Gwenevere Abriel LMFT

Couples will learn new ways to communicate and invest in a collaborative journey of healing childhood wounds. Imago theory points to consciousness and interconnectedness as the essential ingredient of the psychological theory. Healing is understood as an experience that can happen within and through our romantic relationship.

Clients will learn how to decrease their heart rate, panic response and rumination /over thinking through both cognitive (mind) and somatic (body) techniques. Pursued is a sense of integration and wholeness through approaches awakening exiled or repressed aspects of the self while redirecting less productive aspects of the self such as aggression, people-pleasing, self-injury, escape (food/alcohol/drugs) workaholism or perfectionism.

The Internal Family Systems (IFS) model was developed by Richard C. Schwartz in the 1980s and describes and integrative and transformational approach to psychotherapy. The premise of IFS is that much like the complex nature of an external family system, individuals are composed of separate and multifaceted internal Parts in relationship with each other. By changing the relationships between different Parts of ourselves an individual (clients) experiences a sense of integration, self-leadership,

Somatic therapy is a type of mind-body therapy. It is body-centric utilizing physiology and the nervous system to regulate symptoms of anxiety, panic, fear, anger and dissociation. It can include deep relaxation exercises, mindfulness, body movement, imagery, somatic therapy (bottom-up) techniques such as Blinders-Off or Grounding In the 5 Senses.

Imago relationship therapy (IRT) endeavors to equip couples with the communication skills necessary to relate to each other in healthy ways, while additionally revealing the emotional pathway formed in childhood that led them to their current relationship frustrations. This approach invites examining the conflict itself; encourages the couple co-create a satisfying solution, heal, and grow together.