METHODS
I use an integrative, trauma-informed approach that draws from evidence-based practices to meet each individual’s unique needs. These methods support healing across the mind and body, helping create safety, awareness, and lasting change. Together, we choose the approaches that best support your goals and where you are in your healing process.
EMDR
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is a highly effective trauma treatment that helps the brain process distressing memories so they no longer feel overwhelming, allowing healing and relief.
SOMATIC EXPERIENCING
A body-based trauma therapy that helps regulate the nervous system, release stored stress, and restore a sense of safety and presence.
INTERNAL FAMILY SYSTEMS
A gentle, compassionate approach that helps you understand and heal the internal “parts” of yourself formed through past experiences, bringing you back into alignment with your core Self.
CBT
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a structured approach that helps identify unhelpful thoughts and behaviors and develop healthier patterns that support emotional wellbeing.
EGO STATE THERAPY
A trauma-informed method that works with different emotional states or “inner parts” to resolve past trauma, increase self-understanding, and support integration.
TRAUMA-FOCUSED CBT
A specialized form of CBT designed for children and teens, supporting them—and their caregivers—through trauma processing and recovery.
PMADs
Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorder Treatment is specialized support for individuals experiencing emotional challenges during pregnancy or postpartum, including depression, anxiety, birth trauma, and adjustment difficulties.
MINDFULNESS
Therapeutic practices that cultivate awareness, grounding, and connection between mind and body, helping reduce anxiety, overwhelm, and stress.
PLAY THERAPY
A developmentally appropriate therapy for children that allows them to express emotions, process experiences, and build coping skills through play.
"Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be."
KAHLIL GIBRAN
AREAS
I work with individuals and families across different stages of life, offering support through a range of emotional, relational, and life transitions. My practice welcomes adults, children, teens, and families, with specialized care for pregnancy and postpartum experiences. Each area of treatment is approached with compassion, respect, and an understanding of how past experiences shape the present.
ADULTS
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Complex PTSD (C-PTSD)
Attachment related trauma
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Grief/Loss
Mood Disorders
Career Exploration/Life Changes
Anxiety/Depression
CHILDREN
-
Anxiety (Phobias, Social Anxiety, Panic Disorder, Separation Anxiety)
-
Depression
-
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
-
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
-
Oppositional Defiance Disorder
-
Attachment related trauma
TEENS
-
Anxiety Disorders
-
Depression & Mood Disorders
-
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
-
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
-
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
-
Self-harm/suicidal ideation
-
Oppositional Defiance Disorder
FAMILIES
-
Generational Healing
-
Domestic Violence
-
Family/Parent Conflict
-
Divorce
-
Parenting Support
-
Unexpected or Traumatic Loss
-
Adjustment to Family Changes
PREGNANCY & POSTPARTUM
-
Feminine Empowerment
-
Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders (PMAD's)
-
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
-
Grief/Loss
-
Pregnancy & Infant Loss
-
High-risk Pregnancy
-
Hyperemesis Gravidarum
-
Infertility/Adoption
INSURANCE
I am in network with Blue Cross Blue Shield, Blue Care Network, Priority Health, and McLaren Health Advantage, and will submit billing on your behalf. Please reach out with further questions.
ABOUT EMDR
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an integrative therapeutic method that helps people heal from trauma and other challenging life experiences. Extensively researched, EMDR has proven to be an effective approach to healing both single incident and long-standing traumatic experiences, such as sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, combat experiences, major surgeries, serious accidents, and natural disasters. For this reason, EMDR is used by many therapists to support individuals who have PTSD or complex PTSD.
EMDR is also effective at helping people resolve painful past experiences, from both childhood and adulthood, which many would not classify as traumatic. It’s important to remember that less traumatic life experiences can often cause even more painful symptoms than major traumas because they tend to occur more frequently and over longer periods of time; this can impact the beliefs that people develop about themselves, others, and the world. Many of these challenging life experiences take place throughout childhood and may involve hurtful experiences with parents or peers.
EMDR can also help to resolve phobias, strengthen positive beliefs and memories, and support performance enhancement in several fields, such as school, work, sports, and public speaking.An EMDR session involves selecting a memory and noticing what images, thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations are connected with that event. While the client is focusing on this memory, bilateral (back and forth) stimulation is used to process and integrate the event. The forms of bilateral movement that are used in EMDR are moving the eyes back and forth, holding hand pieces that vibrate back and forth, and/or listening to bilateral sound through head phones.
While a client is noticing all the components of a memory and using bilateral stimulation, they are then asked to allow the mind to go wherever it naturally goes, and to just notice what happens—much like watching the scenery pass on a moving train. During this process, the chosen memory and the belief systems that go along with it (for example, “I am unsafe”, “I am unlovable”, “I am powerless”) become desensitized, which means that they no longer negatively affect the client.When a person experiences a disturbing event, or many hurtful events over time, biological and neurochemical changes may cause it to get “stuck” in the brain and nervous system. The memory stays in the brain in its original state, along with the corresponding emotions, body sensations, and negative beliefs that went along with it. This leads people to get triggered by current experiences that resemble the original memory in some way, which involves feeling the same way they did when the disturbing event occurred. In short, unresolved memories prevent people from being able to discern the past from the present.
When this happens, EMDR is able to kick-start an accelerated natural healing process that allows the memory to successfully move into the past. Since traumatic memory is stored in the right (emotional) hemisphere of the brain, the bilateral stimulation used with EMDR helps the psyche to process past experiences in a more adaptable way so that the left and right sides of the brain can become integrated and the mind/body can return to a state of balance. With the help of EMDR, people are able to recall old memories without experiencing the disturbing feelings that were previously connected to them. EMDR also empowers people to cultivate self-love, create new and adaptive core beliefs, and live more fully in the present.For more information about EMDR, please visit:
The EMDR Institute: www.emdr.com
The International EMDR Association: www.emdria.org
San Diego Trauma Therapy: www.SanDiegoTraumaTherapy.com
C2026 by Jessica Stefanksi. The Olive Tree Still Grows is published by Mission Point Press. Site designed by Mission Point Press