Caroline Gearing

I specialize in grief and loss issues either through sudden death of loved ones, the loss of suffering years of narcissistic abuse, the grief and loss of childhood losses and related abuse. In short, any loss in life that creates grief to be faced so one can move forward in life.

I specialize in narcissistic abuse suffered in childhood, current relationships, difficult family/friend relationship that create situations where one is being diminished, manipulated, and victimized. I also deal with sexual abuse dealt with at any point in life. I am here to help you move forward dealing with very hard people and situations with dignity and self-respect. Strong focus on working on healthy boundaries and communication approaches.

I specialize with men and women recovering from sexual abuse and the related relationship difficulties. I am very hands on with recovery, with excellent materials and direct support in dealing with sexual addiction. For individuals wanting to restore their relationship I am very relationship-focused in encouraging behavioral changes that encourage healing "betrayal of trust".

For my sexual addiction work I use Dr. Patrick Carnes workbook "Facing the Shadow: Starting Sexual and Relationship Recovery". In addition, I use "Help Her Heal: an Empathy Workbook for Sex Addicts to Help Their Partners Heal" by Carol Juergensen Sheets which helps with relationship recovery . Dr. Carnes' workbook is fantastic as the recovering addict works to understand his/her addiction more clearly, utilize the tools for recovery, and learn healthy boundaries for healthy sexuality.

I utilize Dr. Richard C. Schwartz's book "No Bad Parts: Healing Trauma & Restoring Wholeness with The Internal Family Systems Model". This approach is built on the Family System Model. Learning to identify the various "parts" one has gotten over a lifetime, especially childhood ,helps to reintegrate one's personality. A very positive approach, non-shaming, which helps a person to understand how/why a part is there and how to operate from one's core personality.

As a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist I was trained in Family Systems Theory. I look for "family of origin" experiences and patterrns that are playing out in current time. I also look for intergenerational patterns that tend to repeat going from one generation to the next. Understanding "family of origin" trauma is crucial to making decisions on how to move forward in life. Identifying intergenerational patterns is powerful to regain healthy control as they are mostly unconscious.