PTSD Trauma Treatment and Therapy in Raleigh, Durham, Cary, Chapel Hill NC.

I will help you understand and overcome barriers and challenges as we foster opportunities for options and possibilities.

Therapy is an active partnership driven by your hopes, needs, and dreams. We will work together to create the change in your life that can fulfill your aspirations.

Therapy is a dynamic, interactive, collaborative process in which the therapist guides and supports the client in mindfully directing their motivation, commitment, strengths, and courage.

I provide a supportive, caring, non-judgmental, responsive approach to a therapeutic relationship based on trust and collaboration.

I have extensive experience empowering people to develop, utilize and enhance coping skills long after completion of therapeutic services, as they move forward in realizing their goals.

Please call or email me to arrange an initial consultation. I look forward to speaking with you.

I have been licensed in the state of North Carolina since 1993. I have experience providing mental health services across rural and urban areas in Ohio and New York, as well as experience working abroad. My diverse work experience has taught me to value diverse cultures, background, faiths, and beliefs. Diversity has become an integral part of my practice and philosophy as a therapist. This work informs my conviction that people have an amazing capacity for growth, development, and change. I specialize in trauma PTSD therapy in Raleigh, North Carolina.

My years spent working in inpatient/acute care and outpatient therapy settings in both private and public agencies, have strengthened my assessment, diagnostic, and therapeutic skills and practices. I have provided clinical supervision for graduate students studying Social Work, as well as provisionally licensed professionals.

Teaching family therapy and child welfare at the North Carolina State University, as well as serving as the North Carolina State University Child Welfare Education Collaborative Coordinator have sharpened and honed my clinical practice.

• Childhood and Adult Trauma
• PTSD Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
• Anxiety Disorders
• Depression
• Couples Counseling
• Trauma (Adult Survivors of Traumatic Events; Current As Well as From Childhood.)
• Veterans & Military, Combat & Non-Combat Military Related PTSD
• Child Neglect/Sexual Abuse/Physical Abuse, Community Violence, War/Political Violence, Parental Substance Use; Victims of Community Violence, Natural Disasters, Life Threatening Medical Illness, Serious Accidents, School Violence, Bullying, Natural Disasters, Kidnapping, Interpersonal Violence, Bereavement.

I am Rostered through the North Carolina Child Treatment Program, a partnership between the Duke-UCLA National Center for Child Traumatic Stress; the Center for Child and Family Health; and the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) is an evidence-based treatment for children, adolescents, and their parents or caretakers who have been impacted by serious trauma or loss. This treatment is for children and adolescents exposed to a wide range of traumatic experiences, including physical and sexual abuse; domestic, school, and community violence; natural disasters, traumatic bereavement; and medical trauma. TF-CBT provides parents/caretakers with parent education, skills, hope, and support that helps children heal and families grow.

Research shows that TF-CBT significantly reduces and may resolve a broad array of emotional and behavioral difficulties associated with single, multiple and complex (multiple) trauma experiences. This therapeutic method is particularly effective as the work with parents/caretakers equip children and their caretakers in learning skills that will reduce problem behaviors in the short term while enhancing continued functioning and further strengthening of skills following the completion of TF-CBT treatment. Following a thorough assessment, TF-CBT supports the development of relaxation skills, a child/adolescent’s increased control of emotions and emotional responses, and the development of coping skills related to their thoughts and beliefs. Children and adolescents learn and adopt skills that support their ability to effectively manage the connections between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors enhancing their emotional wellbeing and functioning in the home, school, and community settings.

Is a cognitive-behavioral treatment for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and depression. The model involves a structured, sequenced approach to address the unique needs of adults suffering from these conditions. The treatment model is a short-term treatment that may work in as few as 12 treatment sessions. Treatment may be provided and helpful for longer time frames, depending on each person’s assessment and needs. Sessions include addressing psycho-education involved in teaching clients about their symptoms and behaviors, helping clients learn about how the traumatic events have affected their lives, as well as learning about the connections between trauma related thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Clients will also learn how to challenge un helpful or inaccurate thoughts about the trauma they have experienced, supporting increased understanding of unhelpful thought patterns while learning alternative, healthier ways of thinking.

CPT, I have been trained by one of the developers of the model, Dr. Resick. CPT was developed in the late 1980s and has been shown to be effective in reducing PTSD symptoms related to a variety of traumatic events including child abuse, combat, rape, domestic violence, victims of community violence, and natural disasters. CPT is endorsed by the U.S. Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense, as well as the International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies, as a best practice for the treatment of PTSD. This is an evidenced-based treatment for adults who have experienced trauma. I have received training in the Veteran/Military version, as well as in the civilian version of this therapeutic model.

This model supports adolescents to “Mindful Action” supporting their abilities to make better choices in life, finding enhanced purpose and meaning, and develop healthy relationships. Adolescents learn coping strategies and tools for current and possible future stressors. Adolescents learn methods of increasing their abilities to manage emotions and behaviors; increasing their focus, attention, and concentration, learning about their perceptions of themselves and others, relationships, values, and beliefs.

Is a strengths-based approach, emphasizing the resources people invariably possess and how these can be applied to the change process tailored to each client’s unique needs, goals, abilities, and capacities.

A growing body of studies and neuroscientific research is validating the efficacy of mindfulness-based cognitive therapies in the treatment of depression, anxiety, chronic pain, and symptoms and behaviors associated with post traumatic stress disorder.

1. Parent Coaching and training
2. Cultivating Love and Limits
3. Parent guidance interventions to enhance connection, empathy and love
4. Support, firm, consistent, and age appropriate/developmentally appropriate limits

All families can face stressors resulting from expected or unexpected life transitions, crises, even navigating life cycle events. Despite love and bonding, families often struggle with negative patterns of communication that can impact family functioning and cohesiveness, influencing one or more family members to question their sense of belonging and wellbeing.  These patterns can be generational in nature and often hard to detect.

Supporting families in identifying and then learning alternate means of behavior and communication can result in powerful changes in interaction, relatedness, functioning, and family health. My experience working with families of diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, religions, socio-economic, and educational backgrounds has taught me to have a deep respect for the importance of family.