Dana Strickland

While enlisted in the Army and while most of my experiences during that time were positive, some were very hard and resulted in (service connected) PTSD. The culture of the Army at the time - thankfully it is improving but not as quickly as it should - was to act like nothing happened, drink water, drive on, take 800mg of Ibuprofen and call it a day. That didn't work for me and when I sought help through my chain of command and even mental health professionals, I was met with a less than empathetic response. For several years I struggled to piece my life back together and to figure out what I was going to do with myself. I committed to my own process of healing and when it came time to create a new meaning for what I'd gone through, I decided that I wanted to work with others who have also survived trauma and to make sure that I wasn't meeting them with the same dismissive attitude that I got. What keeps me going and motivated is the understanding that it isn't my job to "fix" anyone. You're not broken and you don't need to exile yourself to the island of misfit toys because you might feel that way. It's just my job to hold space for people to do their own healing. I choose to believe that when someone shares their "stuff" with me and allows me to hold that space, that they are giving me access to their most closely guarded treasures. I get the honor of walking with my clients on their path towards creating a life worth showing up in. Sometimes it's rough, sometimes it's beautiful, most times it's both.

Therapy works if YOU work it. Because all therapists are humans, we all have different personalities and perspectives that we bring into the services we provide. I've been told that I don't seem to fit into the mold of a stereotypical therapist. I care deeply about the work I get to do and am grateful for each and every person that allows me to be a part of their process. That being said, people who might describe themselves as "thin skinned" or "highly sensitive" or people who have unrealistic expectations and think that I am going to "fix" or "rescue" them may be less likely to appreciate my personality/approach as I am typically quite assertive and put the responsibility of actually doing the work on the client. Again - therapy works if YOU work it. In Consultations for services and when needed, I do let everyone know the expectations I place on my clients when you are working with me about skills practice and mood management between sessions. I do absolutely hold people accountable to this and if it seems to be an ongoing issue will work with you to problem solve the issue(s); if that doesn't seem to be effective I will work with you to find other providers who may be a better fit or offer additional services and talk to you about the possibility of returning to services when EMDR is more appropriate for you. My goal is to work myself out of a job and help you reach a point where you either only need check ins once or twice a year or are in a position to discharge services entirely.

When someone reaches out to start new services, we do a (no cost) virtual consultation. Depending on the service you are looking for this consultation will either be 15-minutes or about an hour. We use this consultation time to get some basic information about what has prompted you to look for help and to do our best to make sure that the level and types of services that we offer are the most appropriate for your needs. This consultation time also allows you to ask us questions and to decide if you feel like we will be a good fit for you. If we both agree to move forward, we'll send you all of the intake paperwork and you'll have 7-days to complete your paperwork and return it to us. Once we have all of this squared away, we'll reach out to set up your first appointment/Intake. An Intake lasts about 90-minutes and the primary purpose of this appointment is to gather even more information about what you are experiencing now that you are seeking help for, the history of these issues, your personal history, family and social history. We'll also do some additional symptom assessments that help us with treatment planning. If you are doing in person services, when you come in, you'll likely see Andrea, our awesome Admin first who will get you checked in and collect any fees for the service that day. You'll also meet (or hear) Jack, my Australian Shepherd who sometimes likes to alert me that someone has come in. He likes to go out to the lobby to meet people and then will lead you to my office. He'll hang out during your session either sitting on/near your feet or taking a nap on the floor. Every now and again he'll get up on the couch with you and cuddle. Because I no longer offer ongoing therapy, only Extended EMDR sessions (90-minutes to 2-hours) or EMDR Intensives (half-day, full-day, 3-days) our sessions will be focused on moving through the 8 Phases of EMDR or using another applicable EMDR Protocol. The first session (after Intake) will be focused on showing you the options for Bilateral Stimulation (light bar, "buzzies", or sounds), and talk about the coping skills that you currently have in your toolbox and how you can use those to help you through the process of EMDR. In the next sessions we'll work on Resourcing - meaning that we'll work more on emotional containment and soothing and if necessary, install these resources using low intensity, low speed Bilateral Stimulation. We'll stay in the Resourcing Phase until it seems appropriate to move on. Next we'll talk through and identify the "targets" or experiences that you are wanting to work on before moving on to Reprocessing/Desensitization (EMDR Phase 4). When we are in Resourcing and Desensitization we won't be doing much talking because I want you to get in as much Bilateral Stimulation as possible to help you work through your targets as quickly and seamlessly as possible. EMDR does of course have other stages and we'll do those too as we get to them. Before you leave the office, we'll schedule your next appointment and talk briefly about self-care between sessions.