Services

At the Center for the Connected Self, we specialize in helping early mid-lifers (and other growth focused individuals) to take their problems head on, so that they can break out of patterns of disconnection that would otherwise keep them from a better second half of life.

Some of the Issues I work with:

Trauma, abuse and related conditions, such as PTSD, Complex PTSD, and Dissociative Disorders
Midlife anxiety, stress, and self-examination
Birth Trauma and preparation for subsequent pregnancies
Divorce and relationship separation
Relational loss, dissatisfaction, and/or disconnection
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)
Men’s Issues
LGBTQ+
Depression and Anxiety
Health Issues – Sleep issues / Insomnia, Pain, Health issues related to trauma, Hot Flashes, Weight Loss

We provide a variety of services that are tailored to meet your individual situation and needs:

Individual Counseling
Couple’s Therapy
Testing and Assessment
Resilience Training

Individual Counseling

We can all reach a point in life where we begin to question the way that things are going. We evaluate our successes, as well as our challenges, and we begin to consider if we are on the right trajectory.

Sometimes, there is a long-standing issue that you may be avoiding, or perhaps it is something that you have been actively working on, but you feel like you are stuck in a cycle of “rinse-and-repeat.” Deep down you know that you can expect more of the same if you don’t get help, and you deserve more as you look forward to the future.

Providing this help is what my approach to individual counseling is all about.

Individual counseling (also known as individual therapy or psychotherapy) is a self-reflective process that takes place within the context of a supportive and nurturing relationship. It involves us working together to identify and clarify the factors and patterns that have been standing in the way of the life that you desire for yourself. I will help you to process and heal any old wounds that have been consciously or unconsciously holding your back from growth in your relationships or personal life. It can also be a way to help you clarify a sense of purpose that can provide the second half of life with a greater sense of meaning.

Individual counseling involves a weekly investment of time to allow for a strong therapeutic relationship and a deeper exploration of often unconscious processes that underlie the surface level symptoms that you are experiencing. This investment doesn’t just help to clear up bothersome symptoms. It can provide deep and lasting change, as well as opening up new areas of potential growth and development.

Couple’s Counseling

Our connections to the people that we love are some of the most important connections in our lives. Few things are as painful as noticing these connections break down, despite your best efforts to fix or improve things.

You might feel embarrassed to talk about these struggles to your family or friends, and you might also worry that opening up about your problems might hurt your partner’s reputation with them. This can feel isolating, which is a terrible thing to feel, when you are already feeling more and more alone in your relationship.

Starting Couple’s Therapy is one of the best ways that you can change the course that your relationship is on, by improving your communication, enhancing intimacy, and connecting with your shared sense of purpose.

Couple’s therapy can be helpful no matter what stage your relationship is in, even if you are still just dating. As Dr. Dooley often says to couple’s who ask about this, “I have never come across a couple who complained that they got into Couple’s Therapy too early.”

Testing and Assessment

Assessments can be helpful in discovering information about your personality and how you are functioning in different areas of your life (e.g. occupational, cognitive, emotional). This can help you get in touch with, and further develop, areas of personal strength. It can also help you to identify stumbling blocks that may be interfering with success in some aspect of your life.

Clients request cognitive and psychological assessments for a wide variety of reasons, and I tailor my assessments to meet each client’s needs. Here is a short list of reasons why you might want to consider an assessment for yourself:

You are struggling with meeting expectations at work or home.
You are having trouble paying attention or staying on task.
You are having trouble remembering things or performing at your usual level.
You would like help better understand your individual strengths.
You are feeling “stuck” in your individual therapy and you would like to have a deeper understanding of what may be holding you back.

My goal with assessments is to first help you develop a better understanding of yourself, while also providing you with guidance around how you can better meet your life goals. Please contact me to learn more about assessment services that I provide.

Resilience Training

Resilience Training is a broad term that I use to describe the teaching of techniques that you can employ at home to enhance your health and wellbeing. Though I incorporate this training into my individual therapy approach, I also provide shorter term training for those who are not yet ready or able to invest in deeper therapeutic work.

Below, I describe several types of Resilience Training that offer:

Relaxation / Mindfulness Training

Have you ever told yourself or been told to “just relax” or “calm down?” For most of us it is not that simple. While a chronically high level of stress is the norm for many, few of us have been taught how to manage stress effectively. The good news is that, through relaxation training, I can help you learn powerful stress managementskills, which can help to reduce your overall stress level and help you to become more stress resistant.

I have advanced training in a variety of relaxationand stress managementtechniques that can be customized to fit your individual needs and lifestyle. Relaxation training can have powerful effects by itself, or it can be used to enhance other forms of anxiety treatment. Here are a few of the many potential benefits of relaxation training:

Improved Sleep
Increased Energy Levels
Enhanced Concentration
Improvements in Mood
Improved Libido
Strengthened Immune System
Decreased Muscle Tension

emWave Coherence Training

One of the tools that I use during Resilience Training is the emWave Biofeedback system. Biofeedbackis a technique of using physiological monitors to provide you with real-time feedback about your body’s state of physiological arousal. This real-time heart rate monitoring helps you to get in tune with your body, and it allows you to witness the effect of stress management techniques that you use.

As a Certified HeartMath practitioner, I can help you to better understand how differences in your level of physiological arousal and stress reactivity are affecting you. By learning and practicing heart-based coherence techniques, I can help you to have the tools to adapt to stressful situations, while also working to help you to shift your baseline parasympathetic arousal levels. Through practice with the emWave, you will learn to achieve a state of psychophysiological coherence, which is a state of psychological and physiological harmony.

Self-Hypnosis Training

Self-Hypnosis is a form of hypnosis that you can use, on your own, to promote improved relaxation and to support other changes that you wish to make in your life.

Self-hypnosis training begins with a brief screening to ensure that you are a good candidate for hypnotic therapeutic work, as well as some education about self-hypnosis, the potential benefits of self-hypnosis, and the limits of what self-hypnosis can do.

Clients will then be introduced to trance experiences and basic self-hypnotic techniques, within the context of a traditional therapist-guided (aka hetero-hypnotic) trance.

As you develop a growing capacity to achieve deeper trance states, the emphasis will shift to self-directed hypnotic induction and other self-hypnosis techniques.

Some of my clients who have learned to use self-hypnosis describe it as one of the most empowering skills that they have learned.

Services

Individual Counseling

Couple’s Therapy

Testing and Assessment

Resilience Training

Individual Counseling

Couple’s Counseling

Testing and Assessment

Resilience Training

Relaxation / Mindfulness Training

emWave Coherence Training

Self-Hypnosis Training

About Dr. Dooley

Contact Dr. Dooley Today!