to a year.

The “dialectic” in dialectical behavior therapy is an acknowledgment that real life is complex, and health is not a static thing but an ongoing process hammered out through a continuous Socratic dialogue with the self and others. It is continually aimed at balancing opposing forces and investigating the truth of powerful negative emotions.

DBT acknowledges the need for change in a context of acceptance of situations and recognizes the constant flux of feelings—many of them contradictory—without having to get caught up in them. Therapist-teachers help patients understand and accept that thought is an inherently messy process. DBT is itself an interplay of science and practice.

DBT is especially effective in treating the following issues:

• Stress & Anxiety
• Depression
• Addiction and substance use disorders
• Self-harm
• Eating disorders
• Post-trauma

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CBT is a psycho-social intervention that is the most widely used evidence-based practice for improving mental health. Guided by empirical research, CBT focuses on the development of personal coping strategies that target solving current problems and changing unhelpful patterns in cognitions (e.g. thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes), behaviors, and emotional regulation. CBT was originally designed to treat depression, and is now used for a number of mental health conditions including less severe forms of depression and anxiety, 

Therapy in Washington

Neurofeedback (NFB), also called neurotherapy or neurobiofeedback, is a type of biofeedback that uses real-time displays of brain activity—most commonly electroencephalography (EEG), to teach self-regulation of brain function. Typically, sensors are placed on the scalp to measure activity, with measurements displayed using video displays or sound.

Neurofeedback treats stress-related disorders, attention disorders, physical and emotional pain, and anxiety and depression. Neurofeedback is a treatment method that reduces stress and enhances well-being by using principles developed in the field of electroencephalographic (EEG) biofeedback, now called neurofeedback. Neurofeedback reduces symptoms that may not be recognizable as stress-related, but are often underpinning physical and emotional pain, attention difficulties, emotional disorders, and physical symptoms of all kinds. Neurofeedback is also effectively used by athletes and performers to train for peak performance.

If you have any questio

Acceptance Commitment Therapy

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is an action-oriented approach to psychotherapy that stems from traditional behavior therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy. Clients learn to stop avoiding, denying, and struggling with their inner emotions and, instead, accept that these deeper feelings are appropriate responses to certain situations that should not prevent them from moving forward in their lives. With this understanding, clients begin to accept their hardships and commit to making necessary changes in their behavior, regardless of what is going on in their lives and how they feel about it.

If you are interested in learning more about ACT, Schedule An Appointment Today!