The WST Philosophy
ACCEPT YOUR WHOLE SELF.
LOVE YOUR WHOLE SELF.
RAIN OR SHINE.
My practice emphasizes the importance of whole-body wellness - the unity of mind, body, and spirit.
We hold space for ourselves by becoming intimate with our present time experience, understanding our past, the legacy of trauma, and reconnecting to our authenticity.
I place emphasis on building up your internal and external resources, actively using mindfulness, and teaching you practices to get back into your body so you can reconnect to who you really are and what you truly want in life.
I believe that therapy is an active process and that YOU do most of the work. The time between sessions is just as important as the time we work face-to-face.
The most important part is starting and seeing how your individual process takes shape.
INDIVIDUAL THERAPY
Healing from your past trauma is a difficult process that requires connection and relationship. You do not have to do this work alone!
I am here to hold a healing space, allowing you to process the experience and its impact so you can move forward into your future with tools, resources, and self-compassion.
AREAS TO EXPLORE
Trauma + Attachment Injury
Anxiety + Emotion regulation
Addiction + Early Recovery
Life Transitions
Artist Identity + Creative Lifestyle
Relationships
1st Generation/Bicultural Americans
Spiritual Integration + Personal Growth + Psychedelic Integration
Together, we work to honor and process ALL of life’s challenges and rewards in a holistic way.
MODALITIES USED
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present and aware of where we are and what we are doing. It is most often linked to Buddhism and meditation but has been a revolutionary addition to psychotherapy in the last 50 years. This is a quality that every human being already possesses, but we have to learn how to access it for ourselves. Mindfulness in therapy allows us to notice our patterned responses, slow down, and get more in tune with our internal and external experiences both in and out of the therapy room.
Parts & Shadow Work
Parts work therapy is the concept that our personality and adaptations to difficult life experiences are composed of a number of various parts from our subconscious. In therapy, we work to objectively name all of our different parts and identify the roles they play in our organization of experience. We identify and study our parts via somatic and mindfulness-based interventions. This allows us to address differences and internal conflicts between parts that are usually responsible for blockages in emotional healing. Many of our parts are formed to keep us safe through traumatic experiences and developmental issues, but they may also be responsible for ineffective coping strategies in our adult lives. The goal is to find acceptance and value in all our parts so we can truly embody our authentic selves.
Walking Therapy
In 2022, I began meeting clients at a gorgeous park in North Portland and immediately noticed changes in the way we could connect with one another and with the outside world. Walking therapy helps us to integrate the mind-body connection and physically process emotion. It also has great benefits for those with a chronic freeze response or some social anxiety. I love to incorporate mindfulness in outdoor sessions, taking a moment to pause, reflect and absorb our surroundings. The combination of relationships, trees, flowers, and fresh air creates a new and refreshing way to connect to Self and others.
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (Somatic)
SP is a trauma-informed and somatic-based talk therapy. It is a therapeutic modality developed to treat trauma and attachment issues. We include the body in the therapy process to access deeper levels of emotional, cognitive, and spiritual experience that may not be readily available just by talking or living “from the neck up.”
Trauma-Informed Care
As a trauma-informed therapist, I assume that more often than not, there is some kind of trauma in your past that is still having an impact on your present-day life. This single or repetitive trauma is probably causing your nervous system to be easily dysregulated and triggered by external stimuli, spin out your thoughts and emotions, and has probably made you take on a lot of negative beliefs of who you are. TIC recognizes the role that trauma and oppressive systems play in our ability to create identity, purpose and meaning, and effectively regulate our emotions and cognitions.
Expressive Art
Journaling, Art, Drawing, Movement, and Music! Using some of our favorite tools to process insights, practice mindfulness, and get creative inside and outside of the session. Creating visual representations of thoughts and emotions can help us to integrate meaning, and see parts of our selves in new and surprising ways.
