Kennedy Counseling
Clinical Orientation
Highly individualized treatment plans are made with each client to address the mutually agreed upon goals and expectations in order to facilitate a collaborative therapeutic relationship. Important factors that may be addressed in therapy include an exploration of past experiences and how it affects your current functioning, as well as current behaviors, environmental factors, and coping mechanisms. My therapeutic style is an integration of Feminist and Systemic theories that promote the fostering of healthy relationships and attachment. I strongly believe that one's environment and the people around us greatly influence one's opportunities, expectations and general functioning. While addressing the therapeutic issues, aspects of how cultural and societal legacies of racism, oppression and sexism have influenced one's experience will be explored, as well as how one's progress and improvement is likely to affect the homeostasis within their relationships with others.
Forms of Therapy Available
Individual, Couples and Family therapies are all available. I have experience providing a wide range of therapeutic techniques, and will integrate the following specialized treatments into my work when appropriate given the individual concerns and problems being experienced:
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy is a skills based therapy that focuses on interpersonal effectiveness skills, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance. Any or all elements of this therapy can be utilized to promote positive change in one's behavior.
Lifespan Integration
Lifespan Integration therapy has been found to be effective in the healing of various attachment disorders, adult survivors of childhood abuse, or neglect and trauma survivors in people of all ages and a wide range of therapeutic issues. This is a body-based therapy that promotes the rapid healing through the juxtaposition of ego states in time to rewrite the early conditions, by utilizing the positive feeling states and coping skills possessed within the client-therapist dyad to heal earlier maladaptive learning experiences.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy looks at how one's automatic and/or conscious thoughts affect our behavior and emotions. Exploring the interaction between these three elements, and how effectively changing one element can lead to improvements in one's overall functioning, as well as teaching skills to promote positive change will be provided in these sessions.
Motivational Interviewing
A semi-directive, client-centered therapy, Motivational Interviewing is a goal-directed therapy that meets the client where they are in terms of wanting to change through the exploration and resolution of one's ambivalence. Once goals for behavior change have been identified, skills for utilizing one's own motivation for behavior change and the development of a behavior plan of change is designed for the client.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy is recognized as an effective form of trauma treatment, as well as other therapeutic issues such as phobias and addictive behaviors by unlocking memories that have been stored maladaptively. When life stressors are significant enough to interrupt the storing of memories, the sights, sounds, feelings, and physical sensations can become stored in an incomplete or dysfunctional way. EMDR alleviates symptoms through reprocessing the memories, and integrating the various aspects of the memory with the adaptive information.
And More....
None of these therapeutic options are mutually exclusive, and often times will be used in conjunction. If you have any questions regarding these therapeutic options or any others you are curious about, please feel free to contact me and I would be happy to provide more information.
Insurance, Fees, and Cancellation Policy
I currently accept Medicare and can bill many other insurance companies as an out of network provider. It is your responsibility to check with your insurance company regarding what your benefits are for outpatient therapy, including deductible, number of sessions per year, and whether or not they accept out of network providers.
My current fee for a 50-minute psychotherapy session is $100 with limited sliding scale fee slots available. Appointments that are not canceled with at least 24 hours notice will be charged full fee for that session.