Therapist Seattle, Psychologist Seattle, Coach Seattle, Counselor Seattle, Therapist Boston, Psychologist Boston, Coach Boston, Counselor Boston
What is
therapeutic coaching?
Therapeutic
The term therapy is derived from Ancient Greek therapeia, which means healing. A therapeutic approach acts as a bridge between our past and present allowing us to recognize how our history has shaped the way we currently feel, think, and behave. A deep understanding of ourselves grants us with valuable knowledge, the first step toward healing and freeing ourselves from unconscious patterns that keep us in pain. It supports us in discovering the inner map of where we’ve been, so that we can break the trance of taking the same familiar routes, and facilitates the exploration of new territory.
Coaching
The word coach comes from Kocs, the Hungarian village where the first carriage was made. Coaching indeed enables us to be carried or transported, not with a carriage this time, but with thought-provoking questions, inquiries, and guidance that uncover our inherent wisdom. From self-discovery to solution-oriented actions, coaching makes us accountable on the path of creating an authentic life. It helps us trust our capacity to get from where we are to where we are headed. It brings out our potential, entrusting us with the design of a map that honors who we are becoming.
Therapeutic coaching
A therapeutic approach allows us to extract insights from our past experiences by making the unconscious conscious, so that we can be more aware and awake in the present moment with more freedom and ease. Coaching calls attention to our strengths, empowering us from the here and now to whom we are evolving into. They complement each other in a powerful way by embracing our whole timeline: from peeling the layers of our past, to cultivating living in the present, and into creating a future aligned with the core of who we are. Therapeutic Coaching helps us connect with our true self.
*Please note that Therapeutic Coaching is not a substitute for professional mental health treatment, nor is it intended to diagnose or treat mental health conditions.
Modalities that inform my work
Polyvagal theory is the science of safety and connection. We are wired to connect, yet we’ve all had a range of experiences from the most attuned to the most disconnecting. Our autonomic nervous system has not only been shaped by those experiences, but it is also at the heart of our daily living. Always on the lookout, it informs our physiological responses and mental stories without our awareness. We may sometimes feel that our reactions are beyond our control, and find ourselves caught in anger, fear, anxiety, or depression, just to name a few, not knowing that our feelings stem from biological adaptive responses attempting to keep us safe. Understanding the protective intent of our neurobiology can help us remove the layer of shame or self-blame that we may feel when we repeatedly experience these states. Polyvagal-informed therapy offers us a roadmap to find our way back to a state of regulation, enabling us to foster lasting change affecting our behaviors, thoughts, and emotions, while also promoting physical healing and overall well-being.
Polyvagal theory
Parts
work
Parts work (also known IFS - Internal Family System) is a powerful and transformative approach helping us make sense of behaviors, beliefs, reactions, and emotions - in other words, different parts of us - that we feel stuck in. Some parts are wounded and vulnerable as they carry pain and fear from past experiences, other parts protect us at any cost from getting hurt again, while other parts keep us distracted from difficult emotions should they arise. All these parts of us form a complex internal family system where conflicts can occur resulting in being internally pulled in opposite directions, or not being able to change some parts of ourselves, no matter how hard we try. Even if their actions seem counter-productive, or even dysfunctional at times, each part has an underlying positive intent to protect the Self. This approach focuses on accessing and trusting the wisdom of our core Self to create a cooperative and healing relationship with each part. This allows the Self to reclaim its position of leadership and to restore inner balance and harmony.
Somatic therapy is a body-oriented therapeutic model incorporating the mind-body connection to the healing process. At the intersection of physiology, neurology, and psychology, it honors how the incomplete processing of memories and emotions, as well as acute and cumulative stress, can impact the functioning of our autonomic nervous system, and as a result, our physical health. By paying attention to the implicit communication of the body, we can tune into what can often not be expressed with words, causing us to increase our self-awareness and deepen our connection with ourselves and others. In addition, being attuned to our body and the way we armor can greatly improve our capacity for emotional regulation. Cultivating more presence in our physical self and befriending our bodily sensations fosters healing and affects our capacity to function with resilience and ease. Body-oriented tools, like breathing, movement, and grounding exercises, along with sensation awareness, are a powerful complement to a holistic healing approach.
somatic therapy
Attachment theory
Attachment theory reveals how the affectional bond we experience with our primary caregiver influence our social and emotional development. Bonding is an intrinsic human need required for our emotional modulation and nervous system regulation as infants. If our caregiver is available, consistent, and responsive enough to our needs, it creates a sense of basic trust: the key element for secure attachment. On the other hand, if our caregiver is absent, inconsistently attuned, or unpredictable, it creates distress leading to an adaptive attachment style. We may find ourselves as adults being perplexed by the fact that we fear abandonment or are scared of intimacy; feel flooded by emotions or feel disconnected from them; never feel close enough to our loved ones or feel there’s never enough space; experience distress around solitude or isolate on purpose and feel like an outcast. The good news is that we are hard-wired for secure attachment, and attachment-based therapy offers tools allowing us to learn and cultivate it, as well as heal those attachment wounds.
Therapeutic coaching is a well-rounded certification which integrates a powerful blend of tools: ​
Therapeutic Coaching
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Developmental psychology is the study of how our formative years have shaped how we act today. Considering that we cannot change what we are unaware of, understanding ourselves opens the door to start making new choices.
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Timeline therapy allows us to go to the source of our recurring emotional reactions to liberate ourselves from prior limiting beliefs. From this place, we can respond to current experiences based on present conditions rather than from triggers linked to past events.
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Emotional Freedom Technique, also known as “tapping”, is a mind-body approach that utilizes awareness building, imaginal exposure, reframing of interpretation and systematic desensitization to soothe the nervous system and work with difficult emotions. It is often describes as a more accessible version of EMDR that can be self-applied.
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Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is the science of how our neurology, language, and behavioral patterns create our experience of the world, and how this can be changed. It is the user manual for how our brain works.
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Life coaching is a solution-oriented model that takes us from where we are to where we want to be. It is a crucial tool for ensuring that changes are not just theoretical, but have a clear actionable plan to create our future.