Katie is certified and trained  in Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TFCBT).  TFCBT is an evidenced based  trauma therapy that is provided for children and adolescents ages 3-18 years of age.  TF-CBT is a therapeutic intervention designed to help children, adolescents, and their parents overcome the impact of traumatic events. For example, it is designed to help with traumas related to sexual abuse, physical abuse, domestic violence, and community violence, an unexpected death of a loved one, and natural disasters.  

TFCBT addresses distorted or irrational/upsetting beliefs related to the trauma and provides a safe, supportive environment where children/adolescents are encouraged to talk about their traumatic experiences and learn coping skills to better help them cope with life stressors. In addition to helping the children/adolescents, TFCBT also helps the parent/caregivers learn ways to cope with the trauma and be supportive to the children as they go through the therapeutic process.   

In addition to TFCBT for trauma therapy, Katie has completed EMDRIA approved EMDR training to provide Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing therapy.  EMDR is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences.  Repeated studies show that by using EMDR therapy people can experience the benefits of psychotherapy that once took years to make a difference.   The mind can often heal itself naturally, in the same way as the body does. Much of this natural coping mechanism occurs during sleep, particularly during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Francine Shapiro developed Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) in 1987, utilizing this natural process in order to successfully treat Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Since then, EMDR has been used to effectively treat a wide range of mental health problems. 

In addition to its use for the treatment of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, EMDR has been successfully used to treat:  anxiety,  panic attacks,  depression,  stress,  phobias,  sleep problems,  complicated grief,  addictions,  pain relief, phantom limb pain, self-esteem and performance anxiety. 

EMDR is appropriate to use for people of all ages, children to adults. 

It is normal for people to feel down, sad,  angry and withdrawn at some point in their lives.  However, it becomes concerning when those feelings become very intense, go on too long and get in the way of normal life functioning. Depressed feelings happen to everyone sometimes, especially after a loss or disappointment. When they happen too much and interfere with your life by getting in the way of doing things you want to do and need to do, that is when it is important to get help. Depression can be a specific episode or repeated episodes that are out of the ordinary for the person. The episode can be mild, moderate or severe. Severe depression usually involve suicidal thoughts or behaviors. In some cases, depression can be chronic. Depression is very common in adolescents and adults.  It is estimated that about 20% of teens will experience depression at some point in their lives.  If you are struggling with depressive symptoms, there is help!  One common type of therapy that is effective in treating depression is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).  CBT is a time-limited, problem-focused intervention that teaches you how to change your unhelpful thoughts .  By changing these unhelpful thoughts into helpful thoughts, you can change the way you think which in turn changes the way you feel.

Did you know that Anxiety can be both good and bad?  Anxiety is how our bodies react to perceived threats. This is called the fight/flight response. All animals have this response and so does every person you’ve ever known. In small doses, anxiety can be helpful by protecting us from danger and focusing our attention on perceived problems.  But, too much anxiety can be very bad for our bodies.  If our anxiety becomes too severe it can make it debilitating for us, meaning we cannot physically function like we need to.  When we become anxious (frightened/scared) about something, we will generally tend to avoid it, which in turn alleviates those anxious feelings temporarily.  However, by avoiding the cause of the anxiety, that is creating a much bigger problem by creating an even bigger, more harmful cycle of  avoidance and worsening anxiety.  Our bodies eventually will start showing signs of distress due to all of this anxiety built up, i.e. heart issues, stomach issues, acid reflux, joint pain, immune system flare ups, etc.  It is very important to get help for your anxiety when you first notice symptoms so you can get on your path to healing the stressful issues making you feel anxious, and therefore saving your body from ill effects later in life. 

Anger is an emotion that can also be beneficial to us if we can handle it appropriately.  Anger becomes a negative behavior when we are unable to control that strong emotion and we do things that are harmful to ourselves, to other people, or we act out and misbehave in ways that are not appropriate for our environment that we are in.  It is always okay to feel angry.  But it is NEVER okay to hurt yourself, hurt others or break or damage things because you are angry.  If you feel so frustrated, angry and overwhelmed that your body is out of control, that is a sign that you need some extra help to learn ways to better cope with those out of control emotions and feelings.  Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) treatments have been found to be effective, time-­limited  treatments for anger problems (Beck & Fernandez, 1998; Deffenbacher, 1996; Trafate, 1995).