Areas of Expertise
Dr. Walters works with a wide range of emotional and behavioral issues providing services that span from therapy for depression and grief counseling to support with moving forward with School/College, career and beyond. In a comfortable and supportive atmosphere, she offers a highly personalized approach tailored to each of her patient's individual needs to help attain the personal growth they’re striving for.
Treatment Areas of Expertise include:
ADHD diagnosis, treatment, accommodations, and consultation
Anxiety and Panic Attacks
Clinical Social Work supervision
College (Undergraduate, Master, and Doctoral Levels) Issues
Consultation
Coping Skills
Depression
Grief and Loss
Relationship/Marriage/Partner Issues
Trauma and PTSD
Therapeutic Approach
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has been shown to be effective for a variety of problems, including depression, anxiety disorders, alcohol and drug use problems, marriage problems, eating disorders, and serious mental illness. It's a form of therapy. Numerous research studies have shown that CBT leads to significant improvements in function and quality of life.
CBT is based on a few basic principles:
-Some of our thoughts are based on incorrect or unhelpful thinking.
-Stem from learned patterns of unhelpful behavior.
-People can learn how to better manage and/or alleviate problematic thoughts and behaviors
CBT treatment usually involves efforts to change thought patterns. These strategies include:
-Learning to recognize the biases in your thinking that are causing problems and re-evaluate them in the light of reality.
-Better understand the behavior and motivations of others.
-Use problem-solving skills to handle difficult situations.
-Learn to be confident in ones' abilities.
Gottman Method Couples Therapy
The goal of Gottman Method Couples Therapy
Is to help neutralize conflicting verbal communication between the couple. This method has been helpful in increasing intimacy, respect, and affection. The ultimate goal is to remove the barriers that create a sense of stagnation, while also heightening the couple's sense of empathy and understanding in the context of their relationship.
The Gottman Method is especially helpful for couples who are:
-Embroiled in chronic conflict
-Dealing with infidelity
-Having trouble communicating
-Facing stagnation or distance
-Are experiencing challenges with specific issues such as money, parenting, or sex
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a psychotherapy that allows people to heal from symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of traumatic life experiences. EMDR therapy is an eight-phase treatment. Eye movements (or other bilateral stimulation) are used during one part of the session. After the therapist has determined which memory to target first, the patient is asked to hold different aspects of that event or thought in mind and to use their eyes to track the therapist’s hand as it moves back and forth across the client’s field of vision. As this happens, for reasons believed by a Harvard researcher to be connected with the biological mechanisms involved in Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, internal associations arise and the clients begin to process the memory and disturbing feelings. In successful EMDR therapy, the meaning of painful events is transformed on an emotional level. For instance, a rape victim shifts from feeling horror and self-disgust to holding the firm belief that, “I survived it and I am strong.” Unlike talk therapy, the insights clients gain in EMDR therapy result not so much from clinician interpretation, but from the client’s own accelerated intellectual and emotional processes. As a natural outcome of the EMDR therapeutic process, the clients’ thoughts, feelings, and behavior are all robust indicators of emotional health and resolution—all without speaking in detail or doing homework used in other therapies (EMDR.com, 2022).
Grief Counseling
Grief is an inevitable part of life.
We all lose loved ones at some point in our lives - most of us at many points - and loss can often hit us more than we expected. Many will experience traumatic grief as a result of an unexpected death. For others, the death is a result of a traumatic incident such as murder, drug overdose, car accidents, and drowning to name a few.
Most of us are familiar with the concept of grief as it corresponds to the death of a loved one. The definition given here offers a broader view: Grief is "...coping with loss in all its forms". As such, grief can be experienced in a variety of situations, including the death of a loved one or pet, the dissolution of a marriage, the estrangement of a family member, or other types of significant loss.
The purpose of grief counseling is to help clients grieve in a healthy way, understand and manage the emotions they are experiencing, and ultimately find ways to move forward.
ADHD Treatment & Diagnosis
Dr. Walters helps those who have faced a lifetime of academic, career, and social challenges without ever knowing the root cause. Some have wondered if they have ADHD. Others know they do, but were diagnosed at a young age and might not have been taught how to manage the different presentations of ADHD.
Several approaches used for diagnosis include:
-Self-assessment
-Long-form assessment questionnaire
-A technology-based ADHD assessment tool which combines both subjective and objective data.