Lydia's Approach
Through my own therapy experiences I learned the value of a non-judgmental, unconditional, accepting relationship. Therapy is not about giving advice or “fixing” a client, but allowing space for genuine emotion to be expressed and shared with another. The focus is not on getting rid of negative emotions, but learning how to tolerate them.
Trauma-Informed Perspective
I believe our past and childhood experiences affect us both consciously and unconsciously on a neurological level. At times we can specifically connect our current patterns to what we learned in the past; but other times we find ourselves reacting emotionally in an automatic way we don't understand nor can rationalize. It is exactly at this place where I am excited to utilize EMDR.
Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR)
EMDR is an evidence-based practice for traumas of all types. The process entails activating negative beliefs that are somatically felt in the body from past relationships/experiences. These beliefs helped one survive those experiences in the past but currently cause suffering. In addition, those negative beliefs are more than just thoughts about ourselves, but become wired in our brains and carried in our physical bodies. We might be able to see the irrationality of them but they still "feel" true.
Through stimulating rapid-eye movement (akin to the process of dreaming), a person is able to reprocess those negative beliefs connected to memories, where they were learned, to a new adaptive belief. As a result, the cognitive & the emotional brain now match. The memory is not forgotten, but through reprocessing, it removes the distress from the experience so it is no longer emotionally activating to the person. This frees up the person to live fully in the present, letting go of past fears.
For more detailed information including research on EMDR visit: https://www.emdria.org/about-emdr-therapy/
Dialectic Behavior Therapy (DBT)
DBT is a combination of practicing mindfulness in the present moment, radical acceptance of suffering in life, and cognitive behavioral therapy to restructure and balance all-or-nothing thinking patterns. DBT has specific skills that create changes in the areas of distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.