Archive | mindfulness

Bernadette Dougherty, PsyD

Bernadette Dougherty, PsyD

Bernadette Dougherty, PsyD, is a Licensed Psychologist providing individual and group therapy for teens and adults.

Her approach to therapy is individualized and validating, working collaboratively with each client to reach their therapy goals in a meaningful way.

Education and Training

Bernadette earned her Doctoral Degree in Clinical Psychology from La Salle University, training at sites including the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Cognitive Therapy, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center. She completed her doctoral internship at Montefiore Medical Center, in Bronx, NY, learning specialized interventions for trauma, anxiety, depression, emotion regulation, crisis intervention, harm reduction, solid organ transplant, chronic illness, and LGBTQIA+/gender-affirming care. Bernadette completed her Postdoctoral Fellowship at Princeton University, with advanced specialty training in DBT, trauma, and harm reduction approaches to high-risk behaviors and substance use.

Specialties

  • Anxiety and Depression
  • Emotion Regulation
  • Trauma
  • Suicide and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury
  • Grief and Loss
  • Perfectionism
  • Care-giving
  • Post high-school and college transition
  • Stress reduction
  • Coping with Chronic Pain/Illness
  • LGBTQIA+ and Gender Affirming Care
  • Insomnia
  • Borderline Personality Disorder

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

DBT is a treatment approach that teaches specific skills to decrease emotional intensity, regulate our daily experience of stress and emotions, gain insight into factors that influence our emotions and behaviors, and to improve relationships and communication. It incorporates both mindfulness-based and behavior change interventions, while helping clients identify various factors that impact emotions and reactions. The goal of DBT is to help clients use skills to feel effective at managing difficult experiences, while strengthening value and meaning in one’s life.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

ACT is a treatment approach that incorporates mindfulness, cognitive, and behavioral strategies to increase value and meaning in one’s life, while learning skills to become unstuck from difficult situations and emotions.

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

MBSR uses mindfulness strategies to improve stress and emotional reactions in response to difficult experiences.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

CBT interventions are designed to identify and change negative or unhelpful patterns in our thinking and behavioral responses.

Positive Psychology

Positive psychology incorporates mindfulness, cognitive, and behavioral interventions to increase a person’s strength and resilience in the face of adversity. This technique focuses on increasing the positive in someone’s life, as opposed to decreasing their negative experiences.

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Olivia Ruffin, MS, NCC, LPC

Olivia Ruffin, MS, NCC, LPC

Olivia Ruffin, MS, NCC, LPC, is a Licensed Professional Counselor that provides individual counseling to teens and adults.

Carrying anxiety and stress can be challenging. Olivia supports clients in discovering how to put it down and live mindfully. She specializes in supporting adolescents and adults to develop tools to navigate both the world and inner self, become unstuck, and increase confidence to face life challenges successfully.

Education and Background

Olivia earned her Master’s Degree of Science in Counseling from The University of Scranton. She began her career in a community mental health setting, where she worked with children, teens, families, and emerging adults who had experienced significant trauma and mental illness. With compassion and cultural sensitivity, she supported individuals from a variety of backgrounds to focus on their strengths, learn new strategies for facing daily challenges, and achieve their therapeutic goals. She worked collaboratively within a team to foster individual, family, and community resilience.

Specialties

  • Pre-teens and Teens
  • College Students
  • Emerging Adults (20+)
  • Highly Sensitive Persons
  • Parent-Child Relationship Struggles
  • Friendship and Romantic Relationships
  • Managing Strong Feelings
  • Coping with Anxiety and Depression
  • Grief and Loss

Navigating Adolescence to Adulthood

Sometimes it is difficult to name our feelings and talk about what hurts. Olivia creates a warm and supportive environment where young people can feel safe to share their thoughts, feelings, challenges and strengths. With humor, compassion, and concrete skill building, she supports clients in getting grounded, deflating the experience of being overwhelmed, gaining perspective and curiosity as they define their uniquely given path.

Areas of focus include identity development, problem-solving, stress management, and tools to cope with anxiety and depression.

Solution Focused Therapy

Our problems may present as ‘big’ and we can sometimes lose sight of the strengths that have helped us to persevere in the past. With sensitivity and compassion, Olivia provides practical feedback to highlight your strengths, support your problem-solving skills, and boost resilience. Solution-Focused Therapy is an evidence-based practice of talk therapy for people seeking immediate change.

