Therapy Services

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EMDR

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a well-studied therapy that helps your brain finish digesting experiences it never got the chance to fully work through. When something is overwhelming, the memory can get stored in a way that keeps the original emotions, sensations, and self-judgments wired in. You may find that years later, a smell, a tone of voice, or a passing thought can still set off the whole alarm system. EMDR helps those memories move from feeling current to feeling like the past.

You don't have to walk me through every detail of what happened. Instead, we use bilateral stimulation such as side-to-side eye movements, alternating taps, or soft tones while you hold a memory in mind. This mirrors what your brain naturally does during REM sleep and gives your system a chance to do the processing it couldn't do at the time.

  • EMDR has shown to be effective for a wide range of concerns, including:

    • PTSD and complex trauma

    • Childhood abuse, neglect, and attachment wounds

    • Anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias

    • Depression and mood concerns

    • Grief and loss that won't soften

    • Negative core beliefs (I'm not enough, I'm unsafe, It was my fault)

    • Performance and social anxiety

    • Medical trauma, chronic illness, and chronic pain

    • Sexual assault and other experiences of harm

    • Sleep difficulties tied to stress or trauma

    • Substance use and coping patterns rooted in unresolved pain

  • I take a collaborative approach to EMDR. Your sense of safety leads the pace. Here's how the work generally unfolds:

    1. Getting oriented. We start by talking through what brought you in, what you're hoping for, and a bit of your history, so we can decide together whether EMDR is the right fit.

    2. Building your foundation. Before we go near anything painful, we spend time strengthening the internal tools you'll rely on such as grounding skills, calming practices, and a steadier connection to your body.

    3. Choosing what to work on. Together we name the specific memories, beliefs, or experiences you want to address.

    4. Reprocessing. Using bilateral stimulation, we move through each target a piece at a time, pausing whenever you need to. The goal isn't to relive the past, but to let it lose its grip.

    5. Making room for something truer. As the old charge fades, we help more accurate, compassionate beliefs take root — things like I'm safe now, I did what I could, or I belong here.

    We repeat this cycle for each target you want to work on, including anything new that surfaces along the way.

  • At Aura Aligned Wellness, EMDR is a tool I shape around you. Depending on what you need, I might use it on its own or blend it with talk therapy, parts work, and somatic practices so your whole self is part of the healing, not just your thoughts about it.

    A few things I hold as non-negotiable:

    • You feel grounded and resourced before we begin reprocessing

    • Sessions are paced to your nervous system, not to a timeline

    • You're never pushed past what's tolerable

    • Your emotional and physical safety stays at the center of everything we do

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DBT

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) is a structured, skills-based therapy built on a core idea that sounds simple but changes everything: you can fully accept where you are right now and work toward something different at the same time. It grew out of CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) and was originally developed for people in serious crisis such as those struggling with self-harm, suicidality, and the intense emotional swings of Borderline Personality Disorder. Today, it's one of the most widely researched and effective therapies available, used to help with far more than what it was first designed for.

    • Borderline Personality Disorder and other personality concerns

    • Self-harm and chronic suicidal thinking

    • Emotional intensity and dysregulation

    • PTSD and complex PTSD

    • Depression and anxiety

    • Substance use and compulsive coping patterns

    • Eating disorders

    • Relationship patterns that keep ending in the same place

  • What makes DBT different is that it actually teaches you what to do. You walk away with concrete tools, organized into four skill areas:

    • Distress Tolerance — getting through hard moments without making them worse

    • Emotion Regulation — understanding your emotions and shifting your relationship to them

    • Interpersonal Effectiveness — asking for what you need and staying connected to the people who matter

    • Mindfulness — being present in your own life, without judgment

    I use these skills with most of my clients because they translate directly into daily life.

  • At Aura Aligned Wellness, DBT skills is something we build together to improve overall functioning.

    A few things I keep as non-negotiable:

    • The pace is challenging and doable, never punishing

    • Skills are taught in plain language and tied to your real life

    • Acceptance and change get equal weight

    • Homework is a tool, not a test

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ERP

Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is the gold-standard treatment for OCD and one of the most effective therapies available for anxiety-driven disorders. It's a form of CBT, but it works differently than just talking through your fears. ERP is built on a counterintuitive truth: the more we try to avoid, neutralize, or "fix" anxiety in the moment, the louder it gets. The compulsions, mental rituals, and reassurance-seeking that feel like they're keeping you safe are actually what keep the cycle going.

