Due to my extensive experience working with crisis intervention teams, and subsequent work in private practice working with severe trauma, I have acquired the skills necessary to emotionally contain and support those in crisis, and have obtained exposure to various types of trauma suffered by clients. My professional background has involved a great deal of therapeutic work and training on working with severe trauma, abuse of various kinds, self-mutilation, panic disorders, post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD), victims of domestic violence, dissociation and depression. I have gained the knowledge, tools, and skills necessary to access resources and intervene with those suffering from the aftermath of trauma, as well as those experiencing ongoing trauma and abuse. In addition, I have developed strategies when processing and working through the distress that profoundly impacts these individuals’ lives. I am also a certified EMDR therapist, as well ask an approved EMDR consultant, which allows me to utilize a treatment modality that has proved by empirical and clinical research to be highly effective in the treatment of trauma. In addition, I am a certified Yoga Therpaist and currently in training to become a somatic experiencing practitioner. Both modalities are utilized in my work with clients, and blended into other treatment methods such as EMDR.
As a trauma therapist, I draw these various modalities of treatment in my work with clients. Over the years, working with traumatized patients utilizing EMDR, I continued to encounter body sensations, anxiety, and dysregulation that was not cleared with simply using EMDR. Due to this, and in my own research of a more bottom up (body to mind, rather than mind to body) process, as well as polyvagal theory, I began reflecting on my own yoga practice, and how this both transformed and moved emotions for me, without the use of words. Trauma presents itself in individuals in very complex ways, and my interest became focused on trauma treatment that involved the body more, as opposed to more cognitive therapy processes. After much research, and due to my own personal experiences practicing yoga for several years, I decided to train in a Trauma Informed Yoga Treatment, obtaining a certificate through The Sundara Academy as a trauma informed yoga therapist (Trauma Informed Yoga Therapist, TIYT, Clinical Facilitator). In addition, I am a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT-500) and a certified Yoga Therapist, C-IAYT with the international association of yoga therapists. My use of trauma informed yoga combined with somatic experiencing, yoga therapy, and EMDR treatment continues to evolve, and customized treatment plans are made in collaboration with clients based on their unique symptoms and needs.
