Integrative Psychotherapy

Individual, Couple Counseling & EMDR Therapy In Bozeman Montana

*I am In-Network with the following insurance plans: BCBS, Pacific Source, Mountain Health Co-op. Health insurance coverage (after deductibles are met) typically covers most, and sometimes all of the costs of your sessions. Please schedule using the link above. I am delighted to provide therapy and counseling to Montana State University (MSU) students. Please inquire.

As an experienced psychotherapist and EMDR Specialist with a private practice in Bozeman Montana, I offer non-judgmental, compassionate and skilled therapy and relationship counseling to individuals and couples. I have extensive post-graduate training in a range of supportive modalities.

You may find yourself facing a crisis or transition, anxiety, depression, unresolved trauma, addictions, relationship concerns, or other symptoms impacting your health, behavior, emotions and spirit. Working with a skilled therapist can give you the support and guidance you need to feel more resilient and balanced.

Whether your concerns are personal or professional, longstanding or new challenges, effective therapy and counseling will support you in reducing distressing emotional and physical symptoms, so you can face your circumstances with strength, clarity and hope. In addition to helping clients in Bozeman, I provide counseling throughout the state of Montana, remotely via phone or secure video.

This Bozeman Montana therapy practice supports clients struggling with a range of concerns that are impacting their emotional health and well-being. 

Some common problems that people seek counseling for are: sadness, loneliness, isolation, depression, mood disorders, anxiety, substance abuse, trauma, loss, transitions, chronic pain, medical diagnosis, health concerns and the repetition of troubling patterns and habits.

In my therapy practice, I use an eclectic blend of therapeutic services to provide individualized care as a result of my extensive education in a range of healing modalities. I use supportive therapy techniques, psychoanalytic psychotherapy or insight-oriented therapy, and am able to blend cognitive and behavior techniques (CBT) as well as EMDR, focusing, somatic experiencing techniques and mindfulness. These are all highly-effective treatments for many problems, including symptoms related to PTSD and trauma. As a mind-body practitioner, I’ve had great success working with my clients in this way rather than adhering to a single treatment philosophy.

Couple & Relationship Counseling In Bozeman Montana

I provide couples, marital and relationship counseling to clients in all stages of relationships, which may mean finally connecting to your partner, or falling apart and finding the courage to leave a toxic, unhealthy relationship. Many have longstanding individual problems that are impacting their union in the here and now. Successful relationship counseling can provide a container to help one or both member of the partnership feel safe enough to express their needs, longings and even anger and disappointment. 

Some couples enter therapy because they desire a deeper, more meaningful connection. They’d like to explore needs and desires together to enhance intimacy and connection. Even solid relationships bump up against challenges and transitions that can destabilize an otherwise good partnership. Some common problems include parenting difficulties, infertility, blended family strife, work/life balance, unresolved trauma, undiagnosed mental illness or a problem with alcohol or addictions, changes in values and goals and more. In my Bozeman Montana couple and relationship counseling practice, I offer a safe space for you to dig a little deeper and create the relationship you desire. When working with couples, I focus on individual needs as well as concerns impacting the relationship such as trauma wounds and personal dynamics.

I enjoy working with couples in all stages of relationships: marriage counseling, newly partnered, long-term partnerships, new parents or blended family issues and those exiting the relationship. With specialized couple therapy training from The Gottman Institute and Emotionally Focused Therapy or EFT, my focus is attachment, connection and helping partners listen for and “hear” the needs of the other as well as identify their own desires. If healing from infidelity is your goal, we can work together to better understand underlying issues and heal the traumatic wound that betrayal leaves in its wake. My door is open to a diverse range of coupling, including: sexuality, same gender, gender non-conforming, open, non-monogamous or polyamorous relationships.

Some common concerns addressed in this Bozeman Montana Couple Counseling Practice:

• Betrayal (emotional or physical)

• Communication problems

• Difficulty getting important needs met within the relationship

• Challenges with intimacy

• Sexual concerns and sex therapy

• Transitions and difficult challenges

• Life-stage challenges

• Physical illness or mental health concerns impacting the relationship

• Unresolved trauma wounds 

• Values and relationship goals 

• Repeating problem patterns and dynamics

• Parenting challenges

• Divorce and separation

• Premarital counseling

MSU Counseling

I work with MSU students who are struggling with adjustment, stress, anxiety and depression. I offer practical skills, CBT skills and supportive therapy to students who are struggling throughout the year. I am also able to make necessary referrals for medication providers as needed

EMDR Therapy In Bozeman Montana

How does EMDR Therapy Work?

According to research, traumatic memories are stored in the brain differently than other kinds of memories. When you’re experiencing a traumatic event, the fight-or-flight response takes over so that you can cope with the immediate experience. The information processing system of the brain gets disrupted, and the memory of the event is stored in a fragmented manner that allows symptoms to reemerge in the present. After the traumatic experience has ended, the nervous system and brain cannot make sense of the event. The painful feelings, sensations, thoughts and images associated with the traumatic event seem to be locked in the nervous system. EMDR treatment changes how trauma is stored in the brain and nervous system, reducing the disturbing symptoms (emotions, memories, sensations, beliefs) associated with those experiences. Through the use of eye movements or any type of bilateral stimulation, EMDR therapy fundamentally changes the way the memory is stored.

Many of my clients have spent years in traditional psychotherapy or “talk therapy,” and while that work was helpful and moved them to a certain point, they describe EMDR therapy as the technique that gave them the results they needed to finally heal. It’s my favorite modality and it works! Many clients are urged to try EMDR therapy by friends, family, physicians or their current therapist. In my experience, they’ve hit the wall with many therapies traditionally used such as CBT or traditional talk therapy and feel that EMDR is their last hope to finally resolve troubling and lingering symptoms. I’ve had great success using EMDR alone or even integrating it into talk therapy sessions. Other therapies such as Somatic Experiencing, when integrated into EMDR sessions, can super-charge healing and recovery.

What follows are some symptoms that EMDR Therapy In Bozeman Targets:

• Anxiety, fear, panic, worry

• Phobias

• Sadness and unresolved grief

• Dissociation and trauma resolution

• PTSD

• Recovering from emotional, physical or sexual abuse

• Feeling “stuck”

• Feeling unworthy, undeserving or unlovable

• Survivor of bullying

• Guilt and shame

• Traumatic medical experiences

• Traumatic accidents

• Terrifying memories

• Attachment wounds

• Self-defeating patterns or self-sabotage

• Addictions to substance or process addictions

• Creative blocks and performance problems 

Through EMDR therapy, we will use the counseling relationship as a safe place to access painful traumatic memories that are stored deep within the brain’s neural pathways. After bringing these memories to the surface, we use bilateral brain stimulation techniques such as light tapping or eye movement in order to reprocess the painful memories. The goal is that these memories are no longer negatively “charged” for you and do not cause activation in the nervous system. Suffering is greatly decreased by using EMDR therapy.