ERP teaches your brain something new which is that you can face the thoughts, situations, or sensations you fear and tolerate the discomfort and not perform the ritual. This teaches your brain that nothing catastrophic will happen. Over time, the anxiety loses its grip, and the obsession loses its power.

  • ERP has strong research support and has been shown to help with:

    OCD across all subtypes (contamination, harm, taboo/intrusive thoughts, "just right," scrupulosity, relationship OCD, and more)

    • Health anxiety and somatic obsessions

    • Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)

    • Specific phobias

    • Panic disorder and panic-related avoidance

    • Social anxiety

    • Generalized anxiety with reassurance-seeking or mental rituals

    • Hoarding

    • PTSD-related avoidance

  • ERP has two parts working together:

    • Exposure — intentionally moving toward the thoughts, situations, images, or sensations that trigger your anxiety

    • Response Prevention — choosing not to do the compulsion, ritual, or avoidance behavior that usually follows

    You're never thrown into the deep end. We start by mapping your specific obsessions and the compulsions that have grown up around them, then build a ladder of exposures from manageable to harder. Practice between sessions is where the real change happens — we'll plan those exposures together so you always know what you're working on and why.

    The goal isn't to get rid of intrusive thoughts or anxiety. The goal is to change your relationship to them so they stop running your life.

  • At Aura Aligned Wellness, ERP is a collaborative effort. This work asks a lot of you, and your nervous system gets a vote in how we pace it.

    A few things I keep as non-negotiable:

    • We build trust and a clear plan before any exposure

    • You always understand the why behind what we're doing

    • The pace is challenging and doable, never coercive

    • Reassurance-seeking and "checking in" are gently named when they show up — that's part of the work, not a failure

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Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention to what's actually happening in your body, your thoughts, your surroundings without judgement. It sounds small, but most of us spend a surprising amount of time somewhere other than here: rehearsing the past, scanning for what might go wrong, or running on autopilot. Mindfulness is the practice of coming back. Over time, that returning builds a kind of inner steadiness and creates more space between a feeling and a reaction, more awareness of what's driving you, and more choice about what you do next.

It isn't about emptying your mind or feeling calm on demand. It's about being honest about what's here, even when what's here is uncomfortable, and meeting it with curiosity instead of resistance.

  • Mindfulness has been shown to support:

    • Anxiety and chronic worry

    • Stress and burnout

    • Depression and rumination

    • Dissociation and feeling disconnected from your body

    • Emotional reactivity and impulsivity

    • Sleep difficulties

    • Trauma recovery and nervous system regulation

    • Chronic pain and physical tension

    • Self-criticism and harsh inner dialogue

  • Mindfulness is much bigger than sitting cross-legged on a cushion. In our work, it can take a lot of different forms:

    • Breathwork — simple, portable exercises that shift your physiology in real time

    • Body scans — gently turning attention through the body to notice and release what's there

    • Sensory grounding — using sight, sound, and touch to come back to the present when you're spiraling or numbing out

    • Brief meditations — guided practices we do together in session

    I weave mindfulness in early, especially if we're doing trauma work, because it builds the inner steadiness the rest of our work depends on. I often close sessions with a short grounding or breathing practice so you're not walking back into your day raw. I'll also share handouts and suggest small practices to try between sessions — short enough that they actually fit into real life.

  • At Aura Aligned Wellness, mindfulness isn't a one-size-fits-all prescription. Some clients fall in love with meditation. Others find sitting still unbearable and do better with movement, sensory grounding, or breath-based practices. Both are valid — what matters is finding something you'll actually use.

    A few things I keep as non-negotiable:

    • Practices are chosen with you, not assigned at you

    • We work with what's accessible to your body and nervous system today

    • There's no "right" way to be mindful — only what helps you come back to yourself

    • Discomfort isn't a sign you're doing it wrong; it's often where the work is