Allison Pichardo

Approach Description: I use several different modalities depending on what my client's goals are and the issues they are dealing with. For individuals struggling with anxiety I use a Cognitive Behavioral Approach along with self compassion. I find that CBT helps clients better understand how their brain works and increases their awareness of destructive thought patterns. Self compassion then helps them to strengthen their inner cheerleader and turn down the volume on the inner critic. For individuals working through depression, I help them find ways to strengthen their basic self care needs like sleep and eating habits and help them learn healthy ways to cope. Then we work on accessing emotions, tolerating them better and actively processing them so that they truly resolve instead of stacking up. For those looking to work through past trauma I use both EMDR and IFS (parts work). These approaches help clients access difficult emotions related to the trauma they experienced and then gives them a structure in which to work through those emotions to find resolution. For couples, I use Emotionally Focused Therapy and Gottman Method. Gottman method helps couples learn communication skills and Emotionally Focused Therapy helps couples understand how to access and communicate about the deeper hurt feelings underneath the anger they feel.