Hypnosis is a state of consciousness in which a person is able to have greater concentration, mental absorption and inner focus. Furthermore, hypnosis facilitates mind and body connections. Because of this, hypnotherapy is a powerful tool in the treatment of many emotional, behavioral and medical problems.

Hypnotherapy can be used to help access resources, enhance self-esteem and problem solving skills, and significantly improve emotional states. With hypnosis one can broaden perspectives and enhance information about subjective reality. Hypnotherapy can also be an effective part of the treatment of a great many medical conditions.

Research has shown that hypnotherapy can change the brain. Hypnosis is a process where, through the use of somatic and affectively based imagery and communication, we can help people to break lifelong patterns of behavior and distress and enable them to draw on personal resources that may have been untapped or under-utilized. It is a process, where we help people discover how much more they know, than they know they know. It is a process, where we utilize what is, and help people turn it into what they can become, into opportunity and possibility.

In hypnosis, we have much more control over body function than in an ordinary waking state. Research has also shown that hypnotherapy can help to heal the body and can be utilized to treat a great many medical symptoms. It is very effective in pain management and has been utilized frequently as the primary anesthesia in surgical procedures. Hypnosis has been utilized to help people control blood pressure. It is used to treat skin disorders and gastrointestinal problems, reduce inflammation, and help with a variety of respiratory problems. In hypnosis we can work with the immune system and autoimmune diseases. Hypnosis can reduce scarring, help with insomnia, and assist people in improving and even regaining physical function when they have been injured.

Hypnotherapy is a process where we help people to create the Neuroplasticity necessary for effective and lasting personal feeling and change.

It is important to understand that hypnosis is not akin to sleep. It is rather a state of deep absorption and inner focus. In a professional clinical setting, hypnosis is used with great respect for the patient’s safety, autonomy and potential self-healing capacities.

In Clinical Hypnosis we can:

• Effectively treat anxiety disorders
• Help people overcome depression
• Help people heal from the impact of trauma
• Treat a variety of medical conditions
• Access and strengthen coping strategies and resources
• Enhance self-confidence and self-esteem
• Access under-utilized problem solving skills and insight
• Enhance states of calm, safety and relaxation
• Enhance performance
• Help people repair early attachment deficits and repair damaged boundaries
• Help people enhance relationships
• Help people manage and reduce pain
  

Somatic Experiencing, developed by Peter Levine, PhD, is a short-term, naturalistic therapeutic approach to the resolution and healing of many kinds of trauma.

The goal of this approach is to enable people to access their innate ability to rebound from overwhelming traumatic experiences. SE facilitates the healing process by helping people to discharge stored survival energy and complete interrupted biological patterns that have gotten stuck in their nervous system at the time of the trauma.

SE can be a very effective tool in working with a wide variety of traumatic experiences of different magnitudes, including familial and social, with medical trauma and medical conditions, with accidents, with loss and with abuse.

We are often of more than one mind when we need to make choices in our life. In one moment, one point of view seems right, and then in another moment, we see things from a different perspective.  At times like this, it is difficult to clarify which viewpoint is best.    

Ego State Models of Therapy can help us to gain clarity about these different sides of ourselves. But there are a wide variety of approaches to Ego State Therapy. How do you choose?

I have, for over thirty years, studied many of these Ego State Therapy models and during the past few years, have developed an exciting new approach that has proven to be extremely helpful and surprisingly simple to use. 

Footprintings is a three dimensional Ego State Therapy model. You will use color Footprintings, chosen by you, to represent each Ego State and to map the relationships between these sides of yourself. Then you can actually step into these different Ego States, as you deepen your understanding about their differing perspectives and explore the internal connections between them.  

This three dimensional approach provides a constructive format for gaining a deeper understanding of the body experience, emotions and the cognitive perspective  of each of these “Parts” and it will provide you  with a direct opportunity to learn about and improve the process of internal communication between them.

We will work together to help you maximize the insights you gain from this experience and direct our attention to integrating these important insights into your daily life.

Couples and Family Counseling is based on the recognition that interpersonal problems can often best be solved within the context of the couple’s relationship. The goal is to repair breakdowns in communication, and to help individuals recognize and better manage or reconcile differences and repeating patterns of distress.

Family Therapy is relationship therapy. The goal is to help family members recognize and better understand their interactions and to learn more effective ways of relating to each other. Family therapy can help to patch strained relationships, teach new coping skills and improve how a family works together.

"Brainspotting is based on the profound attunement of the therapist with the patient, finding a somatic cue and extinguishing it by down-regulating the amygdala. It isn’t just PNS (Parasympathetic Nervous System) activation that is facilitated, it is homeostasis." - Robert Scaer, MD, "The Trauma Spectrum."

Brainspotting, developed by David Grand, Ph.D., is both an important discovery and a powerful treatment. It is a dynamic new psychotherapeutic approach based on very recent understandings of the neurophysiological underpinnings of common emotional problems.

Brainspotting gives us a tool to neurobiologically locate, focus, process and release experiences and symptoms out of reach of the conscious mind and its cognitive and verbal capacities. Because of the nature of this neurophysiological foundation, Brainspotting dramatically facilitates the ability of patients to move their therapeutic work along very rapidly.

Using Felt Sense and reflexive responses as indicators, relevant eye positions are matched with states of emotional activation. When this occurs in concurrence with Focused Mindfulness, there is a deep level of processing. Brainspotting work dismantles trauma symptoms, somatic distress and beliefs at the core. It can also be very effectively utilized for performance enhancement.

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing. EMDR is an informational processing therapy.  It is a physiologically based treatment that utilizes bilateral stimulation in order to help a person perceive disturbing experiences in a new and less distressing way.