Therapy for BPD and CPTSD
For people with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and/or Complex Trauma (CPTSD)
I can help you:
navigate overwhelming emotion so you can feel safe and grounded.
resolve conflict in relationships so you can feel connected and secure
connect to yourself so you can feel powerful and purposeful.
You’re struggling to feel connected to relationships and maintain healthy relationships. You really wants relationship, friendships, romantic relationships, partnerships, but whenever you find one, things seem to go really well until they just fall apart. You might feel afraid of losing relationships, feel like you doesn’t deserve relationships, and ultimately end up in a lot of fights and lose relationships.
You aren’t sure how to live life in long term life values, you’re stuck living day to day getting through big emotional waves, and find it hard to know who you truly are and if you even like who you truly are. You’re tired of feeling disconnected and disengaged from life, you want to feel secure in yourself and go after what you want. You want a life that feels good and important.
You’ve been struggling with overwhelming emotion, anger, frustration, sadness, fear, at times hopeless that you will ever feel grounded. Emotions hit you like unrelenting ocean waves, and you’re being tossed and thrown around trying to get above water for some air. Sometimes in all the efforts to stop overwhelming emotion, you might do things to yourself and your relationships that help in the moment, but might have lasting unwanted consequences in the long term.
With comprehensive DBT therapy, I’ll help you manage overwhelming emotion so you can feel safe and grounded. I’ll help you practice relationship skills so you can connect closely and feel secure in them. I’ll help you dismantle painful self talk so you can grow to accept and love yourself and the life you build.
Hi!!! I’m Kelsey
She/hers
I’m a clinical psychologist and I specialize in working with people with BPD and CPTSD. Through comprehensive DBT and trauma focused therapy, I’ll help you surf big emotional waves with safety and mastery, build healthy relationships, and connect to self compassion.
My Approach
Comprehensive DBT informed therapy
DBT skills training
Individual DBT therapy
Trauma Focused therapy with EMDR and Prolonged Exposure
DBT is a science backed therapy that focuses on building practical skills and strategies to regulate emotion, calm distress, build healthy relationships, and feel more grounded in yourself. DBT uses skills, radical acceptance, and dialectics to help people create safety and build a life worth living.
I incorporate a trauma-informed approach that helps identify trauma symptoms, offer skills for soothing trauma symptoms, and processes to repair trauma memories.
When I use DBT I start with setting clear goals together to target our therapy to what you are wanting to see change. We set a plan for skills to build and practice in real life, non-judgmentally understanding what’s interfering with these goals, and trouble shoot problem points. Over time, you’ll build a comprehensive set of skills to create change in your relationships, emotions, sense of self, and life goals. These skills become a part of your daily life, tailored specifically to your priorities and values.
HOW IT WORKS
1) How do I get started?
Click “Book Now” and schedule an initial appointment. I will call to discuss your interests and goals for therapy, and my approach to see if we’re a good fit before getting started. This call is brief, about 20 minutes and helps us get the lay of the land.
2) What happens next?
If we’re a good fit to work together, I’ll confirm the initial appointment and we’ll get started. In this session we’ll discuss some background and set up therapy goals together. We’ll discuss the next steps and you’ll leave session with a clear plan for our work together.
3) Then what happens?
We’ll meet weekly for 50-minute sessions and work through the steps of your treatment plan. In DBT, the first four session are dedicated to Pre-treatment, where we discuss your goals and how DBT will approach these goals and explore more about what DBT is all about. If at any time your goals change or something isn’t quite working, we can adjust so that therapy is effective for you and meets your needs.
“You are not a burden.
You will NEVER BE a burden.”
Sophie Turner
FAQs
What are your rates?
Individual therapy: $265 per session
Family or couples therapy: $285 per session
Group therapy: $90 per session
Do you take insurance?
I am OUT OF NETWORK for all insurance plans. For out-of-network PPO plans, I can provide you a superbill to submit to your insurance for reimbursement, or you can utilize Mentaya to submit claims electronically and get reimbursed quicker.
I have partnered with Mentaya to help my clients save money on therapy. Check your benefits to see if you're eligible for reimbursement:
Please contact your insurance provider directly to verify benefits and coverage and ask any questions you might have about benefits.
Where do you provide therapy?
I offer virtual therapy (encrypted videoconferencing or phone) for people in AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CNMI, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, ME, MD, MI, MN, MO, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
What is DBT?
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) was developed by Marsha Linehan, Ph.D., ABPP, in response to the great need for effective treatment for people suffering from chronic suicidality, self harm, emotion dysregulation, and instability of the self.
Through an evidence-based approach, Dr. Linehan methodically developed an adaptive and comprehensive treatment for Borderline Personality disorder. Dr. Linehan and her associates continue ongoing research to modify DBT to maintain superior effectiveness and expand DBT to treat complex diagnoses and psychological needs including substance use, trauma, eating disorders, mood disorders, and family conflict.
Is DBT right for me?
I find this modality is quite helpful for many folx wanting to learn how to manage painful and uncomfortable emotions, communicate better with others, set boundaries, and work to align more closely with their personal values. My clients use DBT to build effective skills to use to support trauma recovery, cope with difficult emotions, enhance healthy relationships, and connect with their values.
Learn more about DBT here
What is BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder)?
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is “a pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self image, and affects, and marked impulsivity beginning in early adulthood one present in a variety of contexts”.
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a cluster of symptoms that include at least five of the nine following traits:
Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment
a pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation
Persistently unstable self image or sense of self
Impulsivity that is potentially self damaging in at least two areas, for example finances, sexual relationships, substance abuse, reckless driving/risk taking behavior, etc
recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, threats, ideation, or non-suicidal self harm behavior
emotional instability with intense reactivity, sensitivity, and prolonged return to baseline
Chronic feelings of emptiness
Intense anger or difficulty regulating anger
stress related paranoid ideation or dissociation symptoms
Key to BPD is that symptoms are “pervasive” and chronic, which means the symptoms occur in most or all settings and relationships like family, friends, work relationships, romantic relationships, at home alone and with others. That makes BPD difficult to experience without support and therapy, as it affects all parts of a person’s life.
As there are many different combinations of traits and symptoms a person may have, everyone’s BPD experience may be very different from one another, and therefore treatment must be customized to each person’s specific needs.
What is Complex Trauma CPTSD?
Complex PTSD (or C-PTSD) is a trauma and stressor related disorder in which a person develops on-going trauma symptoms in response to experiences of repeated traumatic exposure, chronic and ongoing trauma symptoms, and traumatic exposure occurring in the context of a caregiving relationship and/or environment. For example, complex trauma can result from experiencing ongoing abuse as a child at home, witnessing persistent and volatile verbal abuse, neglect. Complex trauma can also result from multiple incidents of trauma occurring outside of primary relationships, when the primary relationships are marked with chronic invalidation of emotional expression and needs.
Complex PTSD (C-PTSD) includes these symptoms:
difficulty managing big emotions
frequent emotional overwhelm
difficulty identifying needs including not attending to medical needs
difficulty building trust in relationships
hyper independence in relationships
significant dependence in relationships
avoidance of emotional vulnerability
unstable sense of self
sense of worthlessness
sense of not knowing what your values or needs are
hypervigilance to the emotions of others (being an “empath”)
difficulty keeping and maintaining relationships
additional ongoing trauma symptoms like flashbacks, intrusive thoughts, mood disturbance, impaired sleep, anxiety and hyperarousal.
Complex PTSD symptoms are also pervasive and chronic, and can be experienced in most if not all areas of someone’s life including personal relationships, work or school life, self care and time at home.
