Counselling Methods for Individual Adults

Each person and situation is unique so I use an eclectic and flexible approach in my work with clients.  Through supportive dialogue, collaboration, and open reflection we can create opportunities to reshape our stories and discover new meaning in unexpected and profound ways.  With this groundwork in place, clients become prepared to take values-guided actions to build the lives they want.  I draw from the following approaches so that I can be flexible to clients' needs:

Person-Centered Therapy

Person-centered therapy has been described as a way of being.  The therapist strives to be genuine, caring and empathic.  Being heard, seen, and understood as we are, can be deeply validating.  Person-centered therapists focus on building trust and a sense of safety because they recognize the important role the therapeutic relationship plays in helping clients achieve their goals.

ACT

​Acceptance and commitment therapy is fundamentally values based.  Rediscovering what's important to us and learning how to notice our experiences in different ways is an important step.  By dropping our struggle with difficult thoughts and feelings, we are able to take actions that bring us toward rich, full, meaningful lives.  ACT offers many tools that people can apply in everyday life.

Psychoeducation

Psychoeducation involves sharing information about psychology that is evidence-based or generally accepted within the profession.  Information may relate to areas such as cognitive functioning, memory, or emotional processes.  Psychoeducation can help clients gain a better understanding of issues they might be struggling with.  I may share diagrams, handouts, or statistics that I believe will be helpful.

Internal Family Systems

We all have many different parts that make up our whole being.  Some parts are protectors who work hard to keep us safe; other parts are exiles that hold the pain of past wounds.  Sometimes our parts are at odds with each other, creating internal conflict or opposition.  By getting to know our parts and understanding their roles, motivations, and struggles, we can work to bring our parts into harmony.

Somatic Experiencing

SE is a body-oriented therapeutic model for healing trauma and other stress disorders.  The SE approach addresses incomplete survival responses bound in the nervous system, which is vital to healing PTSD and the wounds of emotional and early developmental attachment trauma.  It offers a framework to assess if a person is “stuck” in fight, flight or freeze, and to resolve these fixed physiological states.

Prolonged Exposure Therapy

Prolonged exposure (PE) therapy is an intensive, structured treatment designed specifically for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  This method is most effective for acute traumas.  It targets the very natural avoidance of both internal and external experiences, and can foster post-traumatic growth.  Research has shown that PE is one of the most effective treatments for PTSD.

"We can't nourish others from a dry well.”

- Hospice Yukon