INTEGRATIVE PSYCHOTHERAPY 

Integration is a key element of my therapeutic approach, and of mental health in general. Relief from depression, anxiety, or other stress- or trauma-based disorders often comes with the integration of different realms of experience or aspects of personality into a more cohesive whole.

Therapeutic Relationship. The therapeutic relationship provides the "safe, protected space", the container in which vulnerable issues and intense emotions can be accessed and processed. Ideally the relationship itself can become a space where unconscious patterns from other significant relationships can be examined and worked through. According to the newly emerging field of "interpersonal neurobiology", written about eloquently by neuroscientist and psychiatrist Daniel Siegel, the healing effects of psychotherapy are in large part based on the biochemical changes produced by these corrective emotional experiences.

Mind/Body Connection. Western science is now confirming one of the pillars of age-old Eastern philosophies: that mind and body are inextricably linked. Researcher/clinicians working at the mind-body frontier are learning exactly how thoughts and feelings are mirrored in the body and can be accessed through sensing into the body. Mind/body therapists work with these states using the tools of Mindfulness (focused, nonjudgmental awareness of the present moment) and Body Awareness (application of mindfulness to physical sensations) to explore and shift mental/emotional states.

The Hakomi Method. Hakomi is a body-centered, mindfulness-based psychotherapy method that is influenced by humanistic therapy approaches such as Gestalt therapy, and by Buddhist meditation traditions. Hakomi is experiential, i.e., it focuses on experiences in the present moment to deepen the therapeutic process and facilitate change. Its goals are to undo the ingrained defenses that limit people’s vitality and ability to find fulfillment in life. (For more on the Hakomi Method, see article in Bridge.)

Expressive Arts Therapy and Sandplay Therapy. Expressive Arts Therapy utilizes the healing power of arts modalities such as visual arts, writing, movement, music or drama to access emotional material by nonverbal means. Beyond the inherent benefit of cultivating creativity, these techniques often allow access to deeper, perhaps unconscious emotional material and tap the non-analytic, intuitive capacities of the right brain.

In Sandplay Therapy, clients create compositions in a small box of sand using a variety of figures and objects. Clients often experience these creations as a kind of dreamscape, a symbolic representation from their unconscious.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a well-researched method that utilizes the connection between body, brain and emotions to help resolve anxiety and memories of traumatic events. "Bilateral sensory stimulation" (produced through eye movements or alternating tones or taps) enhances the brain’s ability to process "charged" memories by creating links to different memory networks. In interpersonal neurobiology this is called neural integration. (For more on EMDR see article in Bridge.)

I interweave these modalities based on clients’ needs and wishes. I always welcome questions about ways of working, and I am dedicated to tailoring the work to clients’ specific goals.