Somatic Experiencing(SE) is a therapeutic approach that utilizes the wisdom of the body as a tool to resolve trauma and tension in one’s life. SE looks at the fight/flight reaction that people have in traumatic situations and finds ways to bring the nervous systems towards more regulation. After experiencing trauma, there is a higher reactivity in the nervous system. The body is still braced and remembering the trauma. SE helps provide tools to be more present with what is happening now and find safety in your body. By orienting towards what is pleasant in your physiological experience, you can find the capacity to not reacting as strongly to the triggers of life. By tuning in to the body and slowing down, SE helps you feel into wellbeing as an embodied experience.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy(CBT) is an evidence-based approach to therapy that helps you identify negative thinking patterns that lead to anxiety and depression. CBT outlines specific thinking patterns that cause distress by labeling them, such as “Catastrophizing” and “Mind Reading”. By putting labels on the negative thoughts, it becomes easier to move towards other thinking styles. In a step by step process, CBT helps you reframe your thoughts when they are distorted. Identifying these faulty thinking patterns helps you normalize negative thoughts and find ways to think differently.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an experiential trauma therapy. EMDR is best utilized for acute traumas like car accidents, but can also help with complex childhood trauma. The EMDR process starts by having the client identify an imaginal safe place. Then the therapist and client revisit the trauma together after first grounding the client’s body. The client holds tappers (hand held buzzers that buzz back and forth from hand to hand), which help bilaterally stimulate the brain. Bilateral stimulation of the brain while re-processing trauma can help the client store the trauma memory differently after the session. Many clients find relief and resolution from intrusive traumatic thoughts after this process.

Mindfulness is the practice of finding non-judgmental awareness of the present moment. Mindfulness can take many forms, either active or passive. Many are familiar with meditation and yoga as mindfulness processes; however, there are many more ways to practice mindfulness in our lives. We can be mindful of emotions, our surroundings or our five sense awareness. Through mindfulness, it is easier to calm the mind and get a break from the constant stream of thoughts (or monkey mind). Mindfulness therapy helps clients learn the tools to practice mindfulness as they move through their lives.

Trauma-Informed therapy focuses on empowering the client who has experienced trauma. Traumatic experiences are inherently disempowering. Working with trauma means giving a voice to the parts that were repressed during the traumatic experience. By re-establishing a sense of agency and choice, trauma therapy aims to build up the survivor of trauma to live more fully now. Working with trauma can take many forms and often involves an emotional shift around the part of us that carries the pain. Through parts work (see Internal Family Systems) or re-processing the trauma in the safety of the therapy space, one can become more free from the stuck narratives trauma leaves us with.

Internal Family Systems (IFS) conceptualizes the individual as a system of parts, or ego-states. Each of us has a little kid, teenager and other adaptive parts that developed due to our life experiences. By naming these different parts and identifying what function each part plays, we can navigate our inner world with more skill. IFS conceptualizes that there is a central part of each of us, called The Self, which has compassion, curiosity and a deep awareness. The Self is the core self that is an observer. By getting in touch with this aspect of ourselves, we can find more compassion for the younger parts of ourselves which may be hurting.