Therapy Services in DC

ACT is an evidence-based treatment model that focuses on developing acceptance and mindfulness practices while also encouraging behavior change. ACT believes that any life worth living will inevitably come with pain. Instead of trying to avoid or fix that pain, ACT encourages clients to approach their thoughts and feelings from a more compassionate perspective while continuing to move toward living a full and valued life.

CBT is an evidence-based treatment modality that focuses on identifying, evaluating and modifying distorted and dysfunctional thoughts and behaviors. It is assumed that a person’s feelings are valid and true but since they are greatly influenced by one’s thoughts and behaviors, certain emotions may become maladaptively intensified to the point of creating suffering and dysfunction in multiple areas of life. CBT offers a range of interventions that reduce maladaptive behaviors; teach new adaptive behaviors; and instructs clients to slow down, evaluate and make deliberate decisions before proceeding with a particular thought or behavior. This approach is particularly helpful with anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, interpersonal difficulties, and life transitions.

DBT is a subtype of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. It focuses on four skill areas which are mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and interpersonal skills. While it was initially developed to treat Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), these skills are easily and frequently translated to a wide range of diagnoses and can be useful to persons who frequently experience relationship or interpersonal problems; difficulty managing life stressors or setbacks; and/or recurrent and overwhelming mood fluctuations.

EMDR is a structured therapy that can be done within the context of talk therapy, as an adjunctive therapy in addition to talk therapy, or as a separate treatment. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is a clinically researched method of psychotherapy that effectively helps people recover from trauma and PTSD symptoms. In EMDR, the client is encouraged to focus briefly on the trauma memory while simultaneously experiencing bilateral stimulation (typically eye movements); this process is proven to reduce the vividness, strong emotional responses, and negative thoughts associated with the trauma memories. In addition, EMDR has shown to decrease symptoms in individuals struggling with anxiety, depression, OCD, chronic pain, addictions, and stress.

If you'd like to learn more about EMDR, please visit this link.

IFS is a non-pathologizing approach that holds the belief that each of us has a core self that holds our true essence. Through the inevitable trials, tribulations, and traumas of life we develop other parts of our psyche, referred to as our internal family, that help us operate by managing, protecting, and rescuing us in any given situation. Painful, scary, or traumatic experiences are thought to be exiled or locked away because they are too painful to confront or because we may have been ill-equipped at the time they occurred. IFS helps a person understand the family within oneself and teaches methods using curiosity, compassion, care, and courage to work with all of our parts so that the core self can be in charge and the parts can be calm, cooperative, healed, and harmonious. This approach is indicated for those with complex and single episode trauma, destructive internal critics, eating disorders, suicidal ideation, and childhood neglect.