Therapeutic interventions are many and varied. To make things a little simpler, I've written up descriptions of the techniques I use most in sessions with my clients.
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Equinimity Counseling only uses evidence-based techniques. This means scientific studies have repeatedly shown that these methods are effective at helping us feel better.
Natural Lifemanship
Trauma-focused, Equine assisted psychotherapy
Natural Lifemanship Trauma-Focused, Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (TF-EAP) is an innovative therapeutic approach that harnesses the power of the human-horse connection to facilitate healing and personal growth. Developed by Tim and Bettina Jobe, Natural Lifemanship EAP combines traditional psychotherapy techniques with equine-assisted activities to create a dynamic and experiential healing process.
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Central to Natural Lifemanship TF-EAP is the concept of "attachment-focused" work. The therapeutic process is structured to enhance clients' understanding of their attachment patterns and to promote healthy relational bonds. Through interactions with horses, clients can gain insight into their communication styles, boundaries, trust issues, central nervous system regulation or dysregulation, and emotional responses. The horse facilitates a safe and non-judgmental environment, encouraging clients to explore their vulnerabilities and traumas with greater ease.
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During sessions, clients engage in purposeful relationship building activities with horses under the guidance of both a skilled therapist and a highly qualified equine professional. Horses, as sensitive and intuitive animals, respond to the client's nonverbal cues and emotional state, providing valuable feedback, facilitating enhanced awareness, and often offering emotional support. Clients are then able to integrate the lessons they have learned in their relationship with their horse to other aspects of their lives.
Somatic Experiencing
Unlocking the Healing power of your body
Somatic Experiencing (SE) therapy is a holistic, body-oriented approach for the healing of trauma and stress-related disorders, developed by Dr. Peter Levine.
Unlike traditional talk therapy, Somatic Experiencing doesn't require clients to recount traumatic events in great detail. Instead, it places an emphasis on cultivating a person's ability to notice how particular memories or experiences make them feel physically, facilitating through the somatic process a gradual release of tension and distress.
By renegotiating the body's physical responses to traumatic memories, SE therapy can alleviate anxiety, depression, hypervigilance, dissociation, flashbacks, nightmares, and chronic pain, among many other symptoms. SE can be particularly beneficial for individuals who find verbal expression challenging or insufficient when dealing with trauma.
Somatic Experiencing therapy offers a unique and gentle pathway toward healing by integrating the body's innate capacity for self-regulation and repair. It encourages people to develop a more harmonious relationship with their bodies and empowers them to transform their traumatic experiences into sources of strength and growth.
Internal Family Systems
Facilitating Self-discovery and Self-leadership
Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz, is a therapeutic approach grounded in the concept of multiplicity of mind. In simple terms, IFS emphasizes how each person's mind comprises many aspects, or "parts." These parts of us have distinct thoughts, emotions, and roles, ranging from fierce protectors to wounded inner children who have been banished from conscious daily awareness.
Critical to IFS is learning to connect with "Self," the core and unifying center of a person. IFS aims to help strengthen the Self's natural leadership qualities to harmonize the various aspects of our internal worlds.
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In IFS therapy, clients engage in internal dialogues with their "parts," or sub-personalities, as well as using visualization and somatic work to facilitate ever deeper connections with their dynamic inner worlds. The therapist creates a safe environment, fostering self-awareness and most importantly, self-compassion.
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By understanding and harmonizing internal dynamics, IFS addresses issues like anxiety, depression, and trauma. It empowers individuals to alleviate emotional distress, restore vitality and psychological flexibility, and develop a deep sense of compassion for themselves (and others) through a genuine collaboration between the Self and their various aspects.
HeartMath
heart rate variability (HRV) coherence training
HeartMath focuses on the relationship between emotions, heart rate variability, and overall well-being. It involves techniques and technologies designed to help individuals manage stress and emotions by learning to regulate their heart rhythms.
By practicing these methods, people can enhance their emotional resilience, cognitive performance, and overall health. HeartMath often involves biofeedback tools and coherence-building techniques to achieve a state of balance between the heart and the mind, promoting a sense of calm and coherence.
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
Making the uncounscious, conscious
Psychodynamic psychotherapy is an in-depth therapeutic approach that delves into the unconscious mind's influence on thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Rooted in Freudian and Jungian theories, this therapy explores past experiences and relationships to uncover hidden conflicts and patterns.
Through self-awareness and insight, clients gain a deeper understanding of their inner worlds, aiding in personal growth and emotional healing. Psychodynamic psychotherapy helps individuals address a range of psychological challenges by exploring the hidden forces that shape their lives.