Specializing in Trauma, Sexual Recovery, and Financial Disorders

IFS & EMDR

IFS & EMDR Therapy

IFS is a transformative, evidence-based psychotherapy that helps people heal by accessing and building relationship with their protective and wounded inner parts. This form of therapy is non-pathologizing, empowering, and facilitates deep transformation within oneself and in relationship to others.

EMDR is a style of therapy that helps people process and heal from traumatic memories. The therapist utilizes bilateral stimulation (movement of the eyes, tapping, or tones) while the client engages in a guided exercise where they are asked to think about and feel their way through anything that may come up. This technique is believed to be effective by allowing both hemispheres of the brain to process the trauma by engaging the subconscious and conscious parts of the brain.

When EMDR and IFS therapy are used simultaneously, clients report a peacefulness in mind, body, and spirit. This work complements and enhances recovery from complex trauma and addictive processes because it allows a person more space between thought and action, moves out of survival mode to thriving mode, and supports all the amazing recovery work they have done to create a new life worth living.

Complex Trauma

Trauma Focused

What designates a person’s trauma history as complex? No trauma experience is “easy” or “simple,” but this term refers to prolonged, repeated experiences in interpersonal relationships lasting over time. Usually originating in childhood and compounded by continued , these events are often difficult to escape from and can include minimization or denial from the primary support system. Because the brain is still developing in childhood and adolescence, this can lead to greater difficulty coping in relationships and can include:

Dissociation
Somatization
Ingrained coping styles

The nervous system (which remembers everything that has ever happened to you) can be in a constant state of flight/fight/freeze/flee or making it extremely difficult to relax. In early recovery, treating these issues is imperative to help reduce the risk of relapse, but it also requires an abundance of caution to ensure the client is ready and has the tools to handle such treatment as their body adjusts to newfound sobriety. Treating complex trauma also requires specialized training to ensure safety, the best treatment, and appropriately address potential roadblocks.

Sex & Love Addiction

Sexual Recovery

Sex addiction is a very painful struggle that can manifest itself in a number of paraphilic (unconventional sexual behaviours which are obsessive and compulsive) and non-paraphilic (conventional sexual behaviours that, when taken to an extreme, are recurrent, distressing, and interfere in daily functioning) ways. These include, but are not limited to, the following struggles:

Compulsive masturbation
Indulging in pornography
Having chronic affairs
Dangerous sexual practices
Prostitution
Compulsive anonymous or casual sex
Compulsive sexual episodes
Cybersex addiction
Exhibitionism
Voyeurism
Frotteurism
Sexual Anorexia

Love addiction, is described as one person “loving” another person with an obsessive intensity that is not in the best interest of either party. Love addicts tend to become involved in brief, intense romantic relationships. If they are involved in a long-term relationship, it is usually characterized by many highs and lows. In some cases, love addicts completely withdraw from romantic or sexual relationships to avoid feelings of vulnerability.

Financial Disorders

Financial disorders are often the result of unresolved and unrecognized childhood trauma involving negative core beliefs stemming from financial self-worth and shame. To manage unmanageability, individuals and couples fall into chronic and self-defeating financial patterns in the belief that success can be achieved by acquiring “more” or working harder. Financial drivers often go unexplored or unrecognized in therapy due to other presenting issues or insufficient clinical skills, despite studies that reflect conflicts involving money and work are the greatest predictors for relationship or marital dissolution.

You may have a money disorder if you experience irresistible urges and tension around spending that’s only relieved when you make a purchase. Consider getting help if you:

Feel like you’re stuck in a cycle of overspending, relief, and guilt
Have financial habits that are causing significant stress to you or your family
Are unable to meet your basic financial responsibilities
Are keeping secrets related to money or finances

Faith & Spirituality

Religious faith, or some form of personal spirituality, can be a powerful source of meaning and purpose. For some, religion does not occupy a key place, yet a personal spirituality may be a central force. Spiritual values help many people make sense out of the universe and the purpose of our lives on this earth. Like any other potential source of meaning, religious faith or spirituality seems most authentic and valuable when it enables us to become as fully human as possible. It can help us get in touch with our own powers of thinking, feeling, deciding, willing, and acting.

Spirituality and religion are critical sources of strength for many clients, are the bedrock for finding meaning in life, and can be instrumental in promoting healing and well-being. There is growing empirical evidence that our spiritual values and behaviors can promote physical and psychological well-being. Exploring these values with clients can be integrated with other therapeutic tools to enhance the therapy process.

At The Niagara Centre for Healing & Recovery, all faith and spiritual practices are welcome.

*Excerpt from: Integrating Spirituality in Counseling Practice by Gerald Corey*

Alternative Therapies

Individuals are complex and as a result no treatment plan can be the same. A holistic approach to treatment involves supporting the somatic release of trauma and stress disease by re-training the nervous system all the while integrating psychotherapy to strengthen the impact of phase-oriented trauma treatment. Below are various therapies that may be interwoven into your individual sessions:

Somatic IFS involves healing the relationships with our bodies to work with chronic illness and trauma, and to explore the use of ethical touch using the principles of IFS Therapy
Group Therapy reduces the shame and stigma surrounding addictive processes and trauma recovery
Equine Therapy incorporates learning and experiencing stress reduction and emotional self-regulation techniques in the company of horses
Psychedelic Integration refers to taking the gained insights, emotions, or attitudes of a therapeutic or medical supported psychedelic experience, and processing them into the desired areas of your life
Self-care & Body Work Exercises include homeopathic remedies, hot or cold therapy, trauma release stretches, lymph or immune support exercises, along with referrals to professionals trained in acupuncture, cupping, or fascial stretch therapy