Individual Therapy: The Relational Frontier Part 1
If you’re honest with yourself, your friends, family, and/or partner are not cutting it in the therapeutic department. They might even be the source of your need for therapy, so the idea of running some hard things by them is no bueno!
Or, maybe you’ve been to several therapists in the past and just didn’t find the connection you wanted. They were fine, but you were hoping to feel really comfortable and more like yourself, and not like you have to perform for them.
Something I really love to do is connect. It turns out it comes fairly easy to me! And something I hear quite often is that people feel as if they have known me for a long time and that I make them feel comfortable. As I’ve stated before, this can be a great start to a wonderful therapy relationship.
So, why relationship? Can’t I just come in there and sit on the couch and spill my guts? Well, I guess you can? But, the real change happens when you have a safe environment to be yourself and allow someone to really SEE you. You begin to see things much more clearly and experience the freedom of who you were meant to be.
IFS (Internal Family Systems)
This is a mode of therapy that allows us to have conversations with the different parts and voices we hear throughout the day. You know, the ones that get loud when you mess up, or the one you hear on the regular that reminds you of past failures. We often find there is a wounded warrior behind that voice that needs our attention. It begins to open up dialogue to our Core Self and we realize that we have everything we need inside of us after all!
Enneagram
A personality test with 9 archetypes that each focus on a person’s key needs, desires and motivations. I have found the Enneagram to be an incredible tool in the therapy office. Yes, everyone is a complex mix of their story, nature, nurture, and everything in between. But, there is a nice shorthand that comes with knowing your number. And, I even change my language for each person if I know what their number is. More about this on the Enneagram page!
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
Research tells us that the brain WANTS to heal itself. The looping thoughts and reoccurring stories are the brain’s way of attempting to heal itself and store it away. EMDR gives the brain the chance it needs TO heal. Using bilateral stimulation (a fancy way of saying left-right brain hemispheres and stimulating through little paddles you hold in your hand) we give the brain a chance to properly organize problematic memories or events.