Rachael Smith

At this point, you have probably viewed many pages of different therapists, and you may feel overwhelmed with the options available to you. Choosing a therapist is complicated and much like dating. Some characteristics may appeal to or be off-putting to you about every therapist. You may connect with some and not others. Maybe you have done therapy in the past and found it helpful in some ways, but it didn’t check all your boxes. I want to show you what you can expect in working with me and how I differ from many of the therapists you may have encountered. Many therapists work from models such as Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, or Solution-Focused approaches. These models have their place in skill building, changing habits and routines, and changing how we think about our world and respond. You may have found in the past that building and strengthening these tools were beneficial to you in improving the options available to you in each situation where you struggled. But you may have noticed that you still have deep wounds that arise and impact how you think, feel, and react. The tools are helpful when these wounds arise to give you a practical approach to regulate your emotion, communicate what you are experiencing, or calm your body, but the pain is still there. The tools gained from these methods are like a bandage, which is helpful to stop the bleeding at the moment but does not heal the wound. I work from an Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy approach, a method informed by trauma and personality theories. IFS accepts all the parts of you that make up your personality. We all have parts of us that hold onto our past hurts, protect us, and guide us to react in certain situations to help keep us safe from whatever threat we may perceive. Parts of us take on the role of managing our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to be able to function in different areas of our lives. Have you ever had feelings, thoughts, or impulses in one direction or another and then had another set of feelings, thoughts, or impulses that conflicted with the previous ones? Those are different parts of your personality. Everyone operates like this, whether acknowledging each part or seeing them as their inner voice. Thinking like this is NOT a disorder. Having conflicting positions is entirely normal. These parts throughout your life may not have worked together well. They may be a bit dysfunctional. Our goals with IFS are to get all your parts on the same page, working together, and creating a more functional system. Another goal is to heal the wounded parts of you and allow the manager and protector parts to be more at ease and not have to work so hard to help you navigate and function in your everyday life. And finally, our goal is to help your core self, the part that makes you – you – lead you. Some people refer to the core self as your spirit. The goal is for you to improve your self-leadership, self-esteem, self-image, self-efficacy, and self-worth. When your wounds can heal from the source, and you can engage in your world with purpose and confidence instead of reacting, your future will appear bright and welcoming. You will finally be able to realize a life worth living. Everything I just said is probably very different from what you have received from other therapists. If this is too different for you, that’s ok. My approach isn’t for everyone. If what I said finally gave words to describe what you have thought, felt, and experienced your whole life, you are in the right place. Maybe you’re curious about how my approach could help you because you’ve tried so many other methods that haven’t addressed all your needs; you are also in the right place. If you are desperate for healing and cannot go another day without drastically changing how you live, my approach may be what you are looking for. I offer a free 15-minute consultation to get to know you and your needs, and I would be happy to describe how this approach can help with your situation. Please get in touch with me today to see how you can heal the wounds you have been living with and start building a bright future.