Frequently Asked Questions

Think Forward Therapy & Coaching focuses on trauma-informed therapy for women and adults. The practice is centered on support that reflects authenticity and integrity.High-performing women and women in male-dominated professional fieldsPeri/menopause & other life transitionsTrauma and trauma related stressDepressionAnxietyAdjustment issuesMilitary or foreign service familiesAdults caring for another adult

Yes, but...Most people who come to therapy do so because something has happened, something is changing, or there is a set of struggles going on. Initially, that is usually what we focus on. Often, these challenges are related to behavior patterns or interactional issues, so modalities such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), Motivational Interviewing (MI), or trauma processing are effective and can reduce distress quickly, often in 6-10 sessions. After that, many clients choose to continue in therapy and begin to examine larger patterns and how or why they learned to respond in various ways to different types of situations. This is where therapy becomes psychodynamic, either in general style, or specifically psychoanalysis- where we begin to look at conscious and unconscious cognitive schema, making the implicit explicit, and naming core values. The work of psychoanalysis is more nuanced, complex, and difficult than focusing on the more short-term goals.

There are a number of ways to treat trauma, and what modality is used depends on what the client and therapist decide together as the best approach for the specific circumstance. Some of the approaches include: Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE)- this is an intense approach that has high success rates, but is rarely covered by insurance since the initial session is always longer than an hour.Cognitive Processing Therapy- this is a somewhat less intense approach than PE that involves identifying thoughts and perceptions around events and challenging them.Narrative therapy and ACT therapy- Narrative therapy is a style of therapy that involves revising your perception of life so it is viewed as a story with chapters, telling the story and identifying where the narrative has gotten out of control or confusing, and taking control of the narrative. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a modality that engages compassion and acceptance to shift how difficult emotions, memories, or perceptions are viewed. There are other modalities out there- EMDR, ART, etc. I do not practice either EMDR or ART, but I can provide some information about how they work and provide a referral if you want to pursue that approach. I was trained in Trauma Management Therapy by UCF Restores and am happy to provide referrals to that intensive intervention. The challenge to treating trauma is that at some point, you have to open the box. And to be honest, that is just never fun. It sucks. It's painful. But it takes the monster out from under the bed and into the sunlight. You CAN heal from trauma.