Therapeutic Interventions.

Developed by Dr. Aaron T. Beck, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a practical, solution-focused approach that helps you understand how your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors influence one another. When we get stuck in unhelpful thinking patterns or habits, it can affect our mood, confidence, and daily functioning. CBT teaches you skills to notice these patterns, challenge them, and create healthier ways of responding.

CBT is based on the idea that our thoughts play a major role in how we feel and what we do. Sometimes our minds make automatic assumptions—like expecting the worst or being overly self-critical—and these patterns can keep us feeling anxious, depressed, or overwhelmed.

By learning to recognize these thought patterns and experiment with new behaviors, you can create meaningful shifts in both your emotional well-being and everyday life. CBT is collaborative and structured, meaning you and your therapist work together to set goals, build skills, and track progress.

To see a video from the Beck Institute for CBT explaining how to identify Automatic Thoughts, click here.

EMDR is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences.

Repeated studies show that by using EMDR therapy people can experience the benefits of psychotherapy that once took years to make a difference. It is widely assumed that severe emotional pain requires a long time to heal. EMDR therapy shows that the mind can in fact heal from psychological trauma much as the body recovers from physical trauma. When you cut your hand, your body works to close the wound. If a foreign object or repeated injury irritates the wound, it festers and causes pain. Once the block is removed, healing resumes.

EMDR therapy demonstrates that a similar sequence of events occurs with mental processes. The brain’s information processing system naturally moves toward mental health. If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound festers and can cause intense suffering. Once the block is removed, healing resumes.

Using the detailed protocols and procedures learned in EMDR therapy training sessions, clinicians help clients activate their natural healing processes.

-EMDR Institute, Founded by Francine Shapiro, Ph.D.

To see an EMDRIA approved video explaining EMDR, click here.

Internal Family Systems (IFS), developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz, is a gentle, empowering type of therapy that helps you understand and heal the different “parts” of yourself. IFS is based on the idea that the mind is naturally made up of different parts, similar to members of an internal “family.” These parts fall into roles:

• Protectors, who try to keep you safe, prevent pain, and help you manage life

• Exiles, which carry old hurts or burdens from the past

• Managers and firefighters, who try to control or soothe difficult emotions

IFS helps you get to know these parts with curiosity rather than judgment. As you build a compassionate relationship with them, you can better understand why they show up and what they need. Over time, this process helps the more grounded, calm, and confident part of you—called the Self—take the lead.

Healing happens when parts feel heard, understood, and supported by Self, allowing them to relax their extreme roles and leave the core Self to carry out life functions in a more adaptive way.

To see a video of Dr. Schwartz explaining our “Inner Critic,” click here.

Somatic therapy is an approach that helps you heal by connecting the brain’s processes and bodily reactions. Instead of focusing only on thoughts or emotions, somatic therapy recognizes that our bodies also hold stress, tension, and reacts to environmental cues that may go unnoticed by our conscious awareness.

Somatic therapy is based on the idea that the nervous system plays a key role in emotional health. When we go through stress or trauma, our bodies may stay “stuck” in survival responses like fight, flight, or freeze. Over time, this can show up as anxiety, tension, difficulty relaxing, or feeling disconnected from your body’s natural processes.

Somatic approaches to therapy help:

• Support nervous system regulation amidst discomfort

• Release stored tension

• Increase cognitive awareness of bodily responses to perceived threat

• Build a coping-skill “toolkit” to support anxiety management

By learning to notice and respond to your body’s signals with curiosity and care, you can develop healthier patterns of responding to stress.