Therapy Approaches Offered
Finding the right therapeutic approach is an important part of the healing process because therapy is never one-size-fits-all. Every person comes with a unique story, different life experiences, and individual needs, so the methods we use should reflect that.
Where you are in your journey often determines which therapeutic approach will be most helpful. In the beginning, you may need a safe space to process overwhelming emotions, develop coping skills, or create a sense of stability before exploring deeper experiences. As healing progresses, different approaches may become more beneficial for addressing the underlying patterns, beliefs, or nervous system responses that have kept you feeling stuck.
Rather than relying on a single method, I draw from a variety of evidence-based and trauma-informed approaches, tailoring therapy to your unique needs, goals, and pace. Together, we'll choose the approach—or combination of approaches—that best supports your healing, helping you build resilience, reconnect with yourself, and create meaningful, lasting change.
- Mary Alondra Martin, LCPC
What I Can Offer
There is no single path to healing, and different therapeutic approaches can offer different benefits depending on where you are in your journey. Explore the modalities below to learn more about each approach and how they can support your healing, growth, and overall well-being.
-
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based approach that helps you recognize the connection between your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. By identifying unhelpful thinking patterns and learning practical coping strategies, CBT can help you develop healthier ways of responding to life's challenges, reducing symptoms of anxiety, depression, stress, and other emotional concerns while building confidence and resilience.
-
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a skills-based, evidence-based approach that helps you better understand and manage intense emotions while improving relationships and coping with stress. Through mindfulness, emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness, DBT teaches practical tools to help you respond to life's challenges with greater balance, confidence, and self-compassion.
-
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an evidence-based approach that helps you develop a different relationship with difficult thoughts, emotions, and experiences rather than struggling to eliminate them. ACT is especially effective for trauma, grief, and OCD by helping you make room for painful emotions and intrusive thoughts while learning to respond in ways that align with your values, allowing you to move forward with greater flexibility, resilience, and purpose.
-
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an evidence-based therapy that helps the brain process and heal from distressing or traumatic experiences that may feel "stuck." Using bilateral stimulation, such as guided eye movements or tapping, EMDR helps reduce the emotional intensity of painful memories so they no longer have the same impact on your daily life, allowing you to move forward with greater peace, resilience, and emotional freedom.
-
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) is an attachment-based approach that focuses on understanding and strengthening the emotional bonds we have with ourselves and others. By exploring underlying emotions, attachment needs, and patterns of connection, EFT helps individuals and couples develop greater emotional awareness, improve communication, repair relational wounds, and create deeper, more secure relationships built on trust, understanding, and compassion.
-
Trauma-Informed Therapy is an approach that recognizes how past experiences, stress, and overwhelming events can shape the way we see ourselves, relate to others, and respond to the world around us. Rather than focusing only on symptoms, trauma-informed therapy seeks to understand the experiences behind them while creating a safe, compassionate, and empowering space for healing. This approach supports reconnecting with yourself, building emotional regulation, developing healthier patterns, and processing painful experiences at a pace that honors your individual journey.
-
Attachment-Based Therapy is a relationship-focused approach that explores how early life experiences and important relationships have shaped the way you connect with yourself and others. By understanding attachment patterns and healing the wounds of past relationships, this approach helps you develop greater emotional security, healthier boundaries, deeper connections, and a stronger sense of self while fostering lasting healing and resilience.
-
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is the gold-standard, evidence-based treatment for OCD. ERP helps you gradually face feared thoughts, situations, or sensations in a safe and supportive way while resisting the urge to engage in compulsions or reassurance-seeking. Over time, this process teaches your brain that anxiety naturally decreases without rituals, helping you break the cycle of OCD and regain confidence, freedom, and control over your life.
-
Somatic Therapy is a body-centered approach that recognizes that stress, trauma, and overwhelming life experiences are often held not only in the mind but also within the nervous system and body. By gently increasing awareness of physical sensations, regulating the nervous system, and releasing stored patterns of tension, somatic therapy helps you feel more grounded, connected, and resilient while supporting healing from trauma, anxiety, chronic stress, and emotional overwhelm.
-
Polyvagal-Informed and Sensorimotor Therapy are body-centered approaches that recognize the important connection between the nervous system, body, emotions, and past experiences. These approaches help you develop a deeper awareness of how your body responds to stress, trauma, and emotional experiences while learning tools to create greater safety, regulation, and connection. By exploring physical sensations, emotions, thoughts, and patterns held within the body, this work supports healing from trauma, releasing survival responses, increasing self-awareness, and building a stronger sense of grounding, resilience, and connection with yourself.
The Therapeutic Process
Initial Consultation & Intake
The first step is getting to know you, your experiences, and what brings you to therapy. During the intake process, we will explore your current challenges, personal history, goals for therapy, and what you hope to gain from our work together. This is also an opportunity to determine if we are a good therapeutic fit and begin creating a plan that feels supportive and individualized.
Creating Safety & Building the Therapeutic Relationship
Healing begins with feeling understood, respected, and safe. Early sessions focus on building trust, developing a strong therapeutic connection, and creating a space where you can explore your thoughts, emotions, experiences, and patterns without judgment. We will work together to identify what approaches and tools may best support your healing journey.
Personalized Treatment & Healing Work
Therapy is tailored to your unique needs, goals, and experiences. Depending on where you are in your journey, we may incorporate approaches such as trauma-informed therapy, EMDR, somatic therapy, CBT, ACT, DBT, attachment-based therapy, ERP, or other evidence-based modalities. Together, we will work toward increasing self-awareness, processing difficult experiences, building coping skills, strengthening relationships, and creating meaningful change.
Continued Growth & Ongoing Support
Therapy is an evolving process that changes as you grow. As you gain insight, develop new skills, and experience progress, we will continue to adjust our work to support your ongoing goals. Continued care may involve maintaining progress, navigating new life transitions, strengthening emotional resilience, or having a supportive space to return to when needed.
Take the first step toward balance and clarity. Book your free 15-minute call to connect, share your goals, and see how we can begin your healing journey together.