Lina Lewis-Arevalo (she/her/hers)

Nearly every client I work with experiences anxiety. A cornerstone of my practice is helping people to use Mindfulness tools to manage their anxiety. We will generally start our sessions with a mindfulness practice to settle us into the "room". I find that this encourages clients to begin practicing mindfulness on their own, and noticing benefits quickly, such as refraining from over-thinking, or catching negative self-talk. As prevalent as anxiety is, you can see improvement fairly quickly

Yes! This is what it's all about. Remembering those dreams you used to have about who you wanted to be. Remember Play? When was the last time you allowed yourself to play with childish abandon? The last time you sang out loud? What were the fantasies you used to have, about who you were going to become, before you grew up and found out how hard Adulting could be? Wouldn't it be nice to feel like that again? Let's work on that.

As a White therapist, I am open to having difficult discussions and being challenged, as part of the process of healing. I know it can be difficult to trust a therapist enough to talk about issues involving race and the challenges that come from living in a classist society. My heart is open.

Carl Rogers changed the focus of counseling from Practitioner-as-Expert to Client-as-Expert. He proposed that therapists must have three attributes to be effective in the counseling relationship: congruence (being genuine with the client), unconditional positive regard (accepting the client as they are), and accurate empathic understanding (deeply understanding the concerns of the client from their perspective). This is how I work with each client, to make them feel Valued and Seen.

Dr. Shauna Shapiro, in her TED Talk "The Power of Mindfulness: What You Practice Grows Stronger," describes Mindfulness as "Intentionally paying attention to the present moment, with Kindness." Mindfulness is a cornerstone of my practice. In order to effect change in our lives, we first need to be aware that something is amiss. Mindfulness helps us to observe what is happening in This Present Moment, and to make effective choices about how to move forward.

The theory of DBT (balancing Acceptance with Change) and the skills (Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Emotion Regulation, Interpersonal Effectiveness) are incredibly helpful tools for understanding what is happening and what is holding us back, and making effective change. As we work together, I will draw from DBT theory and skills to help you feel like you are managing your emotions, rather than your emotions ruling *you*.

I am certified in the treatment of insomnia with CBT-I, a cognitive-behavioral treatment for insomnia. Research shows that chronic insomnia is a learned behavior which can be unlearned, with most people finding relief in just six sessions. Using medication to treat chronic insomnia becomes ineffective over time because it does not treat the cause of chronic insomnia: thoughts and behaviors. You can eliminate medication, reduce sleepless nights, and increase your self-confidence.

Trauma, whether from deliberate acts of violence, or a lifetime of living "on the defensive" due to an unsafe or invalidating environment, can have lifelong negative effects on mental, emotional, physical, and sexual functioning. Being “on guard” and never feeling safe can result in health and sleep issues and negative behaviors like substance abuse and self-injury. Even in the midst of injustice and turmoil, trauma can be addressed and peace can be found. Let's work together to find safety and

Internal Family Systems looks at how different "parts" of our younger selves, when triggered by current stress, can hijack our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. IFS takes the approach that the "mind is naturally multiple and that is a good thing". Our inner parts contain valuable qualities and our core Self knows how to heal, allowing us to become integrated and whole. In IFS all parts are welcome.

I have studied multiple treatment modalities for PTSD and enjoy helping clients to find Post-Traumatic Growth. Together we will explore connections between today's troubling patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior and events of your childhood. By gaining understanding of how your tender, developing nervous system learned to cope with a challenging childhood environment, you will learn compassion on your Younger Self and find freedom in the present to be your Real Self.

"The body carries the legacy of trauma and attachment dynamics in procedural habits of movement, posture, and nervous system regulation that can keep clients stuck in the past. SP actively incorporates awareness of the body into clinical practice, targeting the habits of physical action, autonomic dysregulation, and posture. By addressing the physical, as well as the psychological effects of adverse experience on mind and body, SP supports a deep, effective, and approach to healing."

I have trained extensively in DBT and currently incorporate some useful skills from their modules in Mindfulness, Emotion Regulation, Distress Tolerance, and Interpersonal Effectiveness into my treatment approach

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps us look at the pattern of thought-emotion-behavior and understand how restructuring our view of something can help us form new patterns of emotions and behavior that work better for us.

Genene Roth said: “As adults, we still want what we didn’t receive as children, and we want it in the form we didn’t receive it in: another person who loves and cherishes us, someone who is completely responsible for our well-being". Many of us had childhoods not in safe homes where we felt loved and cherished, but in chaotic or angry or scary places where we never felt safe and had to wear a Brave Face at school to hide our shame. I'll help you love and cherish yourself and heal the shame.