Olivia enjoys helping those who are struggling with anxiety, depression, and stress to lean into the present and co-create conversations that facilitate direction for your future. Sometimes we may not be afforded the time and the knowledge to know why a problem occurred; however, there is current pressure and demand to solve it. With this therapeutic approach, Olivia will support your ability to identify clear goals, enhance your ability to problem solve and incorporate new perspectives to support motivation that leads to purposeful change.

Dialectical-Behavior Therapy (DBT)

Olivia integrates the DBT framework to support clients who want to break negative cycles, set healthier boundaries, increase confidence in decision-making, and embrace their authentic selves. It is common to feel conflict and tension within ourselves as we navigate life’s obstacles. Freedom comes when we find a path to begin creating movement once again. The combination of emotion-focused, somatic, and cognitive practices can empower you to reclaim and embrace your innate wisdom.

Olivia will support you in obtaining mindfulness skills to turn down the noise of stress; emotion regulation skills to support self-reflection; interpersonal effectiveness to communicate your needs and get your request taken seriously, and distress tolerance skills to support new ways of coping.

Positive Psychology

Mindfulness is about love and loving life. When you cultivate this love, it gives you clarity and compassion for life, and your actions happen in accordance with that.” -Jon Kabat-Zinn

Olivia specializes in helping you to cultivate your joy by focusing on the present moment. Despite our biggest worries life is meant to be lived and enjoyed. Mindfulness supports getting grounded and slowing down the need to solve and radically accept the present. I utilize mindful meditation, breath focus, and grounding skills to support you to slow down and tap into your most precious asset — now.

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Lindsay Roznowski, MA, LPC

Lindsay Roznowski, LPCLindsay Roznowski is a Licensed Professional Counselor providing individual and family therapy to children, adolescents, and adults.

She specializes in trauma-focused cognitive behavior therapy and other trauma-focused treatments; therapeutic work with children and adolescents; family therapy; and yoga and mindfulness. Lindsay uses a client-centered, strengths-based, holistic approach that takes into account how things like family history, significant life experiences, and relationships contribute to who we are today.

She believes that building a positive, authentic connection between therapist and client is essential for the trust it takes to do life-changing therapeutic work together. Because of this, Lindsay works hard from the very first session to get to know each client, meet them where they are, and explore the full context of any issues or presenting problems. She believes that therapy should always be a collaborative process and views the treatment plan between client and therapist as a living document, informed and updated each session through the dynamic interplay of the therapeutic relationship.

Family Therapy

Lindsay began her career as a Family Based Therapist providing therapy for families based on her training in Structural Family Systems Therapy. She truly enjoys working to understand the full context of the family system, relational dynamics, and how best to support each family member in reaching their personal and family goals. Sessions may include a combination of full family sessions, parent/caregiver sessions, and individual sessions based on needs.

Therapeutic Work with Children and Adolescents

Lindsay spent eight years of her career working as a therapist at a high school; working with adolescents is one of her passions. She specializes in client-centered, creative therapy with children and adolescents. Lindsay loves getting to know each child/adolescent’s strengths and interests and developing creative therapeutic interventions based on that knowledge. Lindsay focuses on the client’s developmental stage, family history, strengths and interests, and her collaboration with caregivers supports her in tailoring the therapeutic experience to provide the best support possible.

Trauma-Focused Care

Lindsay works with individuals to process traumatic events in their lives and heal from that trauma. She uses her training to assess how a client’s trauma is affecting their current patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Lindsay is trained in a number of trauma-focused modalities including the Trauma Recovery and Empowerment Model (TREM), Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TFCBT), and Trauma Art Narrative Therapy.

Yoga and Mindfulness

Out of a need to provide more holistic offerings to her clients and because of her personal passion for yoga and mindfulness, Lindsay completed a 200-hour yoga teacher training in 2014. She used the knowledge she gained through this experience to better support her clients in learning about the mind-body connection and how yoga and mindfulness-based skills can calm the nervous system and support meaningful healing.

Therapeutic Groups and Workshops

Lindsay offers therapeutic groups and workshops in several areas, including experiential support groups for adolescents and programs on yoga and mindfulness for wellbeing.

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