Services
With over 20 years of experience, Gloria offers a variety of services and specialized therapies.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) was developed as an evidence-based practice in the 1990s by Dr. Marsha Linehan. It combines skills acquisition with one-on-one coaching. There are four areas of learning in DBT. They are Mindfulness, Emotion Regulation, Interpersonal Effectiveness, and Distress Tolerance. In standard DBT programs, these skills are taught didactically, and usually in small groups. In DBT programs, individual sessions focus on integrating the skills into everyday life. However, in Gloria’s practice, DBT skills training is only offered during individual sessions and with the explicit interest and engagement of the client when pertinent to life circumstance.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and the cognitive model was developed by psychiatrist Dr. Aaron Beck in the late 1970’s after he realized that his patients’ distress was linked to recurring negative beliefs about themselves and the world or future. CBT looks at the relationship between thoughts, emotions and actions to change maladaptive behavior patterns. In CBT and cognitive restructuring, individuals are asked to examine how negative thoughts or beliefs developed through their life experiences. Individuals may be given action-oriented exercises that challenge cognitive distortions such as all-or-nothing thinking and catastrophizing to ultimately debunk a problematic negative belief.
Attachment - Focused Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing
Attachment Focused Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (AF-EMDR), developed by Dr. Laurel Parnell, is a tool used by therapists to help reduce the impact of traumatic or painful events. It has been endorsed by the APA as an evidence supported method for treating trauma. During an EMDR session, individuals are asked to bring up a troubling situation, or memory and apply bilateral stimulation (rhythmic left/ right stimulation across the body) to reprocess it, ending at a place of neutrality or decreased distress. It is based on the concept that the body is naturally equipped to heal from physical and emotional injuries. AF- EMDR is an adaptation to the standard protocol originally developed by Dr. Francine Shapiro in the late 1980’s. It differs from the standard protocol in its incorporation of attachment and relational treatment approaches.
Somatic/Body-based Psychotherapies
Somatic Experiencing is a trauma and stress resolution model developed by neuroscientist Dr. Peter Levine. He started his work in the 1970s helping Trauma survivors move through challenging and painful experiences by engaging movements and body awareness. Through the use of SE, individuals have worked through post traumatic stress, chronic pain, anxiety, depression and loss of vitality and social connection. This treatment does not require the recollection of painful memory or even the reliance on talking or analysis. SE draws from recent science on trauma (Bessel Van der Kolk), brain function and Polyvagal Theory (introduced by Steven Porges in 1994).
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
Modern psychoanalytic treatment has developed over almost an entire century of clinical work and study. Dr. Sigmund Freud initially developed the “talking cure” by delineating a process involving free association and transference/ countertransference. Drive, Ego, Self and Relational psychologies or theories have emerged since Freud’s famous findings. Modern use of psychoanalytic methods does not require the analyst to be a “blank slate” any longer. Relational or Interpersonal models offer a way to examine the relationship with the therapist to help understand relational patterns and can be quite interactive.
“Let yourself go. Pull out from the depths those thoughts that you do not understand, and spread them out in the sunlight and know the meaning of them.”