Kristen Edwards, LMSW, CAADC

NOT CURRENTLY ACCEPTING NEW PATIENTS
 
If you are tired of just trying to cope while remaining stuck with the same thoughts, feelings, and patterns, then you have come to the right place. While it is important to learn how to cope with your present feelings, issues and concerns, oftentimes your difficulties are related to the past. 
 
We often relate trauma to witnessing or experiencing violence or life-threatening situations. While I am certainly capable of helping you heal from those events, trauma comes in all sorts of different shapes and sizes. Trauma can be the result of emotional abuse or neglect, financial troubles, injuries, humiliations, harassment, getting bullied, experiencing divorce, or having an absent parent. If it made you feel powerless, ashamed, victimized, or abandoned, it was traumatic. 
 
Trauma in any form can make us feel anxious, irritable, on edge, exhausted, angry or enraged, confused, disconnected, detached, mistrustful, hypervigilant, depressed and/or suicidal. It can effect our sleep, our relationships, our parenting, our work, and even our physical health. Our brains often have the ability to resolve these traumas and heal from them, however, sometimes they need a little help. Instead of doing everything to avoid these memories or replaying these awful events over and over, lets give your brain what it needs to move on from them!
 
I will not only work with you on coping with what is going on in the present by primarily using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, but I will use a gentle approach to healing your past. My therapy strategies might feel foreign at first, but I assure you, they are all researched and evidence-based. They include EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), Attachment Focused EMDR, and Ego State Therapy. We will go at a pace that is comfortable for you to alleviate any blocks, fears, or anxieties you have about the process. 
 
These therapies can help with a number of mental health concerns, including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Substance Use Disorders, Depression, and Anxiety, as well as for those who are experiencing life transitions, major adjustments, relationship and/or parenting issues. I hope you are willing to entrust me to facilitate and accompany you on your path to healing. I look forward to meeting you!