Consultation
Clinical Consultations for mental health therapists, social workers, medical doctors, physical therapists, and other medical professionals
Consultation sessions are for clinicians new to working with chronic pain, Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), and/or relational psychodynamic psychotherapy. While these sessions are ideal for individuals who have limited personal and/or professional experience in these areas, I welcome inquiries from any and all clinicians. Together we will discuss your case, address your questions, and explore new ways to move forward in your work.
Clinical consultations for chronic pain
Are you working with individuals experiencing chronic pain? As they struggle, are you struggling to know how to best support them?
“Illness is the night-side of life, a more onerous citizenship,” wrote essayist and activist Susan Sontag. “Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer to use only the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place.”
To live with chronic pain—to experience it, try to understand it, and to search ceaselessly for solutions—can at times feel like torture. For sufferers, it can bring up a lot: overwhelm, despair, alienation and anxiety, a profound feeling of hopelessness, and even suicidality. As clients struggle, these feelings can in turn bring up a lot in their providers.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), chronic pain impacts nearly a quarter of the American population. It is one of the great medical issues of our time, but clinicians of all stripes do not receive much, if any, training in it. When I speak of training, I do not solely mean training in how to help someone recover from chronic pain, but training in how to be present with individuals who hurt deeply, often for years, and are longing for answers.
Consultations are designed for practitioners wanting to discuss specific cases.
As I am not a medical doctor, I cannot provide medical advice. However, we can cover a variety of topics, including but not limited to:
- The role of the brain in pain
- Calming the nervous system and increasing feelings of safety
- The importance of small steps in recovering from chronic pain
- Clinician biases about chronic pain
- The impact of trauma and bigotry on individuals in pain
- Navigating healthcare systems
- Lifestyle and nutrition
- Meaning-making: pain as a guide
I value the role of science and medicine as much as I value the impact of nutrition, lifestyle changes, and trauma-informed mind-body practices. My interest is in meeting providers where they are at and doing what I can to educate, support, and buoy them in this important work.
Rate: $150 for a 50-minute session
*Note: consultation is not the same as therapy. If you are looking for a therapist, please navigate to the psychotherapy page for more information.
Clinical consultations for Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)
Are you new to working with dissociative conditions? Are you wanting to learn more about supporting individuals with DID?
Despite the efforts of incredible clinicians around the country, the mental health field still faces a critical lack of DID support. This is primarily due to widespread training deficits, diagnostic stigma, lack of specialization, and continued sensationalism in the media. Though clinicians are often taught that DID is a rare diagnosis, studies estimate that between 1 and 1.5 percent of people worldwide have been diagnosed with it. This number does not account for those who have DID but have not been diagnosed or are not seeking diagnosis.
The unfortunate reality is that many will spend between 5 to 12 years being misunderstood and misdiagnosed—with borderline personality disorder, schizophrenia, depression, and more—before receiving an accurate diagnosis. Individuals with DID regularly report experiencing years of confusion, pain, shame, self-hatred, gaslighting, and improper care on the path to self-understanding.
To do what I can to counter this, I offer consultations to clinicians who are newer to working with DID. Whether you want to discuss a specific case, or are looking to become more competent in serving this population, I would love to hear from you.
While we can discuss assessments for dissociation, it is important to remember that not everyone wants an official diagnosis. DID is still widely misunderstood. Always check with the person you’re supporting for their preferences.
Topics we cover might include but are not limited to:
- Risk factors for developing DID: strengthening your capacity to work with (C)PTSD and childhood abuse
- Supporting individuals with a history of ritual abuse
- Exploring the dissociative spectrum and the specific symptoms of DID
- Demystifying DID: what media portrayals get wrong
- Helping clients move toward safety, stabilization, and symptom reduction
- The need for flexibility, not rigidity, in treatment
- Working with parts, or self states
- Understanding DID as a creative, life-saving adaptation
Rate: $150 for a 50-minute session
While I have spent years pursuing education in dissociation and DID, and receive ongoing consultation from leaders in the field like Dr. Shelly Itzkowitz and Rachel Sage, LCSW, I have learned the most from my clients. I owe them a debt of gratitude.
*Note: consultation is not the same as therapy. If you are looking for a therapist, please navigate to the psychotherapy page for more information.
Clinical consultations for relational psychodynamic psychotherapy
Is your work feeling stalled? Are you wanting to engage in a deeper and more dynamic practice with your clients?
Options for mental health therapy have proliferated in recent years. While this is in many ways a boon, it brings with it some confusion. Ask any therapist what therapy is and you’ll get a different answer: it’s skills-based, somatic, artistic; it’s parts work, bilateral stimulation, and more.
Between the push from insurance companies to offer short-term work, the encouragement from graduate programs to become educated primarily in manualized therapies, and the popularity of newer and newer therapeutic modalities, something has gotten lost: the real art and skill of psychotherapy, of using the therapeutic relationship as a tool for growth.
Relational psychodynamic psychotherapy is an evidence-based treatment that rests, in part, on the understanding that the interpersonal struggles people encounter in their everyday lives will be brought into the therapeutic relationship.
Unfortunately, clinicians are often not instructed on how to work with their felt experience, intuition, and countertransference in therapy, and are rarely educated on the importance of kind but courageous speech. When these two pieces work in tandem, therapists are able to bring a degree of insight, curiosity, and aliveness to their work not often found in a protocol.
Trained in psychoanalytic and psychodynamic psychotherapies at the Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, the Stephen Mitchell Center, and Loyola University’s Institute for Advanced Psychotherapy, I find meaning in supporting clinicians wanting to bring new depth to their therapeutic work. I am grateful to receive ongoing consultation in relational psychodynamic psychotherapy from clinician and author Dr. Patricia Gianotti.
Consultation sessions might be a great fit for you if:
- You’re feeling stuck in your work with clients
- You’ve been instructed in manualized therapies—which can be incredibly beneficial for clients—but find yourself wanting to go deeper
- You’re wanting to learn how to utilize transference and countertransference
- You’re nervous attending to what’s happening in the room between you and your clients, and you want to be braver in speaking to unspoken dynamics
- You feel compelled to train in more and more modalities, but are fatigued. You want to try trusting and working with the thing that’s right in front of you: the unique relationship you have with each client.
Rate: $150 for a 50-minute session
I bring kindness, warmth, and honesty to these consultations, and we move at your pace. Whether you would like to discuss a specific case, or you want to talk more generally about incorporating a relational psychodynamic lens into your work, I would be delighted to hear from you.
*Note: consultation is not the same as therapy. If you are looking for a therapist, please navigate to the psychotherapy page for more information.
