Terminology
Sometimes all of the terms and scientific wording therapists use can be frustrating and confusing. This can get in the way of our work together. I hope this guide can help you understand and answer questions you may have. If you want to know more specifics about anything, please feel free to contact me!
Family of Origin
Family of Origin refers to the significant caretakers and siblings that a person grows up with, or the first social group a person belongs to, which is often a person's biological family or an adoptive family.
Eating Disorders
There is a commonly held misconception that eating disorders are a lifestyle choice. Eating disorders are actually serious and often fatal illnesses that are associated with severe disturbances in people’s eating behaviors and related thoughts and emotions. Preoccupation with food, body weight, and shape may also signal an eating disorder.
cPTSD
Complex PTSD comes in response to chronic traumatization over the course of months or, more often, years. This can include emotional, physical, and/or sexual abuses, domestic violence, living in a war zone, being held captive, human trafficking, and other organized rings of abuse, and more. Those with cPTSD have some of the same symptoms of PTSD and also struggle with managing emotions and having relationships.
PTSD
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a disorder that develops in some people who have experienced a shocking, scary, or dangerous event and leaves a person unable to function in their daily lives. PTSD often causes nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety, and withdrawal, but you can treat it with proper care.
Family Counseling
Family Counseling works with multiple family members at a time. The therapist mediates and educates to achieve goals like improving communication, solving family problems, understanding and handling special family situations, and creating a better functioning home environment.
Crisis Intervention
Immediate, short-term counseling to stop a critical emotional incident from getting worse. The goal is to help restore balance and reduce the effects of the crisis in the person's life. The individual is then connected with a resource network to reinforce the change.
ADHD
ADHD is a condition that both children and adults can have. The symptoms include an inability to focus, being easily distracted, hyperactivity, poor organization skills, and impulsiveness. Not everyone who has ADHD has all these symptoms. They vary from person to person and tend to change with age.
EMDR
EMDR, which is short for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, presents a psychotherapy and counseling model that allows people to heal from the emotional distress and symptoms as a result of an upsetting or traumatic life experience (PTSD and cPTSD).
Brief Intervention Therapy
Brief Intervention Therapy is a technique used to initiate change for unhealthy or risky behaviors like self-harm and substance abuse. Brief interventions can also help in specific family issues, personal finance problems, or work attendance.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy
Dialectical Behavior Therapy’s (DBT) main goals are to teach people how to live in the moment, develop healthy ways to cope with stress, regulate their emotions, and improve their relationships with others.
DBT can help people who have difficulty with emotional regulation or are struggling with unhelpful behaviors (such as eating disorders and substance use disorders). This type of therapy is also sometimes used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a treatment approach that helps you recognize negative or unhelpful thought and behavior patterns. CBT aims to help you identify and explore the ways your emotions and thoughts can affect your actions.
Evidence-Based Practice
Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) is applying or translating research findings in our daily patient care practices and clinical decision-making.
EBP also involves integrating the best available evidence with clinical knowledge and expertise while considering clients’ unique needs and personal preferences.
Unconditional Positive Regard
Unconditional Positive Regard means offering compassion to people even if they have done something wrong. For example, a therapist practicing unconditional positive regard would respond with compassion to a person in treatment who may have gambled away their savings, lied at work or school, or mistreated a friend.
Treatment-Interfering Behavior
A Treatment-Interfering Behavior (TIB) is any behavior that is incompatible or directly interferes with a person's ability to participate in treatment successfully. They are important to address because they can prevent people from overcoming problems. A TIB is not defined by a person's intention but by the outcome of the behavior.
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (SP) integrates the body and movement into traditional talk therapy to address and heal ongoing psychological and physical difficulties.
This gentle and empowering therapy is particularly helpful in working with the effects of trauma, relational trauma, and complicated past attachment relationships.
Safety Planning
Safety Planning is a form of Brief Intervention Therapy to create a prioritized written list of coping strategies and sources of support patients can use who have been deemed to be at high risk for suicide. Patients can use these strategies before or during a suicidal crisis.
Psychosocial Education
The term Psychosocial refers to an individual's psychological development in and interaction with their social environment. Psychosocial Education provides clients with information and tools to understand their symptoms and best ways to treat them.
Post-Traumatic Growth
Simply put, this is the growth experienced after trauma has been processed, where you can make meaning, heal, and learn from hardship. Working with a trauma-trained therapist greatly speeds up this process.
Motivational Interviewing
Motivational Interviewing is a counseling method that involves enhancing a patient's motivation to change by means of four guiding principles, represented by the acronym RULE: Resist the righting reflex; Understand the patient's own motivations; Listen with empathy; and Empower the patient.
Individual Therapy
Individual Therapy (sometimes called psychotherapy, talk therapy, or treatment) is a process through which clients work one-on-one with a trained mental health clinician in a safe, caring, and confidential environment.
Group Therapy
Group therapy is a form of psychotherapy that involves one or more therapists working with several people at the same time. This type of therapy is widely available at a variety of locations including private therapeutic practices, hospitals, mental health clinics, and community centers.