Allie Vaknin M.Ed.

When we go through a traumatic event, our mind and body can continue to reexperience the event, even long after the event has passed. It can be hard to live and function, if our brain interprets day-to-day experiences as life-threatening events. My approach when working with PTSD integrates techniques focused on understanding how PTSD works, learning grounding skills, and processing the trauma in a safe, nonjudgemental, at-your-pace space.

It can be incredibly difficult to live with ongoing anxiety, where your thoughts and feelings are hijacked by fear. Anxiety can show up in any facet of life, including social settings, work, intimate relationships, school, or all of the above. When working with anxiety, I educate clients on how and why anxiety works the way it does, we explore the root causes of the anxiety, we learn practices that help alleviate symptoms, and most importantly, we develop a new relationship with our anxiety.

Our self-esteem affects every dimension of our lives. The beliefs we have about ourselves, and how we talk to ourselves, influences all of our actions and decisions. We may not even notice the detrimental affects of negative self-talk--there may be a part of us that believes we deserve that type treatment. Working with clients who struggle with self-esteem, we learn to identify and challenge negative beliefs about ourselves, explore where those beliefs came from, and practice self-compassion.

Internal Family Systems operates from the premise that we all have these different parts to ourselves, that oftentimes can have conflicting thoughts and feelings. We may say "A part of me wants to try this new experience, but another part of me is afraid to." We may have dozens of parts, and each part serves a function. In addition to our parts, we also have a Higher Self. The goal is to help individuals learn about their parts, change internal dynamics, and access Higher Self.

Practicing mindfulness is an integral tool for mental health wellness, across the board. The more skilled we are in being able to ground ourselves in the present moment, observe our thoughts and feelings without getting caught up in them, and practice ongoing acceptance of whatever comes up, internally or externally, the better equipped we will be in reducing and managing whatever issues one may bring to counseling.

Psychodynamic therapy is focused on making connections between early life experiences and our presenting mental health concerns. We all develop unconscious beliefs about ourselves throughout early life, which drive our thoughts and behaviors. When we learn to bring those unconscious beliefs into our awareness, and understand how those beliefs developed through those early experiences, we can liberate ourselves from unconscious patterns of thinking and behaving that no longer serve us.