Riitta de los Santos

I believe that talk therapy alone may not be enough to elicit deep healing - emotional imbalances often manifest in the body. This means that rather than simply having a conversation about what you may be experiencing, together we will actively explore and engage your embodied experience to uncover and untangle challenging patterns and harness inner resources for growth. Modalities I may use include Brainspotting, TRE (Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises) and Trauma-Informed Yoga.

The goal of IFS is to help you explore and heal the different parts of yourself. For example, if you grew up with an overly critical parent, you may have a harsh inner self-critic. Rather than shy away from these “parts,” IFS can help you befriend them and understand how they developed. This knowledge can help you improve your self-compassion and and accept that your reactions in life—as extreme or abnormal as they may seem—have existed for a reason.

Where you look affects how you feel. Brainspotting Therapy created by Dr. David Grand offers a process that uses specific points in the client’s visual field to access unprocessed trauma in the subcortical brain. BSP uses relevant eye positions, somatic awareness, and focused mindfulness to process and release the stored traumas which can be linked with a wide range of emotional and physical problems.

As counterintuitive as it sounds, the first step to overcoming anxiety is befriending it. I want to help you build a relationship with it. After all, anxiety serves a protective function—it is a survival instinct designed to keep you safe. The question is: What is your anxiety trying to protect you from? You and I will explore this question together to figure out why your anxiety arose and use that knowledge to learn new ways to relate to your emotions and achieve a more harmonious existence.

The hallmark of depression is disconnection. Depression can make you tune out your feelings and also disconnect from your body. This is a protective measure— the numbness and disinterest you feel is a safeguard against painful emotions. However, to manage your depression more effectively, you have to learn to reconnect with your body and get back in touch with your feelings. Therapy is a time to tune in to your internal world, allowing you to untangle the root causes of your depression.

When it comes to trauma and PTSD therapy, I believe that talk therapy is not enough to elicit deep healing, as emotional imbalances often manifest in both the body and the mind. This is why counseling with me is so much more than having a conversation. Together, you and I will explore how your trauma shows up on both an emotional and physical level to resolve the pain of the past.