Women's Issues - Therapy for Women in Virginia Beach, Virginia
You are probably managing it. On paper, it looks like you have it together: the career, the relationships, the responsibilities, the appearance of ease. On the inside, you may be running on fumes, bracing for the next thing, or quietly wondering why it all feels so heavy when you've always done everything right.
Cultural expectations, generational influences, and numerous competing roles that each demand your full attention all contribute to the reasons women seek therapy. Often the women I work with aren't in crisis because they are used to and capable of living at the ceiling of their capacity. Typically, something unfolds to allow a readiness for change.
What I Work With
Some of the concerns I work with most often:
Depression and anxiety
Relational or developmental trauma
Perfectionism and its ripple effects
Life transitions - empty nest, perimenopause, grief
Post-traumatic stress - PTSD, Complex PTSD
Body image and self concept
Perfectionism and Its Ripple Effects
Perfectionism is a survival strategy; it has little to do with our actual standards. Striving for the very best in everything with an ever-moving target and a harsh inner critic is our way of staying safe, staying loved, staying above reproach. It shows up as overfunctioning, difficulty delegating, an inability to rest without guilt, and an inability to take in the wins. The ripple effects impact our relationship with ourselves and with others.
This is not a character flaw. It is a pattern with roots, and navigating core beliefs around "being perfect" with EMDR, ego state work, and EFT is transformative.
Body Image and Self Concept
My graduate research explored the connection between secure attachment and the way we see ourselves. Body image and self concept are closely intertwined with attachment - our understanding of how likely our needs can be met in the world. We keep ourselves small (literally and figuratively) to keep ourselves safe. Life changes, perimenopause and aging, and ever changing expectations can disrupt our relationship with ourselves and the body that carries us.
I have lived experience with disordered eating and dysmorphia, and I bring that alongside my clinical training. Together we will identify where critical beliefs originated and how to replace the protection of shrinking with the confidence of expansion.
Trauma
Relational and developmental trauma in particular can be easy to minimize: The environment was safe enough, the caregivers were trying their best, nothing dramatic happened. And yet our nervous system remains on high alert, most noticeably as we try to turn off the thoughts to sleep at night.
EMDR and ego state work are particularly well suited to this presentation. We will work at the level where insight alone hasn't been enough, and where the body is often carrying what words haven't been able to reach. Read more about EMDR here.
What Therapy Can Offer
This process is about uncovering limiting beliefs and recovering joie de vivre. Together, through ego state work, we will explore met and unmet attachment needs and how these relate to the way you perceive your ability to have your needs met in the world. EMDR supports this process by identifying and reprocessing the beliefs that have quietly been running the show.
I am honored to work with women who have been doing all the things all the time and bracing for impact - because they've always lived that way - and who are ready for lasting, tangible change.
Is This the Right Fit?
If you are a woman who can carry on because she knows she can, but also suspects something needs to shift, let's chat. I offer a free 15-minute consultation for women seeking therapy in Virginia Beach or virtually throughout Virginia, South Carolina, Florida, or Maine.
You don't have to be in crisis to deserve support. You just have to be ready.