It is often difficult to understand the many (and often hidden) ways that a rough childhood can continue to affect one's current life and relationships. To 'get over the past' is not an easy or simple thing to do, and indeed can take a great deal of time, focus, and personal resources to achieve. Clients new to therapy often start out with a strict focus on basic self-care, self-soothing, and emotion regulation skills before moving on to interpersonal skills and family focus. In this order, clients create a solid foundation of personal insight and stability that enhances the likelihood of success towards interpersonal and family goals. The end results of such hard work can be truly amazing and deeply gratifying!
While working as a therapist, I specialized in the Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) approach to coping with challenging symptoms or disorders like Complex-PTSD, Bipolar Disorder, Personality Disorders (Borderline, Narcissistic), and Anxiety/Panic Disorders. I occasionally integrated EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) into trauma work with clients while working towards more stable, engaged, and harmonious lifestyles. I started working on trauma issues in graduate school in 2001 while working at the National Center for PTSD as part of the VA Healthcare System. Initially, I had the honor of working with Vietnam and Gulf War veterans (both males and females) while out in California. Back home in Louisiana since 2008, I worked extensively with civilian mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters who have experienced personal and family trauma in their youth that continued to impact their current lives and relationships.
Your experiences may have included childhood neglect, physical abuse, emotional manipulation, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, or social isolation. Other traumatic experiences may include family members (or self) with addictions, religious addiction/cult experiences, motor vehicle accidents, oilfield accidents, natural disasters, and complex medical issues. To be clear, it is not a contest of who has experienced the most trauma. Whatever your stress or trauma history presents, if anxiety, memories, and bad habits from the past are holding you back, then let's do something about it today!
My coaching style builds on my experiences as a therapist, but focuses on the forward-looking, efficient tools and mindset that coaching clients can readily adopt to overcome such 'baggage' from their past. Trust me, nothing you've experienced will shock, scare, or run me away! I am comfortable discussing anything as we focus on efficiently addressing lingering obstacles to you becoming who you most want to be, or accomplishing what you intensely desire to accomplish.
