Areas of Focus
Relationships: Finding the right groove for a relationship can be tough. Understanding how to navigate romantic relationships, parental and familial relationships, or professional relationships is so important to reducing stress in your everyday life. I employ a trauma-focused approach to help you uncover insights from your past relationships and their conclusions. My goal is to assist you in building emotional resilience and meaningful connections.
Childhood Trauma: My clients often find that their past experiences influence their ability to cope with their present concerns. Growing up in a toxic environment makes our brains specialize in survival. Our bodies survive by constantly anticipating the next threat. The defense mechanism we develop stays with us till adulthood ending up affecting our sense of safety, trust, power, control, esteem, and intimacy. In our sessions, we will work to become aware of that influence and identify the pillars of strength that allow you to persevere.
PTSD: It is normal to experience stress after a trauma, but the symptoms normally diminish after several weeks. Sometimes the memories can be so distressing that we want to avoid any reminders of it. Our brains don't process the experience into a memory, so the experience stays as a current problem instead of becoming a memory of a past event. In sessions, I help to process the traumatic event into a memory, so that it becomes a past event, rather than constantly reliving the trauma as happening right now.
Culture: It's important not to understate the effect cultural experience has on our mental health. I'll help you understand the context that experience has had on your life, so you can gain a new perspective on your identity.
Depression: Depression happens to one in four of us over a lifetime, it can happen to anyone. Depression is accompanied by other feelings such as guilt, shame, grief, anger, and anxiety. It often reflects that a value important to us is currently missing in our lives. With depression, we tend to see life through “gloomy specs”, and think about ourselves, the future, and the world negatively. In our work, we will explore together the underlying emotions and thoughts that create a barrier to moving toward your values and life goals.
Anxiety: Anxiety is a way that your body is telling you that you are in danger and need to protect yourself by escaping or avoiding. It is an innate emotion to allows you to survive. However, our brain is not evolved to know the difference between a real or perceived threat, regardless your body will react as if you are in danger. In our work, we will teach you anxiety management techniques such as grounding and differentiating between a real and perceived threat.
Self-Esteem: Low self-esteem can be a result of negative life experiences, particularly when we're young and most vulnerable. These experiences may include being criticized negatively, such as by a parent or school bullies. As adults, abusive relationships and stressful life events can also cause low self-esteem. Low self-esteem can stay low, because of our self-critical thoughts, which can be triggered by criticism, or perceived criticism. In our work, we focus on self-compassion and affirming self-worth.
