At Upland Counseling Group, our therapists integrate a variety of therapeutic practices to provide quality psychotherapy services to address various mental health needs such as anxiety, depression, grief, or trauma. We believe that therapy is a relational experience, and significant changes in therapy happen through the development of a meaningful therapeutic connection. Since most of our past pain happens in relationships, we believe that healthy therapeutic relationships help us find and experience healing and hope in the future.

Through the transformative process of therapy, we hope you experience healing, gain insight, develop deeper emotional awareness, and experience more connection and satisfaction in your life.

We work with individuals from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds. We will take the time to get to know you, your values, your experiences, and your goals.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a proven and effective method for healing symptoms related to traumatic experiences. EMDR is significantly different from traditional talk therapy because treatment does not require clients to talk about the traumatic incident. Clients are encouraged to bring memories of a trauma to mind, and then through the process of EMDR, the brain accesses its natural ability to learn and adapt.

EMDR uses side-to-side eye movements or a hand-held device (therapists often call them buzzers or tappers) that creates a vibration in the client’s hands. These eye movements or vibrations stimulate areas of the brain associated with trauma memories. EMDR practitioners call this brain activity “bi-lateral stimulation” because the attention of the brain is quickly shifted between the right and left hemispheres. This rapid shift in the brain’s attention disrupts typical patterns of thought and allows the brain to find new possibilities and connections related to traumatic memories. For example, if a client believes they are unsafe driving in a car following a traumatic accident, EMDR therapy allows them to place the incident in the past and access an adaptive thought such as, “I can be safe while driving in a car.” With access to an adaptive cognitive, their body can be regulated, even while remembering the past trauma.

Therapists at Upland Counseling Group have been trained in EMDR through EMDR Consulting. Please visit the EMDR Consulting website or EMDRIA for more information.

Like adults, children may experience anxiety, depression, difficulty with concentration, strong reactions to traumatic events, or other mental health symptoms. However, due to their developmental differences, therapy for children often looks different than therapy for adults. It may involve more time spent on building rapport and comfort in the relationship with the therapist, structured and unstructured play, specific skill-building activities, and more involvement of expressive activity such as art and movement. It may also integrate elements of therapy that can be used across the lifespan, such as relationship-building and focus on relational skills, EMDR, and direct teaching and practice of coping skills.

Family involvement is an essential part of therapy with any child, as the family provides the vast majority of a child's interactions on a daily basis. When a family brings a child to therapy for the first time, the therapist will meet with caregivers and children together to assess the child's history and current needs as well as the family's goals and expectations for therapy. As therapy progresses, the therapist will meet regularly with caregivers to learn how behaviors or moods may be changing at home and to teach or review skills that will help to transfer learning and growth into the home and other environments. Families and therapists work together to determine frequency and length of these meetings. Caregivers may also be asked to participate in therapy sessions or parts of sessions. Child therapy involves a holistic, systems-based approach in order to be most successful.

In couples counseling, the therapist seeks to create an environment where the couple can experience curiosity and clarity within their relationship. It is a place for partners to examine their individual emotions and reactions to one another.

Couples counseling is not intended to decide who is right or wrong. The therapist’s professional perspective can instead provide insight and understanding regarding relational barriers such as communication difficulties, misunderstanding and judgment of emotions, and issues of betrayal and loss of trust.

Cultural and societal misconceptions and myths about ideal relationships may also impact couples, and counseling can help normalize experiences and help partners create the relationship they both want. Ideally, couples will find new understanding of one another and experience more honest and helpful ways to communicate, thus creating intimacy and strengthening their relationship.

Couples counseling may be needed in times of crisis, such as following an affair or an impending end to the relationship, but it also may be beneficial when couples feel disconnected, when communication feels difficult, when making significant decisions, or when going through various life transitions.