Comprehensive Mental Health Services
We provide compassionate and highly-skilled mental health services for a broad range of issues. We are a team of clinicians who believe that the therapeutic relationship must be compassionate, trustworthy, and genuine. We work with people experiencing a wide range of mental health concerns, including (but not limited to) depression, anxiety, mood disorders, grief, low self-esteem, relational issues, trauma, life transitions, and more.
Throughout the therapeutic process, we help clients identify strengths as well as areas for improvement. We believe that therapy is a collaborative process of working toward self-acceptance and change. We help our clients understand the source of their concerns while learning to identify and appreciate their competency and resilience.
Developmental Trauma
We specialize in treating adult survivors of childhood abuse and neglect. We have an intricate understanding of how these experiences impact the brain, emotional development, physical health, the nervous system, feelings of safety and security, immunity, and interpersonal relationships. In the words of Bessel Van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score, "the ability to feel safe is probably the most important aspect of mental health."
When we grow up with family dynamics that make us feel unsafe and invalidated in our emotions and experiences, we can struggle to move past our personal and familial trauma. One of our jobs in therapy is to help our clients experience an empathetic relationship based on the unconditional acceptance of your thoughts, feelings, and experiences. In this space, you will always be seen, heard, and believed.
Inner Child Healing
Inner child work is the idea that "we are who we've been at every age." As we grow up into bigger bodies and more logical, conscious brains, our younger selves don't just disappear over time. When we get triggered and can't understand why, a younger part of us is likely very present, demanding our attention. As adults, we often ignore these cries, deny or dismiss them, freeze, and search for a solution to "fix it." All of these can be trauma responses replaying themselves in adult life. We respond to our wounds in ways we learned as a kid and what helped keep us safe then.
This framework explores safe relationships, emotional and physical safety, consent, respecting all parts of yourself, developing a competent and compassionate inner parent, and learning to set healthy boundaries. This process is also about grieving the loss of the childhood you needed and deserved but didn't get so that you can find a greater capacity for joy, connection, and growth as you discover and celebrate your authentic self.
Complex Trauma (C-PTSD)
We understand and acknowledge the complexities of c-PTSD, typically resulting from ongoing trauma, abuse, and experiences of domestic violence. While PTSD and c-PTSD both result from the experience of something deeply traumatic, causing flashbacks, nightmares, and emotional disturbance, the main difference between the two disorders is the frequency of the trauma. While a single traumatic event causes PTSD, c-PTSD results from long-lasting trauma that continues or repeats for months or even years.
Together, we help you develop feelings of safety and find freedom through gently challenging maladaptive beliefs, setting boundaries, embracing your truth, and integrating the fragmented parts of yourself into a cohesive, adaptive, functioning whole.
HAES-Informed Approach
Clients often come to us with low self-esteem and self-worth issues rooted in weight and body size. Many providers have learned to associate higher-weight bodies with being “unhealthy” and thinner bodies with being “healthy.” Additionally, we learned that weight and size are the results of our choices; therefore, if someone is in a larger body, it reflects their habits. Not only is this inaccurate, as body size is impacted by various complex genetic, environmental, behavioral, and socio-economic factors, but these associations perpetuate harmful stereotypes and can result in poor-quality healthcare.
Our approach to your treatment is consciously rooted in the Health at Every Size (HAES) model, a framework that divorces health from weight, respects autonomy, and recognizes that health is subjective. This approach promotes dignity and respect for all bodies, as well as justice and inclusion across the spectrums of weight, age, gender, sexuality, race, and ability.