I provide highly-focused, experiential, deep-dive therapy for individual women.

A few things about me.  I am a depth-oriented, emotionally-focused therapist.  I see the experiencing and release of emotion as the primary change agent in what helps us grow beyond the places or dynamics in which we are stuck.  Basically, we help you get better at feeling. This in turn helps you get better at changing, changing how you show up in your life and in your relationships.

I work relationally as a way of bringing direct awareness to how you perceive others, how you track them, and whether you are receptive to the loving, care of another person. I am unconditionally kind and warm. I also challenge you.

Our focus stays deeply centered in the here and now as we focus our attention to what you are noticing and experiencing in your body in the moment.  I believe our past experiences contribute to our current difficulties as:

patterns of tension that live in the body

emotions and other vulnerabilities that we suppress and manage

intimacy with ourselves that we avoid

outdated beliefs + emotional spirals that takes us away from our power to change

old wired-in survival mechanisms that keep us defended, stuck, and projecting our past onto the present.

Working with me supports you becoming far more attuned to your true self and equips you to do this work on your own outside of therapy.

Focused Work

I have worked with some individual clients upwards of twelve years in long-term therapy and have seen tremendous growth and progress during that time; however, I have seen patterns in this structure that do not always benefit the client.  Namely, what I feel protective of is your time. Sometimes open-ended therapy can dilute the focus of the work, letting the real reason clients came into therapy fall within the cracks of weekly minutia. Therapists are often taught not to take the lead in therapy and while we truly are there to follow your lead, I believe clients also need direction.

They need consistent, gentle, warm encouragement: that yes, you really can feel this uncomfortable feeling and that is what we are here to do. I help bring the focus of your goals back into our work on a regular basis.

The Structure of the Sessions (for individuals)

Our time together will be deeply experiential work for at least 30-40min. of the session leaving 15min. for integration.  By experiential, I mean you will be turning your attention toward your own inner landscape and deeply focusing inward. You will be staying focused on your own emotions, how they live in your body, and giving precious time and patience to what wants to emerge from there. As you and I stay attuned to your process, memories, images, impulses, and words will surface that will help us access the unconscious material that needs to be known, felt, and processed.  

This looks like being in a comfortable place, possibly laying down if that feels best to you, having your eyes closed, and becoming more intimate with your own inner world. Whatever anxiety or impulse-to-avoid arises will become the gentle subject of our attention and my support. I believe this experiential work helps us get much farther, much sooner, without getting distracted by our logical mind or eye contact.

Emotional Safety

Your emotional safety will always be a priority in our work together. I am here to support you in reducing the anxiety you may feel about approaching difficult feelings and I will respect the pace you need, while also challenging you in a supportive, attuned way. However, I am not here to keep you emotionally ‘comfortable.’ I am here to help you grow.

As emotion arises, our work together will help you stay with these feeling states for longer periods of time during each session. I do not expect this to be easy at first but our intention will be to help you become more capable of feeling the feelings you may typically avoid or push down or defend against throughout your life. It is because of how we avoid these feelings that we tend to remain stuck in old patterns that are no longer serving us.

By keeping our focus on the building of emotional-resilience and emotional-awareness, the goal is to help you walk away feeling more in tune with yourself and more capable of staying attuned to yourself in the world. With this increased awareness, you will be better able to understand, manage, and redirect your feelings and be more mindful of how you support yourself daily with more deeply nourishing activities and relationships.

To learn more and to set up a consult, email me at Patricia@PatriciaCarterLMFT.com