Emily A Dolan | Therapy Approach

Approach

I believe that we all need support when presented with struggles. I am driven to help people optimize their resilience and make lasting changes in their lives, harnessing their strengths to increasing overall wellness.

I use a trauma-informed, client-centered, and strengths-based approach to my practice. I pull from a variety of therapeutic approaches to build a tailored intervention that best suits your needs.

As a trauma-informed therapist I consider the impact of trauma neurobiologically, physiologically, psychologically and socially (how it impacts our relationships). My goal is to help facilitate recovery at a safe pace, addressing the underlying issues, current impact on functioning and attachment in a secure and contained space with a goal to integrate and reconstruct a story of trauma to a story of survival and resilience.

Psychodynamic Therapy

Psychodynamic therapy is a form of depth therapy drawn from the psychoanalytic model. It incorporates up to date research in neurobiology and attachment science and involves introspection to explore and process the underlying mental processes, housed in our unconscious brain, so that we may understand what drives current emotions, thoughts, beliefs and behaviours

Emotion Focused Therapy

Emotion focused therapy (EFT) is an intervention based on the scientific study of adult love and attachment and bonding processes in couples. It is designed to address distress in the intimate relationships of adults. As a couple this approach can help partners better understand both their own emotional responses and those of significant people in their lives. Doing so increases security, emotional safety and closeness in couples.

Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment

TIST or Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment was developed to provide a trauma-informed approach to the challenges of treating self-destructive behavior. Based on theoretical principles drawn from the neuroscience research on trauma and structural dissociation theory, TIST offers a treatment approach that integrates mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, ego state techniques, and Internal Family Systems. It has been used successfully to address the challenges of treating individuals with diagnoses of complex PTSD, borderline personality, bipolar disorder, addictive and eating disorders, and dissociative disorders (https://janinafisher.com/tist).

Click here for additional resources for sensorimotor

Click here for additional resources for Internal Family Systems Model

Mindful Self-Compassion

MSC combines the skills of mindfulness and self-compassion, providing a powerful tool for emotional resilience. Mindfulness is the first step in emotional healing—being able to turn toward and acknowledge our difficult thoughts and feelings (such as inadequacy, sadness, anger, confusion) with a spirit of openness and curiosity. Self-compassion involves responding to these difficult thoughts and feelings with kindness, sympathy and understanding so that we soothe and comfort ourselves when we’re hurting. Research has shown that self-compassion greatly enhances emotional wellbeing. It boosts happiness, reduces anxiety and depression, and can even help maintain healthy lifestyle habits such as diet and exercise. Being both mindful and compassionate leads to greater ease and well-being in our daily lives (https://self-compassion.org/the-program/).