Specializations
Although Simply Become PLLC provides therapy for individuals working through a wide range of psychological disorders,we have specialized training in working with children through young adults and their families who are struggling with:
~ Eating Disorders
~ Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
~ Anxiety Disorders
~ Low Self-Esteem and Adjustment Disorders
~ Body Image Dissatisfaction
~ Marriage Counseling
Treatment for all disorders is founded in evidence based approaches based on the most current research (see below).
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is based on the principle that the way we perceive situations directly influences how we feel. Within this treatment approach, time is spent working to understand the relationship between our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Research has shown that individuals who are in distress often experience inaccurate thought processes. Accordingly, CBT helps individuals learn to identify the thoughts that contribute to how they are feeling, while providing them with tools to evaluate how realistic these thoughts are and challenge any faulty ways of thinking.
Time is further spent exploring the core beliefs that individuals have about themselves and/or the world that contribute to their patterns of thinking, as well as how these beliefs developed. By better understanding these connections and learning to challenge certain patterns of thinking, individuals are able to take steps towards feeling better.
Scientific studies of CBT have demonstrated its usefulness for a wide variety of mental illnesses, including OCD, Anxiety, Mood Disorders and Low Self Esteem. Elements of CBT can also be used to help individuals working to recover from Eating Disorders.
Time is further spent exploring the core beliefs that individuals have about themselves and/or the world that contribute to their patterns of thinking, as well as how these beliefs developed. By better understanding these connections and learning to challenge certain patterns of thinking, individuals are able to take steps towards feeling better.
Scientific studies of CBT have demonstrated its usefulness for a wide variety of mental illnesses, including OCD, Anxiety, Mood Disorders and Low Self Esteem. Elements of CBT can also be used to help individuals working to recover from Eating Disorders.
Exposure Response Prevention
Exposure Response Prevention (ERP) is often utilized within CBT for individuals struggling with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Individuals are asked to confront a situation that elicits anxiety and use the tools they need to work through their anxiety, rather than engaging in their ritualized behaviors. For example, if an individual may be asked to touch an object in public, while then being prevented from engaging in their ritual to make them feel better. ERPs allow individuals to take the tools that they have learned and put them into use within a supportive environment in order to break the irrational connections that they have formed between their thoughts and behaviors.
Similarly, the use of exposures (facing feared objects or situations) is an important part of helping individuals with specific phobias and eating disorders work through their anxiety. By engaging in these exposures, individuals are able to gather first hand data that nothing bad will happen when they face the situations they fear.
Similarly, the use of exposures (facing feared objects or situations) is an important part of helping individuals with specific phobias and eating disorders work through their anxiety. By engaging in these exposures, individuals are able to gather first hand data that nothing bad will happen when they face the situations they fear.
Family Based Therapy (FBT) / Maudsley
Family Based Therapy (FBT) is the most evidence based treatment model for individuals struggling with eating disorders. The Maudsley approach involves having parents play an active role in supporting their child's recovery. In the initial phase of this treatment approach, parents and children are taught how our bodies work as well as the dangerous of malnutrition. Parents are supported in helping their children return to a healthy way of eating with the intent of restoring the individual to a safe weight, determined by the individual's genetics. During this phase, parents learn to externalize the eating disorder symptoms while supporting their child. By the end of this phase, individuals gain first hand evidence that their greatest fears (e.g., that they will continue to gain endless weight) are not grounded in reality and that eating this way will keep them where they are meant to be. In the second phase, control over eating is handed back to the adolescent with their parents' support. Simultaneously, while progressing through these first two phases of the Maudsley protocol, the adolescent has the opportunity to work individually with their psychologist to gain individual support and work through any underlying issues that may be impeding progress. As success is attained in these areas, the focus of treatment shifts to helping the adolescent work to establish a healthy identity.
Other Therapeutic Orientations
Every individual is different, as are the struggles that they are facing. Accordingly, aspects of different therapeutic orientations (psychodynamic therapy, interpersonal therapy, emotion focused therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy) are often integrated into the therapeutic process in order to best meet the individual's needs.