You’re Unique. Your treatment will be too.
As a holistic and integrative therapists, we focus on all the many parts that are you. The parts you have hidden, parts that you have been ashamed of, parts that are strengths and weaknesses. Everything that makes you uniquely you. By treating you as a “whole” person, we will foster healing for the spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional aspects that make up you. The goal of holistic & integrative treatment is to help you develop a deeper understanding of yourself on all levels while giving you tools you’ll use to strengthen the areas you want to work on. Your mind-body-spirit connection will improve. Your stress levels decreased. And you will walk out of treatment loving you….all of you.
OUR PHILOSOPHY
Evidence-Based Therapies Integrated
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Cognitive-behavioral therapy, or CBT, focuses on ways in which your thoughts and actions can contribute to problems – and on how you can address these problems by thinking or acting a little differently. CBT helps you work through certain problems by: Identifying and challenging unhelpful thoughts; changing or modifying your behaviors and learning how to face your fears and challenges. You will learn practice self-help strategies while gaining confidence in your abilities which helps your self-worth & self-esteem.
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Dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT, is a type of CBT. Dialectical (the D is DBT) meets opposites and comes from the idea of combining two of contrasting ideas - change and acceptance. DBT takes those CBT ideas of challenging unhelpful thought patterns, but also adds skills-based work. Four main areas of DBT include: Mindfulness (being aware of the present moment WITHOUT judgment); Distress Tolerance skills (managing a crisis without worsening the situation and accepting reality for what it is); Emotional Regulation skills (understanding and reducing vulnerability to emotions & changing emotions); and Interpersonal skills (getting your needs met, increasing self-respect in relationships and maintaining those relationships in ways that feel right for you).
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Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, builds on the importance of mindfulness and acceptance. For ACT, people adapt to challenges by accepting their thoughts and feelings, and committing to actions that align with their values. For some, thought challenging as done in CBT can be very difficult or can even become compulsive. For those clients, instead of challenging those thoughts, you learn how to create distance between you and them. Another standout feature of ACT is helping you identify your values…what’s truly important to you. Based upon those values, you will commit to actions that align with them. ACT states that the energy used trying to fight to eliminate challenges can be better shifted to pursuing things that are important to you. Living a more satisfying and meaningful life is the goal.
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Sometimes the “how” isn’t enough and you want to know the “why.” Attachment Therapy looks at our early childhood experiences and bonds we develop with our primary caregivers, typically parents, during your childhood. The quality of this relationship forms the foundation for our understanding of love, trust, and safety throughout our lives. Attachment theory provides the framework for explaining how early experiences with caregivers shape our patterns of relating to others in adulthood.
We will explore how your early experiences shape your beliefs about yourself, others and the world. In therapy you can explore the root of your relationship problems and learn to develop stronger and more fulfilling connections with your partner, friends, and family members.
Whether you are seeking to strengthen existing relationships, navigate trust issues, or heal from past experiences, incorporating attachment-based work will help you through that journey. The goal is to gain insight into the “why” of your emotional struggles, while at the same time, provide you with tools to learn “how to” address issues.
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Lifestyle medicine focuses on evidence-based lifestyle interventions—including nutrition, physical activity, sleep, positive social connection, stress management, and reduction of substance use — as a primary modality to prevent, treat and often reverse chronic disease. Addressing these key health behaviors is critical for the prevention, treatment, and/or reversal of many chronic health conditions and optimization of overall health. However, these factors don’t just impact your physical health (remember what was mentioned above about the mind and body being connected?). These factors also impact your mental health. What you eat, how you sleep, the lack of activity all impacts your mood and your ability to manage your thoughts and your feelings. In our work together, we will incorporate lifestyle-based strategies to improve your mental health and emotional well-being.
OUR UNIQUE RELATIONSHIP
As we are working through these various aspects of your treatment, our unique therapeutic relationship will play a crucial role in helping you complete each step. Our style is highly engaging yet warm and friendly. We will create a safe and supportive environment by being consistent and reliable. We will be non-judgmental, so you feel free to express yourself openly without fear of criticism or rejection. You will feel validated, heard, understood, valued and cared for. We will hold space for your feelings (all of them no matter how big or small) and you won’t have to feel like you need to take care of me or sugarcoat them. We can handle them. Although we’ll provide gentle challenges to help shift your mindset, we will respect your boundaries, going at a pace that you control and feel comfortable with. With our collaborative stance, you won’t feel rushed to do anything when you’re not ready.
We will be your biggest cheerleader (might bring out poms poms) and use humor as much as we deem fit (we’re quite funny). We’ll discuss your values and interests that you have and have not been able to dive into due to whatever has been holding you back from living to your fullest potential. In being collaborative, you will also feel empowered as you make decisions about your treatment. We will incorporate your strengths and achievements into our work, helping you rebuild that confidence and trust in your own abilities.
Our connection will be genuine, authentic and real.
Why is having an integrative and relational approach critical to therapy success?
We’ve been told by clients who have worked with previous providers that they terminated treatment for one or two reasons (aside from financial & treatment goals reached):
Either the modality/treatment approach wasn’t working for them
The relationship with the therapist wasn’t what they wanted. A therapist who has been invalidating or insensitive or who just doesn’t get you.
These negative therapy experiences cause reluctance in participating in therapy again. With an integrative approach you have flexibility to change modalities used. You’re not limited to one approach. But if you want, we can focus on just one! You can tell us that something isn’t working for you and we’ll find what does. That comfort in being able to share those concerns (and not feel scared or like we’re going to be all defensive and weird about it) is why the relational piece is sooo important. We weren’t created in vacuums. Your relationships and experiences have molded you to who you are today. Those relationships and the quality of them are the biggest factor in feeling happiness, so why would our relationship be any different? Additionally, research has supported this showing that regardless of treatment method— the therapeutic relationship is most impactful of making change. It’s a relationship that we can laugh together, cry together, heal together.
Does that mean we’ll get it all? Absolutely not. But the times we don’t, our hope is that you’ll tell us. Have more questions? Reach out now so we can discuss further!