Life is tough. Very tough.

When it becomes overwhelming, or when people experience depression or anxiety or trouble adjusting to life or with understanding life, they can try different options.

They read self-help books with solutions that don't stick.

They ask friends, and receive advice that doesn't match the problem.

They spend years in therapy that doesn't seem to work.

But people get frustrated when they try panacea after panacea, each time hoping "this time it will work," only to be disappointed.

So they grit their teeth and hope things get better. Despair can follow.

But we really should feel hopeful about recovery and thriving. I have seen many miracles as I have worked with people in psychotherapy.

The research is clear: a skilled professional can help people who are depressed, anxious, confused by life, sick of life, struggling to keep up with the expectations of life, or simply don't know what is going wrong.

Therapy can be done in many different ways. Over 1,200 modalities have been validated.

I have a different way of helping people on their healing journeys.

I combine several top-down and bottom-up approaches.

Top-down therapy . . .

. . . or outside-in therapy, involves convincing you to change your thought patterns. Discussing your thinking patterns can be very useful in the short run, because it helps your thoughts feel less depressing and more constructive.

But it often doesn't work long term, because the trauma is festering underneath, like a splinter under the skin, continuing to cause unproductive thinking patterns.

Bottom-up therapy:

When you get a splinter, antibiotics help in the short term, but the splinter needs to be removed before full healing can occur.

So we combine a top-down (inside-out) approach (CBT, DBT) with a bottom-up approach (EMDR, IFS, psychodynamic).

certified and experienced in EMDR (state-of-the-art treatment for trauma)
additional certification in specialty EMDR for psychosis
certified in Prolonged Exposure therapy for trauma
extensive experience with populations with personality disorders and psychoses
skilled at working with neurodivergent individuals

therapist@Sanctuary-Psychotherapy.org

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Top-down therapy . . .

Bottom-up therapy:

therapist@Sanctuary-Psychotherapy.org

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