Treatment Options

I offer various treatment options including individual and group therapy, EMDR, and TeleHealth services.

"In order to become whole we must try... to discover our own personal truth, a truth that may cause pain before giving us a new sphere of freedom.”

- Alice Miller


Individual Therapy

A one-to-one process between a client and a therapist, in a safe and confidential setting, which involves building rapport and working together to solve a client's issue.

Individual Therapy

Individual therapy is just that—when a client attends a session in a one-to-one format with a therapist. A session “hour” usually lasts 45 minutes though clients can request longer sessions up to 90 minutes. One description of individual therapy (but not exhaustive by any degree) is when, in a supportive context, a therapist and client collaborate on a client's particular problem and develop, and then implement, a resolution regarding it.

Common presenting issues in individual therapy include: depression, anxiety, and acute trauma issues (i.e., “PTSD”). “CPTSD”--Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder--is an extremely common presenting issue in my experience and I address this issue in more depth below.

Some reasons a person may choose individual therapy over group therapy: social anxiety issues, panic disorder, certain kinds of depression and trauma issues, etc., that are too overwhelming for a client to address in a group setting... (Alternatively, some persons who start in individual therapy, as their symptoms improve, may eventually transition to, or do so in conjunction with, group therapy). I see clients typically from 9am to 6pm on a given work day; sessions usually begin at the top of each hour except for lunch breaks.

Individual therapy is $100 for a 45 to 50 minute session.

To better understand the how therapy works in general (Individual therapy, group therapy, etc.) please see, How Therapy Works.

Group Therapy

Help find and give support and correct faulty perceptions, beliefs, and feelings about oneself and others.

Group Therapy

Group therapy is also available for the issues addressed in the individual therapy section and my preference is doing “process” groups. These groups usually last about 75 minutes, possibly 90 minutes. Group therapy is where members find and give support, correct faulty perceptions, beliefs, and feelings about oneself and others, and learn new, adaptive ways of relating to help members feel less depressed, less anxious, and so on.

Some reasons a client may choose group therapy over individual therapy include cost issues (group sessions are usually less than individual sessions) and when a client wants to learn new social skills and how to make positive connections with others. Another reason a client may begin group therapy is that he/she has advanced sufficiently in individual therapy on a particular issue.

Group therapy is dependent on having enough participants at a given time in the year. My preference is to have between four to eight members per group.... Please contact me if you have an interest in joining group therapy and I can put you on the list for potential candidates.

Group therapy is $35 for a 75 minute session.

To better understand how therapy works in general (Individual therapy, group therapy, etc.) please see, How Therapy Works.

EMDR

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is used for trauma, depression, and anxiety problems, among other mental health issues.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing

EMDR was originally developed to address trauma issues. Many therapists also use it for depression and anxiety problems, among other mental health issues. In contrast to what one might think psychotherapy is—that is, “talk therapy,” EMDR has an emphasis on other aspects including visual imagery, physical sensation, and emotional. This emphasis, as per a specific treatment protocol, can help accelerate processing and problem resolution.

Francine Shapiro, Ph.D., began developing EMDR in 1987. As I understand it, she came to realize that an important part of the procedure did not have to involve eye movements but rather some type of “bilateral stimulation.” Such stimulation can include not just visual but auditory or tactile aspects as well. As such, though the name has stuck, eye movements are no longer seen as essential to the EMDR procedure--though some kind of bilateral stimulation is.

In EMDR one particular focus is on “triggers” to a person's current problems including... emotional flashbacks, negative visual images, self-critical beliefs, etc. Triggers can include external sources such as a recent interpersonal interaction reminding a client of an abusive, past one. Triggers can also be mood changes (i.e., just feeling depressed can trigger a person to feel shame), among other internal experiences. The task in EMDR is to change one's reaction to such internal and external triggers to being non-reactive to them--that is, being “desensitized” to them--on cognitive, emotional, and physical levels. Following, the EMDR task is to incorporate new, empowering responses—on cognitive, emotional, and physical levels—as well as in the relational domain—in which the client acts in these new ways until they are second nature to him/her.

There is a good deal of research on EMDR and the reader is encouraged to look into this via the EMDR Institute website as well as a Google search. Various organizations support EMDR including the United States Veterans Administration. In my professional experience I've seen clients change rapidly and in a positive way, by using EMDR.

EMDR is $175 for a 90 minute session.

To better understand the how therapy works in general (Individual therapy, group therapy, etc.) please see, How Therapy Works.

Individual Therapy Through a Video Telehealth Setup

Encrypted and secure to industry standards.

TeleHealth Services

Motivated by my wish to keep working with clients in an underserved area in SW Missouri, I started using telehealth—psychotherapy by computer screen over the internet—a couple of years ago. Though it is not my primary type of interaction with clients, I've embraced this form of treatment delivery—based on my experience with it and clients' positive responses to it. I use “Doxy.me” telehealth software which is encrypted to HIPAA standards. If interested in this type of therapy option, please let me know.

CPTSD

Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is one of the most common underlying reasons clients seek therapy.

Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

CPTSD is not a “service” but I've included it in this section given it is, in my opinion, the most common underlying reason clients seek therapy. CPTSD, in my understanding, contributes in a very large way to anxiety and depression issues, among other mental health problems. I would like to note if a potential client presents with a more severe form of CPTSD, for example, a form that leads to Borderline Personality Disorder or “DID” (what use to be known as Multiple Personality Disorder), I will likely recommend that this client work with another treatment provider who specializes in such conditions.

Though similar in some ways, CPTSD is different from PTSD, or “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.” One difference is that PTSD can occur from a one time incident such as a rape or a serious car accident. In contrast, CPTSD, for many persons, occurs over an extended period of time in childhood and/or in adult relationships.

Key factors with CPTSD are easy-to-see abuse aspects—such as... experiencing verbal putdowns and/or physical abuse over time—and not so easy-to-see abuse aspects. The latter include various kinds of neglect. Relatively hidden aspects also include being pressured, in a sense, to "be" what a parent or significant other dictates and/or implies--based on inherent needs to survive in a family system. This is in contrast to a child or an adult being who he/she truly is. Some examples of problematic family roles include the “parentified” child and/or the scapegoat. Such roles often show a person with significant depression and anxiety problems, a poor sense of who he/she is, relationship problems, among many other issues.

In working with CPTSD some of the treatment process involves learning how to identify--and especially change--negative, if not downright cruel, self-statements (what a person says to herself, about herself, internally). Emotional skills are very important and learning how to grieve what one has lost (i.e., the right to have been a child when one was a child)--is a critical part of this process. Another treatment component involves targeting the “sense” of things within one's physical self. That is, trauma is often “locked” within one's body, represented in some ways via gastrointestinal problems, various physical aches and tensions, and so on. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), as I describe above, can often be utilized to adaptive outcome with these aspects of CPTSD.

What Can You Expect From the First Session?

For the first session I ask a lot of questions based on a structured clinical interview.

"I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision."

- Eleanor Roosevelt


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