Frequently asked questions

Traditional therapy focuses on a diagnosis and symptom management. As a traditionally trained psychotherapist, my education and training prepared me to diagnose based on a set of symptoms and create a collaborative treatment plan that typically entailed using cognitive behavioral therapy and referring to psychiatry for medication. In this standard, Western approach to mental health, the expression of symptoms is seen as something that is wrong and needs to be fixed.

My approach is vastly different. I view symptoms as an innate response of the body that guides us to a deeper understanding of what is happening, allowing us to meet the need at the root versus providing a bandaid. My utilization of EMDR allows us to access the somatic experience - which is connected to a nervous system response, rather than a thought. In viewing symptoms as innate responses of communication, we work with the body as a living, breathing organism with intelligent wisdom that is capable of healing.

I do not offer 1:1 work because I believe in the power of healing in relationship. I also believe that when we understand the laws of our physiology and the laws of nature, we can and do connect with being alive in a very different way.

Though I am traditionally trained as a psychotherapist and have 8 years of clinical experience, I now choose to practice as a coach. The reason for this is by legal definition, a licensed marriage and family therapist must diagnose and treat clients according to a standardized set of protocols. While most therapists have certifications in other modalities, at the end of the day, per legal definition, licensed marriage and family therapists are licensed to diagnose and treat mental and emotional disorders within the context of marriage, couples, and family systems. I choose not to practice under my license because the act of diagnosing means “to identify the nature of an illness or other problem by examination of the symptoms.”

I do not see symptoms as an expression of a disorder. I view a client’s self reported experience (aka symptoms) as an indication of what is happening; incredibly purposeful responses to the environment we find ourselves in.

Our body is a receptor - it takes in information from our environment via our senses and communicates that to our nervous system. Everything we do and experience is purposeful based on the environment around us. Unfortunately, many of us live or have daily practices that negatively contribute to our mental health, though these choices and practices are “normal” and part of our societal experience. The responses our bodies communicate, aka our “symptoms” are not something to pathologize, but rather deeply understand.

This framework of understanding allows us to view ourselves as limitless beings, capable of healing - not simply management. The gold standard of treatment that I and many others were taught in formal graduate education and training are actually methods that emphasize management which keeps the collective sick. Unpublished long term research on the efficacy of psychiatric medication shows that long term medication use actually prohibits the resolution of symptoms, for every diagnosis including schizophrenia. Additional information on this can be found at madinamerica.com.

I do not take insurance or provide documentation for insurance. Additionally I do not provide any letters of recommendations or provide any letters that require a diagnosis. These include but are not limited to court cases, disability claims, and emotional support animal letters.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a trauma informed technique that was developed by Francine Shapiro in 1987 as a treatment for PTSD. She came upon the idea for EMDR quite by accident. Shapiro, upset by events at school one day, decided to walk through the park on her way home. She noticed that when she recalled the upsetting event, if she moved her eyes back and forth quickly, she began to feel better. Her theory: rapid eye movement helps bring emotional balance after a distressing event.

EMDR accesses one’s memory network system. Memories are composed and organized based on numerous factors including our sensory input (sight, touch, taste, sound, smell), our emotions, our thoughts about self, others, and the experience, and how our body is responding. Think of your brain as a computer. You have a plethora of different memories in different files and folders. These files and folders are organized based on our life experiences into foundational concepts called schemas. Recall allows past experiences to inform present day situations. Assimilation is when new, present day information is organized into already existing or new schemas.

EMDR operates on the belief that the past is present and present problems are informed by past experiences that are maladaptively stored. Maladaptively meaning incorrectly, negatively, etc.

My approach to EMDR, Collective Reprocessing, looks at the trauma responses that contribute to “maladaptive storage” as incredibly adaptive. The body’s innate wisdom shows us what to acknowledge and heal within ourselves next. Additionally, Collective Reprocessing allows us to tap into a section of our unconscious mind that psychoanalytic pioneer, Carl Jung, deemed the collective unconscious. Here in the collective unconscious, we have access to repressed psychic content and information that connects us individually to our lineage, ancestors, and humanity as a whole. The experiences we have when connecting to this space have the potential to provide one with deep, emotional and energetic healing.

At its core, EMDR uses guided eye movements to help reprocess and take away the power of said adverse life experience by simulating the eye movements of REM (rapid eye movement sleep. Another important component is dual awareness. During the eye movements, you simply notice the experience(s), maintaining awareness on both the past and the present. Due to the natural laws of working memory, here the brain is given permission to drop the heaviness associated with the event(s) and move towards the preferred way of experiencing.