Perspectives & Approaches

Philosophical Perspective 
I believe that every individual brings unique gifts and talents to the world. However, stressful situations, past trauma, abuse, neglect, or other painful experiences can sometimes obscure these abilities, leaving people feeling stuck. In response to adversity, individuals often develop coping mechanisms to survive or adapt in insecure or harmful environments. While these strategies—such as using drugs or alcohol to soothe anxiety, or isolating oneself to avoid hurt—may have been helpful at one point, they can later prevent individuals from thriving in their current lives.

These behaviors might include substance abuse, disordered eating, unhealthy relationships, or other self-destructive patterns. My work focuses on helping individuals identify and change these behaviors, supporting them in creating lives that are richer, more meaningful, and aligned with their values. Through therapy, we explore how past and present experiences have shaped both physical and emotional well-being, as well as thought patterns and core beliefs. Gaining this insight can lead to the development of new ways of living—ways that promote holistic well-being.

I encourage those I work with to set realistic goals that address the mind, body, and spirit. I believe that true recovery stems from self-empowerment and the recognition of one's strengths and unique contributions to the world.

Trauma-Informed Care

Historically, individuals seeking help have often been dismissed, ignored, or retraumatized in the process. As a result, I have adopted Trauma-Informed Care as the cornerstone of my treatment approach. Trauma-informed care is a comprehensive, system-wide method of engaging people with trauma histories. It recognizes the presence of trauma symptoms and honors the significant role that trauma has played in shaping their lives (National Center for Trauma-Informed Care, 2017). For more information on Trauma-Informed Care, please visit my website or consult resources from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA).

Advocacy

Many of the people with whom I work have reported feeling unheard or not believed when accessing medical and mental health care. This mistreatment has left many people feeling unsafe when trying to access treatment. As a social worker it is my job to help Advocate for clients who are receiving inadequate care and whose rights are being violated by systems that are supposed to help. 

Dysregulated Nervous Systems 

I believe that many “disorders” stem from dysregulated nervous systems. Common underlying causes of this dysregulation include unresolved trauma, neglect, abuse, chronic stress, inconsistent parenting, chronic pain, traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), and traumatic births. These factors can disrupt the body’s systems, contributing to mental health diagnoses, addiction, eating disorders, chronic physical illnesses, toxic workplaces, and relationship challenges.

Humans possess an autonomic nervous system (ANS) that helps maintain physiological regulation.  Part of the ANS never sleeps and continuously scans the environment looking for safety and threats through a process known as neuroception.  If the nervous system interprets a situation, relationship, or environment as safe, then a person can maintain a physiological and emotional state of balance that allows him/her/them to move towards healthy connection with themselves and others.  This is known as “ventral vagal-parasympathetic” also knowns as social engagement system regulation and what Dan Siegel refers to as “The Window of Tolerance” (1999). People must be in a regulated state to engage with others, learn, be creative, have humor and feel safe in their bodies. The more regulated a person is the more they are able to cope with unsettling thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations. If the ANS interprets the experience as unsafe then the ANS activates the survival response leading it to respond in a way that ensures the highest likelihood of survival including the hierarchal responses of fight or flight or shutdown and dissociation. This process is what Siegal refers to as “going out of the Window of Tolerance”.  I am learning more about somatic approaches to working with dysregulated nervous systems using the works of Stephen Porgess and Deb Dana and am starting to incorporate these approaches into my practice. I think it is import to teach clients about their nervous systems and help them explore safe ways to feel safer or more comfortable within their bodies, relationships, and communities.

This may help explain why children and survivors of violence often struggle more with chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Their nervous systems may have been unable to complete the natural trauma response—such as "shaking off" the trauma—similar to how animals in the wild do after escaping a predator (Levine, 2012). How our autonomic nervous system (ANS) responds to stressors is often unconscious, and this can lead individuals to feel shame about how their bodies physiologically reacted to a trigger or traumatic event. This shame can be intensified by how others—friends, family, and society—respond to the survivor. When trauma survivors receive unconditional support, they are more likely to resolve their trauma and restore a sense of balance. However, if they are dismissed, not believed, blamed, or unsupported, this can lead to hypervigilance and chronic fear.

