I’m someone who can easily intellectualize and verbalize my emotional experiences but working with Alexandra in the modalities she uses really challenges me to sit and stay with what I’m feeling; to fully honor it, look at it and ask it what it’s needing. In traditional talk therapy, I’ve often felt myself speak in long soliloquies about what I’m experiencing, but still leave the session disconnected from myself. With Alexandra, I have learned how to be vulnerably held in my grief, as well as ways that I can practice new skills in self-soothing outside of our sessions. “ … Continued ->

Alexandra creates a container for whatever may come up in a session. While there is some verbalizing about what’s happening in my world, I gain the most value once we delve into how I’m really experiencing all that’s going on, on a bodily and spiritual level. Alexandra is really skilled at slicing through my desire to intellectualize and challenging me to sit with what my various parts are going through around a given issue. Our work has furthered my engagement with parts work and I find this to be a skill that I utilize beyond our sessions.” … Continued ->

In working through a particular grief experience, Alexandra noted that I seemed to be gaslighting myself around my emotions. That I was using my mind to try to ‘talk the rest of myself’ out of the deep sadness I was feeling. This realization helped me fully honor the immensity of my pain, without needing to rationalize that ‘it was really all for the best’ or ‘I would feel better one day’. Of course that doesn’t stop that sadness from continuing to resurface when it needs to, but I feel more equipped to look it clearly in the eye and let it know that I see it, that I’ll be here to care for it and that it will pass when it feels acknowledged.” - Chelsea O.