Renew an interest in your wellness
Sexual Abuse & Sex Solutions is primarily a therapy practice geared towards teens and adults. I have worked with children in the past, but I would rather refer you to a children specialist if you are seeking services for a child under the age of 14. My approach is person-centered. I'll incorporate story telling, art, and spirituality if you yourself gravitate towards these means of healing.
I use a variety of techniques and treatments, too many to list here. I’ll mix and match based on what’s right for you. Here are some treatments I frequently employ that other professionals may have encouraged you to seek out:
I use a variety of techniques and treatments, too many to list here. I’ll mix and match based on what’s right for you. Here are some treatments I frequently employ that other professionals may have encouraged you to seek out:
Common Types of Therapies
Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR) EMDR is a therapy that works to ease reactions to a stressful life event, such as sexual abuse. EMDR uses talk therapy and bi-lateral stimulation to process trauma. The bi-lateral stimulation just means alternating gentle tapping on either sides of your body or moving an object back and forth in front of your eyes. The bi-lateral stimulation is important because it helps your brain to create new connection and to think about the trauma as any ordinary, bad memory. This is not the same as causing you to relive the event nor is it the same as erasing the event from memory. EMDR can help us heal the intergenerational traumas of our parents and ancestors, and it can heal the ongoing trauma of racism, sexism, transphobia, bi-phobia, and homophobia, too!
People frequently spend a great deal of therapy learning coping skills so that they can calm themselves down inside and outside of the therapy room. EMDR will always be used in combination with mindfulness skills that help you to feel in control and safe. I am Certified in EMDR with roughly 10 years of experience. |
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)CBT is a way to change your thoughts in order to produce different results. Our thoughts impact our actions and this therapy can help you notice what parts of your actions are controllable. You may be wasting a lot of energy on things you cannot control as oppose to changing the things you can control.
I teach you to stop willing away difficult feelings such as shame, anxiety, loneliness, and hopelessness. We instead change the thoughts that causes those feelings. Sometimes the thoughts that trouble us, tell a story we did not write! They are stories of oppression put there by society, stories that I our existence is somehow wrong. They are our loved ones' stories that they tell as cautionary tales meant to shield us from dangers that happened to them or dangers that could happen but have not happened yet. They are the lies of our abusers meant to convince us that we are nothing without them. I use my 10 years of experience to help you get in touch with your own story. |
Trauma Focused Cognitive Processing Theory (TF-CPT) This is a type of exposure therapy combined with CBT and narrative work, meaning you retell your story with a compassionate therapist who helps you to make new meaning out of a traumatic experience, such as a rape. Traditionally, this therapy is done with children and teens in a story book form but there are also adult forms with workbook like activities.
If you are someone who enjoys, writing and speaking, I also use this as a springboard to you retelling your story, sometimes in a transformative justice approach, or as a way to reach other survivors of abuse and out of controls sexual behaviors. Similar to EMDR, I uses TF-CPT in conjunction with mindfulness skills to make sure you are not overwhelmed with the trauma. Unlike EMDR, this therapy does however require you to go into more detail, but we will do so at your pace. I am trained in TF-CPT with more than 5 years of experience. |