Our Approaches
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
This approach is particularly helpful if you have anxiety. Are you…
Constantly thinking, thinking, thinking… worrying, worrying, worrying: the past, the present, the future?
Spending lots of time thinking about what you just said, what you will say, or what this or that person will do?
Experiencing shortness of breath or trouble breathing – racing heart, chest pain, and worrying when the next anxiety attack might happen?
CBT challenges you to change unwanted or unhelpful thoughts and behaviors.
The first step is developing an awareness of those thoughts and behaviors.
People can get tangled within their thoughts and not stop them without the guidance of CBT to help them. We are using a very structured system to work with the client to discuss problem by problem instead of just talking or rambling with no end in sight. We actually can gain momentum and direction with this tool instead of feeling lost in space.
Giving you homework between sessions will help rehearse new skills, practice coping strategies, and restrict destructive beliefs. Homework helps you practice skills outside of sessions in your world.
If you would like, we will journal about distressing thoughts, teaching you how to develop calm thoughts, challenging the way you think, and keeping track of distortions in your thinking to move away from those. We will go over the homework and practice it before we send you home with it, we want to make sure you like it, are comfortable with it, or you won’t do it. We will make sure you understand the process fully. Giving homework allows us to see what you are up to during the week, your current thinking patterns, and the changes in your thinking – we can compare these to see how much progress you make.
You’ll then learn to see situations from different perspectives, developing a more positive way of thinking about and reacting to the world.
We’ll discuss situations, and tearing them apart will allow us to see your distortions and your view of them, creating a new narrative and story for you.
We’ll also focus on what is right for you and what is working instead of focusing on the problems and what is not working.
It also involves distinguishing between facts and irrational thoughts.
We’ll figure out if it is a fact or a thought and identify it by asking questions to understand further and allowing you to understand better.
We’ll use worksheets to identify automatic thoughts, identifying beliefs, and testing your thoughts to develop rational thoughts.
Finally, you’ll feel better as you replace negative thoughts, habits, and behaviors with positive ones.
Using worksheets, we will look at the situation, automatic thoughts, emotions and create an alternative response and outcome to create a new reality for you. Using mindfulness skills, we’ll guide you and expose situations that cause negative thoughts to make new beliefs.
Spoiler alert: Making changes won’t be easy.
To get the most out of sessions, you must be ready and willing to spend time and effort analyzing your thoughts and behaviors… and completing the homework. Your active involvement is key to your success.
Facing your fears and thinking more realistically is tough.
It’s scary, the way you feel when something makes you feel really anxious. This leads to avoidance, leading to more avoidance, which leads to a more and more limited life & opportunities.
We’ll change how you react to situations, paying attention to the avoidance factor as your brain’s fear center. When you feel fear or run away, you miss the chance to “habituate” the fear center of your brain to the thing you are afraid of, which may be your thoughts or situations.
Facing your fears can calm your brain. We will help you face your fears one-by-one by using exposure therapy with CBT to slowly acclimate your brain to see that it is ok and safe, and it gets easier and easier.
Sessions can be structured and focused in a way that you will know what to expect each session. A simple format consists of checking in, reviewing homework from the previous week, setting a plan of what we will discuss, discussing and problem-solving any issues that come up, and sending you home with some work to do on yourself between sessions. Your goals will be reviewed on an ongoing basis, and you’ll get feedback all along the way.
Results can be seen as little as 20 to 30 consistent sessions!
Stop blaming yourself for everything…
Stop fearing the worst…
Face your fears instead of avoiding them…
Accept and understand rather than judge yourself or others…
Focus on the present moment—on how things are rather than how you think they should be…
You can do this!
Give us a call today, and let’s talk about how CBT, DBT, EFT, or EMDR Therapy can help: (248) 962-3329.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
We might incorporate this into your therapy, as it focuses on emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and mindfulness strategies for navigating relationships.
Emotional regulation
We’ll teach and explore how to identify emotions, pay attention to how they impact your behaviors, and apply distress tolerance skills to self-regulate and soothe yourself.
DBT allows us to acknowledge our intense emotions and help us develop skills to set healthy boundaries in relationships and use assertive communication styles.
There is no such thing as a “wrong” emotion. You are allowed to feel however you want to feel. We want you to understand and accept your feelings—to ride your waves of emotions.
