Upcoming and Thoughts

Published by Mountain Air Psychology

Hello and welcome to Mountain Air Psychology, My name is Jailene and I am a Provisional Psychologist. I provide Counselling in individual and couples counselling. My specialization is in trauma utilizing eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) , the Gottman Method for Marriage counselling and sex therapy with training from the Institute of Relational Intimacy. Other modalities I intertwine through out therapy include narrative therapy, CBT, and prolonged exposure. Other areas I can assist you in are concerns related to: Relationship Concerns and Conflict Management Young Couples Communication Problems Trust and Intimacy Infidelity Intimate Betrayal Sexual Problems Divorce and Separation Compassion Fatigue Social Skill Building Guilt and Shame Anxiety (including panic/anxiety attacks) Depression Anger Management Self-defeating Behaviours/ Self-sabotage Childhood Abuse (physical, emotional, and sexual) Trauma (including accidents and assaults) Low Self-esteem Career Concerns Stress Burnout What do individuals generally find challenging about the process of therapy? This one is difficult to answer because people come in for different reasons. All I can say is therapy can be more difficult if we do not have the structures in place to support our healing and growth. For some it is the environment, some it is people, some it is their lifestyle, others its internal barriers. This is one reason why having a good therapeutic relationship and flexible, collaborative, specifically tailored treatment plan is important to the therapeutic process. If you and your therapist are not a good fit then therapy may be less beneficial for you. Ultimately therapy is difficult because we are looking at where we can grow. Over the past 15 years, I have learned about the amazing capacity of people and I am constantly surprised by the resilience or bounce back ability of people. What training or specializations complement your work with individuals? What’s unique about your style? I practice from a relational way of being, highlighting Rogerian principles, with positive psychology, and Narrative therapy to form the foundation of my practice. You might ask okay well what does that mean? For me, it means that we are multistoried individuals and that the narrative or story of a person’s life, and how they understand it, can contribute to symptomatology. I believe, as people, we are constantly searching for meaning in all dimensions of our existence and how we form that meaning influences how we walk through our life story. Sometimes, a shift in perspective/understanding is all we need to become unstuck. These influences to our understanding of our story can be precognitive, early childhood learnings, or experiences you have obtained throughout your life. It can also be formed through dominant discourses or society, social media, and culture helping to form that “should” word in your beliefs instead of “could”. Together we can sift through the influences and keep what serves you and let go of or add to those that do not. You have the power to write your story. What do couples generally find challenging about the process of therapy? Couples often wait to go to couples counselling until they are at their breaking point. At this point the relationship is on its last life line. This can often make it difficult in therapy because there is sometimes an intrusion into the relationship healing journey in the form of Negative sentiment override. Negative sentiment override is when our partner can say and do exactly what we ask for but we are not happy, we find fault in it, or disqualify our partner's efforts. We can sometimes fall into the trap of mind-reading and think we know what our partner really meant by their words and actions. We get stuck in the past and don’t accept the changes, or give room for them to show you change. Statements like “well, in the past you “ or “you never ...”. Negative sentiment override can sometimes make it difficult to empathize with our partner, offer compassion, or even forgiveness. It also leaves us feeling hopeless and defeated in our efforts. We can feel rejected and not want to try again “why should I if I am damned if I do and damned if I don’t”. This can trip up some couples and understandably. Many times couples come to counselling as a last effort to save the relationship and once they begin counselling they find that much of the pain endured over the years could have been avoided if they had come in earlier. How does your approach to working with an individual differ from working with a couple? My approach when working with an individual vs a couple is in the interventions and the focus. In individual counselling the individual is the client but in couples work the relationship becomes the client. View more posts