LEARN ABOUT OUR THERAPY FORMATS AND STRATEGIES

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) believes that the way that we think colors our emotions and shapes our behavior. As a result, when our thoughts become distorted, pessimistic, or self-defeating we tend to experience negative emotions (e.g., depression, anxiety) and self-defeating behaviors (e.g., isolating, arguing, over drinking). A major focus of CBT is to help people identify unproductive patterns of thinking/acting, evaluate healthier alternatives, and implement these new ways of functioning moving forward. 

Psychodynamic Therapy is used to help people explore how their past experience influences their present behavior. It focuses on the psychological roots of our emotional concerns by examining unresolved conflicts or problematic relationships. It can be an open-ended process where a person has the freedom and safety to better understand complicated experiences from earlier on in their lives while helping them to develop the internal resources to effectively manage those feelings.  

Solution-focused Therapy  (SFT) helps people by finding available  solutions to a problems instead of dwelling on what caused the issue. Solution-focused therapists look at our current goals and circumstances instead of just our past so its grounded in the present. SFT believes that people  have the power and skills to change their own life, but struggle on their own to use them when needed. So, the role of therapy is to help people find their strengths, their unique skills, and the confidence  to address the problems they're experiencing.

Stopping a compulsive habit like overdrinking or the misuse of a substance is one thing, staying stopped is another. Relapse Prevention helps people who wish to stay-stopped anticipate high-risk situations that they might encounter and meet the ongoing cravings, stressors and challenges of abstinence by developing useful coping strategies. For example, Relapse Prevention might help people evaluate what “triggers” a craving (e.g., people, places, things, thoughts, emotions) and develop stress-reduction skills, role-playing refusals, self-talk to manage the situation like a pro.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing  is a treatment that aims to reduce distressing emotions associated with traumatic memories. It's a treatment that comprehensively identifies and addresses experiences that have overwhelmed the brain’s natural resilience or coping capacity, thereby generating traumatic symptoms and/or harmful coping strategies. Through EMDR therapy, patients are able to reprocess traumatic information until it is no longer psychologically disruptive.

Motivational Interviewing is a person-centered, non-confrontational method of helping people explore & resolve the uncertainties they might have about making a change in their drinking or use of a substance. The therapeutic relationship is seen as a partnership and people are encouraged to articulate those barriers that have prevented them from changing their  unhealthy habits. It's a fantastic way to meet people where they are, help them to explore where they'd like to go and resolve the ambivalence that might be an obstacle in the way

Virtual therapy using video conferencing  technology or teletherapy can be just as helpful as seeing a therapist in person. Some of the benefits of virtual therapy include flexibility in scheduling at times that would otherwise be inaccessible, the convenience of saving precious time from commuting to and from appointments, not having to worry about bumping into known others in waiting area of  office or around town, and potentially feeling more comfortable opening up in a more private, familiar setting.