OUR AREAS OF EXPERTISE

OUR APPROACHES

At Vida Emotional Wellness we utilize an array of approaches to help client’s reach their goals, manage their distress, and attain an overall emotional wellness in their lives.  Here are some we utilize in our work with clients…..

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) – identifying unhelpful thoughts and thinking patterns that provoke and feed symptoms of anxiety, depression, or rehash memories of traumatic experiences.  CBT also involves teaching a client coping and relaxation skills that could be helpful and managing depressive symptoms.

• Psychodynamic Therapy – a modern day version of classic “Freud therapy” in which client and therapist explore events and relationships in the client’s early life, and how they connect to issues happening in the present that are a source of distress in the person’s life.

• Solution Focused – therapy aimed at finding solutions to issues in a client’s life that are impacting them on a day to day basis. This involves identifying client’s strengths and resources and strengthening them to ensure the client can meet these day to day challenges with a sense of confidence.

EMDR Therapy – EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.  This innovative therapy was created in the 1980s by the late Dr. Francine Shapiro and is aimed at treating an array of disorders such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, and more. Traumatic memories or negative life experiences are stored in parts of the brain which when recalled (directly or indirectly), will trigger emotional and or physical responses. Think of a person recalling being involved in a car accident which will in turn trigger feelings of intense fear as well as rapid heartbeat, dizziness, and shortness of breath.

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During an EMDR therapy session, a client moves their eyes back and forth (following a therapist’s finger cues, lights, or audio cues) while recalling the experience as well as the emotional and physical sensations associated with it. This allows the memory to move to the front parts of the brain where it becomes less emotionally impactful, allowing the client to feel more “better” and “relaxed” when recalling the experience. The eye movements also allow a client to change their beliefs about the memory and thus feel better when recalling the experience. EMDR is not hypnotherapy and a client is fully awake and conscious during a session. Luis was trained by Dr. Stephen Dansinger of The Institute of Creative Mindfulness. EMDR is one of the most frequent treatment options inquired about by prospective clients. Through the wonders of modern technology Vida Emotional Wellness also able to conduct EMDR virtually with clients using a secure and HIPAA compliant video program.

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Sessions are 50 minutes long and held in the comfort of one of our offices in Riverside or Upland. Sessions are conducted individually (client and therapist), family (guardians and their children), and to couples (amongst spouses or partners). Vida Emotional Wellness is also available virtual therapy sessions through video or phone to residents of the state of California. Please contact us to schedule a free 10 minute consultation.