Tori Olds, a therapist at Deep Eddy Psychotherapy in Austin, TX, talks about their fresh approach to therapy and what you can expect in your therapy sessions.
A New Wave of Therapies in the Last 10 Years
I’ll give the titles and then explain what they mean in a sec. Let me start by saying I tend to be more experiential. There’s a new wave of therapies in the last ten years that are pretty different, they build on, but also diverge from, the traditional, old-school forms of therapy–whether that’s more analytical or CBT or that kind of thing. These other forms are more focused on the experience, wanting people to have an experience, and that’s what going to be healing. They may use things like mindfulness or dealing with the emotion directly rather than just looking at the thoughts.
Coming Into Contact with Your Feelings in an Empowered Way
Some of the previous therapies may be more heady—looking at the thoughts or maybe insights, but stopping short at insights—rather than really helping people come in contact with their feelings in an empowered way. We want people to have a new experience of themselves and their emotion and be in relationship to themselves.
Therapy Can Almost Be Like Meditating Together
In these new ways of working it’s very experiential, it’s very in the here and now. It’s not too much storytelling, it’s almost like we’re meditating together. A good therapist should really be tracking with you, “Okay, now what happens and now what happens,” versus getting caught in problem solving, something on the outside, like just talking.
I care. I’m invested.
In my sessions, I’m really present as a real person. I care. I’m invested. I’m able to share about myself if they want to know. If I’m feeling moved, I’ll tell them. I’m really looking to emotionally connect with them as a real person, not like a distant person.
We Are In It Together
A lot of people who come to me for therapy have also found that they’ve been in therapy but that their therapist just listened, or nodded. I nod too, of course, but other therapists just listened and didn’t do much. Some people really like that, but I approach it being more engaged. I’m an equal and I’m really encouraging that we’re in it together. I’m guiding and coaching quite a bit, even though what I’m coaching and trying to follow is their internal experience. It’s about directing it towards them, but yet I’m helping them go there, helping them slow down for instance, rather than go to their defenses. That takes a little bit of practice internally.
It helps when a therapist has their own mindfulness practice or have done their own therapy so that they internally know how to slow down and are really comfortable with the whole range of human emotions, so that they’re communicating that.
Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy
If you want the specifics titles for the type of therapy I offer, what I do is called ‘Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy’. That’s the foundation. Then, I also integrate with that Somatic Experiencing, which is an approach with trauma, but actually it can be used with everybody because we’ve all had trauma. Somatic Experiencing is a really nice way of working with the nervous system. Somatic Experiencing and Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy are very similar in some ways because they’re all about mindfulness, slowing down and learning emotional regulation. With couples, I’ll use PACT, ‘Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy’.
Starting Therapy in Austin, TX
We would love to invite you to make a complimentary call to discuss some of your options and determine whether Deep Eddy Psychotherapy in Austin, TX is the right fit for you and your situation. Please contact us using the links below or in the sidebar and share this post or video if you found it to be valuable. Together we can create a world of well-being and joy.