Christine Yan (she/her)

Meaning-making and social connection has been identified as one of the most significant promotive factors in the research. Together, we can identify negative core beliefs and provide evidence for the contrary so that automatic thoughts that stem for those beliefs no longer stand in the way of living a life that you have always imagined.

Sometimes our bodies have prepared us for survival mode based on events that have happened outside of our control. Sometimes our bodies overdo it. Either through reprocessing the meaning associated with these traumatic events or understanding ways to effectively regulate our nervous system, we are no longer bound by our body's tendency to react to perceived triggers.

In order to treat substance use disorders, it is important to identify the function of self-medication in the first place in order to foster nobility against an already stigmatized and misunderstood condition. It is then important to identify more adaptive ways of coping that have the same function that the substance use was providing, but without all of the negative consequences.

Most people feel that they cannot control their thoughts and feelings. CBT shows that you can. By identifying general themes about yourself, the world, and the people around you that have developed throughout childhood, you can then begin to question the validity of unhelpful beliefs by providing evidence for the contrary. You will then see how your automatic thoughts on a day to day basis can feel more empowering and realistic, and your feelings and behaviors will follow.

My approach has always to meet the client where they are at, in any given phase in treatment. This is because the "more you resist, the more it persists." Understanding that everything that everyone does have a function and a purpose helps to foster an understanding that humans do have agency. Helping the client understand and trust themselves is one sure path to a sense of self-efficacy.

Trauma-informed care means understanding how your body responds to traumatic events and how to keep this survival response without it getting in the way of your day-to-day life. It is also important to emphasize that something traumatic means that something outside of your control happened, and to help rewire any beliefs that you are to blame.