You’ll also learn skills that allow you to calm your intense emotions until you feel safe confronting them. Teaching you how to name your emotion you are experiencing. Showing you how to live in the moment, develop healthy ways to deal with stress
Explore how clients are currently struggling with emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and mindfulness in their relationships.
Distress tolerance
Using different tolerance skills helps you get a more manageable emotional place for crisis survival. For example, we will utilize a self-soothe skill to teach you how to pay attention to your senses.
We’ll also teach you how to make it through an emotional incident without making it worse. Not feeling overwhelmed by stressful situations. You’ll learn various methods to take your mind off your feelings of distress, such as using a pros/cons list to think through the short/long term consequences of an action. Or finding ways to calm yourself and keep negative emotions at bay and in check.
Emotions can feel intense and overwhelming, but we will show you how to ride the wave of emotions, so you can learn to sit with it and feel it (instead of running away).
Mindfulness strategies for relationships
It’s about learning the interpersonal skills you need to stand up for yourself, assert boundaries, respect others, communicate better, and navigate your relationships.
We’ll provide acronyms to guide you in your conversation with others, allowing you to get what you need and want from others. We’ll show you how to assert yourself with others while maintaining a healthy relationship.
These could look like acronyms to follow and other fun strategies that you can practice daily.
You don’t have to judge yourself any longer…
… and we won’t pass judgment on you.
Let us teach you the skills you need to manage your intense emotions, so you can graduate from therapy and do it ALL on your own.
If you are ready to dive into mindfulness, regulate your emotions, and maintain positive relationships, give us a call today to schedule your first appointment: (248) 962-3329.
Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR)
EMDR, which stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, utilizes bilateral eye movement & other forms of bilateral stimulation, such as tapping or sound, to aid in the reprocessing of traumatic memories. Frequently, trauma lingers in the form of memories that resist effective processing. This is not a personal shortcoming but a survival mechanism. Unprocessed traumatic memories forms thoughts, beliefs, and even physical sensations related to the traumatic event. When triggered, these components resurface, leading to a re-experiencing of the trauma.
While other therapeutic approaches concentrate on the thoughts and emotions stemming from trauma, EMDR treatment distinguishes itself by targeting the memory or memories directly and challenging the negative beliefs associated with them. Its objective is to actively alter the way our brain stores traumatic memories, subsequently alleviating the distressing symptoms linked to those memories. In essence, EMDR diminishes the influence that traumatic memories exert, empowering individuals to move forward. EMDR sessions typically run for 50-60 minutes. The EMDR process is divided into eight phases, each aiming to adequately prepare individuals for the processing of traumatic memories. If you want to learn more about EMDR head over here- EMDR
Breathwork
This is often the last house on the block…
In other words, it’s a great place to go when you’ve tried everything else but haven’t gotten the results you want.
Lying on your back, you’ll intentionally change your breathing patterns with simple techniques. You’ll learn the basics of how to breathe properly using your diaphragm and abdominal muscles.
Here’s what it looks like…
We’ll start by discussing your challenges—where you’re struggling and how you would like to improve your life.
You’ll then lie on your back and go into fast breath for 20 minutes. When you do this, you’ll experience various sensations in your body that get progressively more intense: tingling, coldness, sweating, clenching, or visions… some even have an “out-of-body experience.”
It may be uncomfortable at first, but these intense physical experiences are important because they’ll show you where you’re holding tension in your body. Music will guide you, and I’ll give you guidance and support along the way so that you feel safe and at ease.
We’ll end with a slow meditation breath to calm and relax the body and mind, leaving you with a blank slate to create new beliefs, habits, and routines that serve who you are.
The benefits of clearing and releasing what no longer serves you…
You’ll be relaxed and energized as your breath floods your system, stimulating your hypothalamus, pituitary, pineal, and adrenal glands.
You’ll improve your emotional state, decreasing stress and relieving anxiety by releasing endorphins in the brain, stimulating dopamine and serotonin, and resetting your nervous system.
You’ll develop self-awareness, process emotions, heal emotional pain, improve personal relationships, and increase self-esteem and joy.
Also, you don’t need to schedule an individual therapy session for breathwork! We offer individual breathwork sessions apart from therapy sessions.
Are you ready for a powerful, long-lasting, transformative life experience?
And would you believe it all happens within 30 minutes… right from your living room where you can feel comfortable and at home??
Let’s get started on your breathwork journey!
If you are ready to gain a new healing tool, give us a call: (248) 962-3329.