Scope of Practice
My approach in working with all my clients is holistic, existential and practical. It incorporates several practice modalities to facilitate healing, growth and maximized functioning in all areas of life. These therapies include Post Induction Therapy (PIT), NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM), Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), Existential Talk Therapy and Life and Recovery Coaching.
Post Induction Therapy (PIT): Post Induction Therapy was developed by Pia Mellody through her work at The Meadows in Arizona. The concepts of Carried Toxic Shame, Fear of Abandonment and Inner Child Work are central to this therapy. Post Induction Therapy is a healing and empowerment modality which helps resolve overt and covert abuse experienced in childhood and heals the emotional and relational trauma suffered in the family of origin. PIT sets the foundation for emotional expansion and actualization.
Neuro Affective Relational Model (NARM): The NARM psychotherapy approach was developed by Dr. Laurence Heller and is centered on the treatment of Complex Trauma, an amalgam of attachment, relational and developmental trauma. Working with both the psychology and physiology of an individual, NARM emphasizes cognitions and emotions as the first order of focus. According to Dr. Heller NARM simultaneously focuses “on the body, the felt sense and the instinctive responses as they are mediated through the brain stem toward higher levels of brain organization.” The result of such an approach is an expansion of therapeutic options with a focus on “the interplay between issues of identity and the capacity for connection and regulation.”
Eye Movement Reprocessing and Desensitization (EMDR): EMDR is another therapeutic modality that facilitates healing from disturbing life experiences and trauma. Much like physical wounds, emotional wounds can and do heal. According to the EMDR Institute if healing 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.” EMDR can successfully be used to facilitate a person’s natural healing through “the client’s own accelerated intellectual and emotional processes.” People often “conclude EMDR therapy feeling empowered by the very experiences that once debased them.”
Existential Talk Therapy: In Existential Talk Therapy attention is given to existential discovery and empowerment. Freedom, choice, meaning and purpose are fundamental topics of human existence that everyone at some point questions and explores. Existential Talk Therapy embodies diverse doctrines and finds its center in the analysis of an individual’s existence in an unfathomable universe. It embraces the burden of assuming ultimate responsibility for one’s free will without certain knowledge of outcomes.
Performance Coaching: Webster’s Dictionary defines performance as “something accomplished…the fulfillment of a claim, promise, or request…implementation.” Performance coaching in my practice is a results-oriented, largely behavioral change-based process that can be broken into overall “Life” and “Stage II Recovery” arenas.
Performance Life Coaching: Tony Robbins defines a Life Coach as someone who can help “identify your goals…maximize your full potential… and develop an actionable plan to…reach your desired results.” In areas of desired change whether they be relationships, codependency, sports performance, parenting or career choices, I have found that situational Performance Life Coaching is invaluable.
My personal and professional life experiences as a former U.S. Ski Team racer and lifetime competitive athlete, past corporate and entrepreneurial businessman and divorced and remarried father of two adult children help bring perspective and insight to my role as a Life Coach.
Performance Recovery Coaching: Earnie Larsen, a dynamic speaker and a pioneer thinker in the field of chemical dependency in the 1980’s, said sustained abstinence from an addiction is only the first stage of recovery. Real recovery, emotional recovery, begins with what he termed Stage II - rebuilding the life that was saved in Stage I.
Stage II Recovery encompasses the 12-Step Model. The 12-Step Model exists and is regularly employed because it works. Its efficacy is rooted in the philosophy of Trauma Resolution and Emotional Sobriety. Healing is achieved through regular, healthy, intimate connection with a group of like-minded individuals with no outside agenda. I incorporate Stage II Recovery in my practice and believe that having a therapist with in depth 12-Step knowledge is beneficial for the healing process. Such a seasoned therapist is able to act as a touchstone and provide profound and invaluable support.
While I ultimately consider all my work at its core to be existential inquiry, discovery and recovery, I believe that I work particularly well with acute life struggles and am attuned to and adept at narrowing in on the concepts of goals, potential and planning.
Manifesting a satisfying and successful life requires a strong foundation of self, an ability to live with resilience, strength and proper perspective. I believe in a regimen of healing that utilizes multiple counseling techniques and philosophies; therefore, in my practice I use a blended treatment approach that is tailored to meet the needs of the individual – no one size fits all.