Addictions Counseling
Eating Disorders, Substance and Drug Abuse
With proper treatment, a person suffering with an addiction can effectively work on their symptoms in the hopes of creating remission, regardless of the severity of their disorder. The severity of the disorder may influence what treatment is recommended.
There are a variety of available treatments, including treatments provided in outpatient settings, inpatient settings, and treatments that may incorporate individual, family, and/or group therapy. Talking with someone who is more knowledgeable about the services available in your community is a recommended first step. Often, this first point of contact would be a health or mental health professional like a primary care physician, psychiatrist, social worker, or therapist. In other cases, a person might contact their insurance company to get additional information about what treatments are covered under their insurance plans.
IFS Internal Family Systems, Body Centered IFS
Internal Family Systems Psychotherapy is an approach that applies systems thinking and family therapy technique to the internal process of an individual. It conceives the mind as an inner family of subpersonalities or "parts" that form alliances and polarizations, just as "external" families do. It helps a client assess his or her "self" as a core of valuable leadership resources. It is transformative to work with parts from a place of compassion and perspective.
The state of being in "Self" or "mindfulness," as in Buddhist precepts, provides a person with the capacity to manage stress well, to problem solve effectively, and to instill trust in others. A client in this state also has the the ability to de-polarize conflicts within the family or organization and helps establish balance and harmony throughout the entire system.
(This in conjunction with Hakomi which blends IFS and Body mind is a perfect marriage of modalities for integrating healing at its deepest level).
DBT Dialectical Behavioral Therapy
The function of DBT Skills is to help enhance a client’s capabilities. There are four skills taught in DBT:
- Mindfulness: the practice of being fully aware and present in this one moment
- Distress Tolerance: how to tolerate pain in difficult situations, not change it
- Interpersonal Effectiveness: how to ask for what you want and say no while maintaining self-respect and relationships with others
- Emotion Regulation: how to change emotions that you want to change
EMDR
EMDR is a structured therapy that encourages the patient to focus briefly on the trauma memory while simultaneously experiencing bilateral stimulation (typically eye movements), which is associated with a reduction in the vividness and emotion associated with the trauma memories. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is an extensively researched, effective psychotherapy method proven to help people recover from trauma and PTSD symptoms. Ongoing research supports positive clinical outcomes showing EMDR therapy as a helpful treatment for disorders such as anxiety, depression, OCD, chronic pain, addictions, and other distressing life experiences (Maxfield, 2019). EMDR therapy has even been superior to Prozac in trauma treatment (Van der Kolk et al., 2007). Shapiro and Forrest (2016) share that more than 7 million people have been treated successfully by 110,000 therapists in 130 countries since 2016.
Gottman Couples Therapy
The Gottman Method for Healthy Relationships is a form of couples-based therapy and education that draws on the pioneering studies of relationships by psychologist John M. Gottman and clinical practice conducted by John Gottman and his wife, psychologist Julie Gottman. Nearly 40 years of research have led John Gottman to identify the elements it takes for relationships to last—among all types of couples across all phases of life. There are nine components of what the Gottmans call The Sound Relationship House, from partners making mental maps of each other’s world to learning how to break through relationship gridlock. One of the reigning insights of the science-based approach is that in the dynamics of relationship systems, negative emotions like defensiveness and contempt have more power to hurt a relationship than positive emotions have to help a relationship. As a result, the structured therapy focuses on developing understanding and skills so that partners can maintain fondness and admiration, turn toward each other to get their needs met (especially when they are hurting), manage conflict, and enact their dreams—and what to do when they mess up (because everyone does).
Gottman Method Theory
The Gottman Method Theory aims to increase friendship and closeness in couples. It does this by showing them ways to deal with problems and conflicts in a positive way. Not all conflicts have a solution, but the theory is that you can learn to live with it and not allow it to destroy your relationship. The theory also focuses on building a shared life together. That involves being more attentive and considerate to your partner. Making tiny positive changes in small, everyday things can make the relationship more stable, supportive, and stronger so that it can grow and develop.
How Does Gottman Method Suggest the Mind Works?
The research behind the Gottman method suggests that negativity has a huge impact on the brain and that if it is allowed to continue it will emotionally distance and eventually separate a couple. Many couples unknowingly react in negative ways which can deteriorate the relationship. The Gottman method suggests that by reducing negative responses and by replacing them with positive ones, the relationship can prosper.
The Gottman Method identifies nine principals which the couple must work through together in order to nourish and maintain their association.