CLINICAL SERVICES
If you haven’t already, check out the About Dodge section for more on my philosophy. Below you’ll find particular tools used in my work as an integrative psychologist, though the list is partial at best!
Individual Therapy
Working primarily with adults (now via telehealth where needed or desired) I approach therapy with the bedrock assumption that a safe, caring therapeutic relationship itself is essential to the healing process. Why? We are, above all, relational beings. Our lives, our brains, and our deepest needs and wishes — as well as their painful denial — all revolve around our life relationships from day one. So it only makes sense that we heal in that context, as well.
Added to the relationship is a certainty that you’re not dumb, sick, or crazy — though, like any of us, you may have a pretty good imitation at times! :) Most who come to see me are carrying more shame than they know. Ultimately, however, most find themselves guilty only of being loyal students who still practice what life taught them worked in that context. The need to update those skills and beliefs is not cause for shame but a sign of growth. And the good news is, the process of doing so in the here-and-now of your life is not only enjoyable, it is often incredibly healing of the past, as well.
Sometimes the past stays with us in the present quite insistently. This can be a sign of trauma. Research in the world of psychotherapy has proven that where intervention is called for, some routes are simply more efficient than others. When the time is right, two techniques I find particularly helpful are Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Brainspotting (BSP). These are considered “neurobiological techniques” and use recent insights into how the brain holds and processes painful events to dramatically increase the speed and depth of resolution for PTSD and less overt trauma. I am amazed at least weekly at what can be released with this kind of work.
Woven in with this cutting-edge technology, I also (internally) rely on my training as a Practitioner of Medical Qigong, a traditional Chinese way of understanding physical and psychological health, to better understand what I’m hearing. Much the way the perspective of a second eye allows depth perception, something about this wholly different point of view can simply help me see clients and their circumstances in greater depth. Additionally, this system offers wonderful approaches to breath, emotional clearing, and other approaches woven into our work when helpful and welcome. Similarly, five years intensive training at the School of Healing Arts in the Kabbalah and energetic psychology have informed and expanded how I practice.
Group Therapy
One powerful way to better know ourselves and make lasting change is through weekly group psychotherapy. I’ve often remarked on how much faster clients tend to grow when adding this wonderful medium. Wherever we go, as they say, there we are -- so our "stuff" will show up in group, too, but in an arena where it's safe to notice and talk about it with others committed to the same. Working with our material in real time, while it's activated, both takes and builds wonderful ego strength. We're asked to rise to the eternal challenge of balancing being both in touch and intact at the same time. So I think of group as advanced, not remedial, psychotherapy. But it is not without laughter and great enjoyment too. Groups cost less than half as much as individual work, last nearly twice as long (90 minutes vs. 45-50), so for many it's a great way to work more deeply and more affordably. Fortunately, this medium is also possible and vibrantly effective via telehealth.
Individual and group coaching in The G.R.A.C.E. Sequence
Detailed in the next tab over you’ll learn about the way I weave together many approaches to body, mind, and spirit. It’s a simple process that integrates the essences of many wisdom traditions with modern neurobiology. The result is powerful both in session and for those working with it as a practice for centering and healing at home or the office. Using these principles, you will often hear me begin to direct your attention inward toward the somatic (bodily) expression of what you’re living with in that moment. When you’re ready, I can teach you a wonderful practice to bring you greater stability and accelerate your reclaiming of joy. Many clinical and coaching clients have said this has made an enormous difference to the pace and depth of their change as well as the quality of their lives.