SERVICES I OFFER

MODELS OF THERAPY COMMONLY UTILIZED IN MY PRACTICE

Personalized Attention for All Your Needs

Somatic Experiencing® Therapy

The Somatic Experiencing® method is a body-oriented approach to the healing of trauma and other stress disorders. It is the life’s work of Dr. Peter A. Levine. Trauma may begin as acute stress from a perceived life-threat or as the end product of cumulative stress. Both types of stress can seriously impair a person’s ability to function with resilience and ease. Trauma may result from a wide variety of stressors such as accidents, invasive medical procedures, sexual or physical assault, emotional abuse, neglect, war, natural disasters, loss, birth trauma, or the corrosive stressors of ongoing fear and conflict. The SE approach facilitates the completion of self-protective motor responses and the release of thwarted survival energy bound in the body, thus addressing the root cause of trauma symptoms. This is approached by gently guiding clients to develop increasing tolerance for difficult bodily sensations and suppressed emotions.

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Touch Work in Somatic Experiencing® Therapy

The touch work in SE therapy is not always necessary and is just one tool we utilize however it can have a powerful effect. As your therapist I have completed therapeutic touch training as part the Somatic Experiencing® Therapy Practitioner training  with Kathy Kain. My training with Kathy Kain will continue to be ongoing in order to provide my clients the best possible outcomes.

According to Kathy Kain, MA, SEP, senior faculty with the Somatic Experiencing Training Institute, touch is particularly useful:
• In working with early shock trauma that has a primarily physical origin
(particularly when this occurs in the child/infant’s pre-verbal development phase).
This is especially true when the client’s symptoms are manifesting as primarily
somatic complaints.
• In working with developmental disturbances that have a primarily physical
origin, such as extended hospitalizations, particularly if the client’s symptoms are
manifesting somatically.
• When it is helpful to the client to learn to differentiate between appropriate,
caring touch and inappropriate, harmful touch.
• When touch helps the client integrate his or her change process more fully
through all layers of self.
• When touch helps the client remain resourceful in managing his or her
activation levels.
• When the use of verbal language is limited, either due to disability or language
barriers.

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The touch work in Somatic Experiencing® Therapy is always done fully clothed. It can be done with the client seated in a chair or lying on a treatment table. If the client does not want touch work to be a part of their therapy process it would not be utilized.

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Narrative Therapy

I believe, Narrative Therapy is a beautiful adjunct to the Somatic Experiencing® Therapy when working with trauma. 

“Narrative therapy seeks to be a respectful, non-blaming approach to counselling and community work, which centers people as the experts in their own lives. It views problems as separate from people and assumes people have many skills, competencies, beliefs, values, commitments and abilities that will assist them to reduce the influence of problems in their lives".   Alice Morgan

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Other Models of Therapy

In addition to the above models of therapy, I have training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) with Christine Padesky, co-author of "Mind Over Mood: Changing how you feel by changing the way you think". I also have intensive CBT training with David Burns, M.D.

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I have  advanced training in Solution Focussed Therapy of which I completed with Lance Taylor, M.Sc., R.Psych. 

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