I specialize in working with the overcontrolled coping (OC)-leaning population to develop skills to recognize and manage symptoms of trauma (developmental and/or event-specific), which often present differently in the OC population, given the overcontrol, as well as to engage in the deeper work of grieving associated losses and integrating the trauma, if/when ready.
We work through the various phases of trauma treatment: safety and stabilization, reprocessing, and reintegration. The work is paced per individual and consent is obtained both intellectually and somatically from the client at initiation and throughout as check-ins.
I lead the RO DBT Trauma Special Interest Group that focuses on elucidating and exploring the internalized trauma process in OC and attuning treatment interventions to the combination of a threat sensitive biotemperament, often incongruent social signals, and suppression/avoidance, that is characteristic of OC and that is occurring in concert with trauma-impacted heightened threat-overwhelm states.
I am also trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), is a psychotherapeutic modality, originally designed to treat trauma symptoms stemming from a variety of traumatic events, and has been researched to also treat a range of conditions, such as addiction, grief and loss, anxiety, fears and phobias, disturbing memories, and chronic pain.