Whitney Sutherland (she/her)

I am a certified NARM Master Therapist specializing in working with adverse early life experiences that result in developmental and complex trauma. By working relationally in the moment to find what is getting in the way of our greatest desires, we are able to shift patterns of identity no longer serving us and tap into a greater source of life energy and core states of ease and peace. I'll add that as a therapy client myself, I prefer NARM therapy for working through such patterns.

Wherever you go...there you are...and so are the patterns no longer serving you. Rather than send a client out into the world between sessions with a list of "to-do's", I work experientially and relationally in the moment to collaborate on what is getting in the way of a more connecting experience for clients.

Walt Whitman described the human species as "multitudes" of infinite selves and I tend to agree that within all of us are different parts or hats. The creator of Internal Family Systems, Dick Schwartz, has developed a way to get to know these parts in a way that brings us into greater connection with our core states of compassion, confidence, calm, curiosity. By doing so, we unburden these parts of ourselves and free up creative life force energy.

Fortunately, we don't have to be at the mercy of our brains- with practice and attention, the mental paths we routinely travel are highly re-wireable. We can learn ways of noticing our automatic thoughts, physical sensations, and beliefs -- challenging some of the out-dated survival oriented aspects of our brain that aren't serving us. We learn our own core beliefs and perceptions that produce anxiety and the origins of those so that we can prevent being blindsided and consider alternatives.

Disorders of the self stem from complex trauma, our earliest needs of being seen, mirrored, and joined in a way that recognizes our subjective experiences in a good-enough way. My specialization in healing personality disorders is based in a relational approach in which I meet you as a human being who is able to hold space for one another's intersubjectivity and inherent worth. I am also a therapist who works with those who are or were in relationship with someone who fit this criteria.

When caretaking tendencies become a pattern, we find ourselves highly skilled at knowing and meeting the needs of everyone but ourselves. We focus on others so much that we lose connection with our own sensations, values, and identity in the process. As adults we no longer have to live this way. In time, we learn to reclaim our lost authentic selves and no longer feel controlled by fear of the opinions of others. We learn to see ourselves as worthy, making true intimacy and support possible.