Therapeutic Approaches

• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy
• Anchored Relational Therapy (Formerly AIR Network)

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy

I am an EMDRIA Certified Therapist™. This means that I have not only completed the basic training and consultation hours required to practice EMDR, I have completed advanced EMDR training, additional expert consultation, and EMDRIA has certified that I am adherent to EMDRIA's strict standards of care for practice. EMDR is a powerful therapeutic tool that I utilize throughout my practice. I am committed to ongoing consultation, training, and connection with EMDRIA so I can continue meeting high standards of care in providing safe and effective treatment for all my clients.

EMDR is the Gold Standard of trauma treatment. I practice EMDR Therapy from a strengths-based, evidence-informed approach that builds on the brain's natural ability to heal. Rather than focusing on what is “wrong,” EMDR helps activate your existing resilience, insight, and coping skills while gently reprocessing past experiences that are still interfering with your present life. Using guided bilateral stimulation such as eye movements, tapping, audio or tactile interventions, EMDR supports the brain in integrating difficult memories in a way that reduces emotional intensity and increases a sense of confidence, clarity, and empowerment. My clients find that EMDR helps them reconnect with their inner strengths so that they can heal from the past and move forward without the trauma weighing them down.

Anchored Relational Therapy (Formerly AIR Network)

Anchored Relational Therapy is a therapeutic model developed to treat Complex PTSD (C-PTSD) and Dissociation. This model is used in conjunction with EMDR, Strengths-Based Therapy, CBT, and other treatment modalities.

The creators of Anchored Relational note on their website that "it is our goal to help clients understand that they are not the events that have happened to them. Who they are, including every P/part, is separate from the trauma, memories and programming/conditioning." This model emphasizes helping clients build a primary and safe relationship with themselves by developing Adaptive Internal Relational Networks in which internal parts can relate with themselves and their own inherent strengths rather than relying on the therapist as the main regulator. Grounded in neuroscience and trauma theory, this model views client "symptoms" as strengths shaped by survival and focuses on strengthening the Interactive Present Awareness/Most Resourced Self to bridge top-down and bottom-up processes that were negatively impacted by the client's complex developmental trauma. Client's own compassionate and nonjudgmental internal awareness over time allows their parts to connect, calm, and reorganize, reducing reliance on external regulation and preventing reenactment of traumatic bonding. By repeatedly resourcing internal relationships and building neurological connections between brain systems, clients gradually gain greater emotional regulation, internal locus of control, and the capacity to engage in adult relationships and life beyond therapy with stability and self-trust.

The model consists of three phases:

1. Phase One: Creating Context and Resource Stabilization
   In this phase, therapist and client learn about the neurobiology of trauma and the Anchored Relational model. The focus is to assess for adaptive networks and survival strategies, build on the client's inherent strengths, competence and resilience, and increase internal experiences of safety.
2. Phase Two: Developing Networks and Anchored Resourcing
   In this phase, client and therapist work together to build the client's Adaptive Internal Relational Networks and Anchor Resourcing skills. From the Anchored Relational Website, "Adaptive Internal Relational Networks are neurological structures and relational systems that allow a client to be in a present oriented relationship with all of who they are at any given time." Together we work to strengthen one's Interactive Present Awareness, so that they can tolerate working on past trauma while their parts stay firmly in the present.
3. Phase Three: Future Resilience and/or Memory Processing
   Not all clients will choose to reprocess past trauma memories. If they choose to, they will draw tools from the earlier phases of their therapy so that they can maintain safety and present attention while processing past events in a gentle manner. Therapist and client will reinforce positive experiences and resourcing strategies to help the client connect to their strengths in the past, present and future. EMDR can be utilized in this phase for memory reprocessing.

The model is originated by Patti Miller, MA, LP and Phyllis C. Solon, PsyD, LP

Learn more about the Anchored Relational Model