CBT gives us tools to increase awareness to our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. How we think about ourselves, other people and the world influences how we feel and what we do. Changing distorted thought patterns influences our emotional wellbeing and sense of agency. When our thoughts are more balanced, our emotions and behaviors are, too.

Emotion and lived experience are stored in the body, often times beyond verbal language. Art helps us to express and explore beyond words. No need to be an artist, art therapy is simply the use of shape, line, and color. Art therapy can be about making something beautiful and having fun. But it can also be about the psychological and emotional process, not about how the finished piece looks. No judgment. No expectation. See what emerges!

Mindfulness Meditation helps to cultivate presence and awareness. The simple act of paying attention nonjudgmentally in the present moment can be practiced formally and informally throughout the day to support mental, emotional, and spiritual health.

Through an exploratory process of identifying our various internal Parts, IFS work helps us get in touch again with our core Self. When we are living from a centered place of Self, we can embody the “8 C’s”: calmness, curiosity, clarity, compassion, confidence, courage, creativity, and connection.

Polyvagal theory gives us tools to listen again to the body’s signals. The nervous system is constantly sending messages of safety and danger but we tend to either ignore the signals or amplify them due to experiences of past trauma and/or internalized messages from childhood. Polyvagal helps us understand the body’s internal messages and learn how to respond in self nurturing and affirming ways so we can live more authentically and true to ourselves.

DBT helps us to find “the middle way” in life. With skills such as ride the wave, opposite action, DEARMAN, and radical acceptance, we can navigate our way through intense emotions, moments of distress, and interpersonal conflict. With practice, DBT skill use cultivates a wider perspective, communication effectiveness, and emotional stability.