What Therapeutic Modalities do I work with?
As an Integrative Therapist, I work with more than one modality to ensure my client’s needs are met. I only deploy therapies that have succeeded for me personally. EFT ‘tapping’ is the main technique I use (simply because it shows the best results) but I also incorporate light somatic techniques, NLP, and Clinical Hypnotherapy. More about each below:
What is EFT?
EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), also sometimes called tapping, is a gentle but highly effective technique used to relieve painful emotions and self-defeating patterns. It also deactivates triggers associated with distressing experiences and memories. EFT falls under the umbrella category of Energy Psychology. There is no issue too big or too small for EFT.
Practitioners stimulate specific points (called acupoints) on the body by tapping on them while thinking about a particular issue. This process rewires the neurological response to stressors, meaning our brains get reprogrammed to no longer activate a survival response when confronted with the stressor. We can’t change the stimulus, but we can change the response.
EFT therapy is great for people who have tried traditional talk therapy but still don’t feel better. In EFT, we aim to actually change or clear our issues, we don’t just learn coping strategies or challenge our thoughts.
EFT ‘tapping’ can help relieve the following issues and more: Shame; (C)PTSD; phobias; trauma; anger and rage; stress and anxiety; guilt; limited beliefs; grief; cravings; compulsions; physical ailments inc. insomnia & chronic pain; fear or nervousness; performance blockages; difficulty making decisions; and distressing memories.
Some further resources on EFT:
TEDxTalk - Is Therapy Facing a Revolution?
What is Clinical Hypnotherapy?
If you’ve ever walked or driven home with no memory of how you got there, but somehow you did, then you’ve been in a state of hypnosis, or trance, before. This is a common state that we all experience naturally from time to time.
Clinical Hypnotherapy is simply the process that occurs when a qualified Hypnotherapist guides their client into a state of deep relaxation and focused attention while introducing suggestions intended to re-write the unconscious limiting beliefs, impulses, and fears that may be causing them suffering, within a therapeutic setting.
Learn more about what Hypnotherapy is and is not here
What are Somatic Interventions?
Somatic, meaning body-based, techniques are exercises or therapies that target trauma and stress stored in the body including the nervous system, musculature, and cells. Science has proven that trauma enters through the body and therefore it must exit through the body. Cognitive processes (thoughts) have very little to do with what happens in traumatic experiences, during or afterwards.
Likewise, if we’re working with shame, somatic interventions are very useful because they address a phenomenon known as the physiology of shame.
Somatic interventions don’t require major movements. I prefer to incorporate subtle techniques into therapy sessions that clients can replicate on their own when their bodies feel hijacked by emotion. For example, we may do something as simple as moving the feet; shifting positions; breathing differently; humming; eye movements; listening to what bodily sensations have to tell us about certain situations; and so forth.
Learn more about somatic interventions
Read the best-selling book by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk about how the body stores trauma and adversity long-term: The Body Keeps the Score
What is NLP?
NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) is an approach rooted in the principle that there is a deep connection between neurological processes, language, and behavior. By integrating NLP techniques into therapy sessions, we can clearly see how our internal perception of the world shapes our external experiences and how to shift our perceptions in way that helps us think, feel, and live the way we desire.
Content-Free Therapy
If there’s a memory that is too painful to talk about or if you are a professional who is prohibited from disclosure, don’t let this be an obstacle! All of the modalities I work with show results regardless of whether or not we tell the details of our story. This is called working ‘content-free.’ When you book a Discovery Session, just mention in your New Client Form that you’d like to learn about working content-free.
“EFT is an unconventional approach, yet it frequently produces undeniable improvement in only one session and often works where other approaches do not.”
-Gary Craig, EFT founder