A: I am a state licensed and Board certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. As such, I am credentialed to provide Evaluation and Management services and therapy. This means that I will perform an Initial Psychiatric Evaluation, consider medication recommendations when appropriate, and offer counseling psychotherapy as part of your treatment plan. 

A: I have a passion for utilizing the powerful benefits of psychodynamic therapy, including Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). There can be integration of modalities such Developmental Needs Meeting Strategies (DNMS), Somatic Experiencing, and Ego States work. These strategies are designed to assist clients who are seeking relief from anxiety, depression, dissociation, and post-traumatic stress. It is a psychodynamic processing that works at a brain level.

EMDR is a form of adaptive information processing which helps the brain evolve from limiting beliefs. 

Research in neuro-plasticity shows that our brain has the ability to change and create new pathways. 

These new pathways can help change our way of thinking and improve mood and are strengthened with repetition. A way to describe this is “neurons that fire together, wire together.” EMDR uses our brains’ flexibility to reorganize itself by forming new connections. This allows the brain to recover from psychic wounding and adjust to new situations. 

ACEs are potentially traumatic events that happen in childhood such as physical abuse, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, substance and alcohol use. It can also include parent chronic illness, death of a loved one, or mental illness. This can lead to behavioral issues, social withdrawal, emotional dysregulation, hypervigilance, aggression, inattention, impaired focus, distractibility, excessive worry/anxiety, depression, mood swings, guilt and self blame, and shame. It can lead to feeling not good enough, not safe, and powerless in your adult life.