Trauma, abuse, neglect, and other stressful events impact the nervous system, often leaving it in a constant state of hypervigilance, perpetually scanning for the next threat. This ongoing state of hyperarousal can result in chronic dysregulation, where the fear response is paired with painful physical sensations, emotions, memories, and thoughts—referred to as "private, unwanted, or fear-inducing experiences." Effective trauma therapy seeks to uncouple the fear response from these distressing experiences, a process sometimes called "widening the Window of Tolerance." According to van der Kolk (2014), this can be achieved through three primary approaches: 1) Medication, 2) The top-down approach (cognitive and emotional regulation), and 3) The bottom-up approach (somatic and body-based interventions).

Medications—including psychotropic drugs, supplements, and emerging psychedelic treatments—have shown success in alleviating trauma-related symptoms. I work with individuals who are open to exploring these methods, as well as those who prefer not to include medication in their healing journey. I provide information about the efficacy, benefits, and potential risks of these treatments, while respecting each person’s choice regarding their path to healing.

A top-down approach to working with trauma that I practice and teach is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).  Our brains are designed to solve problems even when there are no problems to be solved. We struggle internally with these unwanted private experiences but often it is not so much the unwanted thoughts, emotions, or negative feelings in our body that we experience, but our struggle with trying to get rid of them. ACT is one of the third-wave cognitive therapies that incorporates mindfulness, value clarification, and committed action so we may allow ourselves the space to accept these unwanted private experiences as part of the human experience.  By incorporating mindfulness, we can learn to not be ruled by our negative unwanted private experiences or our countless efforts to get rid of them.  Values exploration and clarification is a great way to discover what is most important in life.  Our values can serve as a compass to help guide us through the most trying experiences. Through committed action towards valued living we can find ways to a rich and fulfilling life. For more information on ACT visit https://contextualscience.org/act

I am currently learing more bottom-up approaches to working with my clients using the works of Deb Dana, Diane Poole, and Lisa Wimberger, to help them develop skills around self nurture, self-care discipline, and encouraging embodiment, the state of being fully present and aware of our physical sensations. Helping clients learn how their own nervous system takes in information from the environment through multiple sensory inputs (neuroception) and how their body perceives this information as safe or dangerous (interoception) is an important process of the healing journey from trauma, neglect, abuse, and chronic stress.

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is an evidence-based, integrative treatment that helps individuals process distressing events so they can move on and not be triggered by stimuli in his/her environment. I consider this intervention to be both a top-down and bottom-up approach to working with trauma and stress. I have seen amazing results in my practice when using EMDR for issues of trauma, abandonment, and addictions. For more information on EMDR please visit www.emdr.com or www.emdria.org. Often, painful events occur before we are preverbal and unable to seek help from others. Children who experience chronic stress during this crucial life phase are at higher risk of struggling with somatic symptoms, meaning in the body, because of unresolved trauma.

Somatic Approaches, often referred to as bottom-up approaches to working with trauma, have shown to be helpful for people who struggle with trauma that manifests through painful physical sensations. Victor Frankl stated in his book “Man Search for Meaning” that “An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior” (1946). I teach people about their nervous systems through psychoeducation and find that people feel less shame about how they respond to painful events after they find out that their response are normal. During our work together we can assess your unique window of tolerance, create awareness and insight into how your nervous system responds to current stressful events or past traumatic experiences, and explore effective ways to widen your window of tolerance so you can spend more of your life in a regulated balanced state.

I also believe Harm Reduction (reducing the harm to oneself) to be a more realistic method when working with individuals dealing with co-occurring trauma and addiction. Sometimes it is unrealistic to expect people to completely stop the use of all drugs and alcohol when these substances have been used to cope with unwanted thoughts, feelings, or physical sensations such as boredom, anxiety, or fear. Sometimes certain aspects of behaviors can be changed so that people do not have to completely stop the behavior but can-do things to reduce the negative impacts of it. For example, I would much rather see people use marijuana instead of methamphetamine, heroin, or alcohol as marijuana tends to be safer choice for a variety of reasons. If I had a client who was using marijuana to help reduce their use of other more dangerous substances, then that would be a great success! Counseling is an opportunity for people to work towards developing safer coping skills that can start to reduce or even replace unsafe coping skills such as overuse of drugs or alcohol. It is important to note that until a person wants to make those changes it is more appropriate to help that person reduce the harm around his or her substance use. For more information on Harm Reduction please visit The National Harm Reduction Coalition. 

Thank you for taking the time to read about my philosophical perspective and treatment approaches.  Please vist the resources page for more information including research and other helpful resources.