Services
at The Avalon Center for Integrative Therapies
Individual Psychotherapy
with Karen J. Helfrich, LCSW-C, LICSW
Individual Psychotherapy for women who are ready to invest deeply in their own healing and recovery from interpersonal wounding and trauma.
Explore the habits and ways of being that are keeping you stuck.
Experience effective and transformational therapeutic interventions that heal the heart and open the mind to new learning and new ways of being.
Psychotherapy is given in collaboration with the Client to access beliefs and ways of being held in the body that once served your survival, but are no longer supporting your fullest well-being.
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Safe and Sound Protocol
The Safe and Sound Protocol is a powerful adjunct to individual psychotherapy. The Safe and Sound Protocol “retunes” the nervous system to register safety on a profoundly deep level resulting in a nervous system that can register safety rather than threat when no threat is present.
The Safe and Sound Protocol is a listening protocol where the Client is supported by a trained clinician as they listen to specially filtered music. The filtering causes the ear drum to tune to sound frequencies that register “safe and sound” to the mind and body via the vagus nerve.
Much of what brings us to therapy is driven by deep physiologcal states of stess and fear. These states are often so habituated that shifting them through talk therapy and even somatic therapies may not be enough.
When we create openness within the brain and nervous system, new connections are made, new learning takes hold, and ways in which we may have felt unyeildingly trapped become open pathways through which we may emerge more whole, solid, and peaceful.
Financial Wellness
“Wait, what? How would a therapist help me with my money?”
Over the years, I have had many clients bring personal finance concerns to therapy. The stress, overwhelm, and confusion that so many people experience when it comes to managing their money is a very real mental wellness concern.
Financial Wellness is a specialty service at ACIT for those who want to take a deeper dive into their relationship with their finances and overcome barriers to achieving their financial goals.
Did you know our relationship with money is largely established by the age of 7? We may think of personal finances as practical, but money is deeply emotional because it triggers our deepest hopes and fears in the relms of safety, security, and access to resources.
Further, how we are socialized as women profoundly impact the financial decisions we make. Our learned drive to be helpful, caretaking, and generous leads many of us to make financial decisions that benefit others and cost us current or future financial security.
Money shame is epidemic in our culture. Sadly, the pain can be so great that some attempt or complete suicide when they believe they cannot overcome their money shame.
A Certified Financial Social Worker since 2014, I help Clients unpack their money baggage and create actionable strategies they follow through on, to heal their relationship with money, get out of debt, and find security, no matter their circumstances.
Affiliate Services
at The Avalon Center for Integrative Therapies
Psychotherapy for Perinatal Mental Health
Lara Shoen, LMSW
Perinatal Mental Health Specialist
Lara supports people on their reproductive journey through a lens of gentle compassion and skilled clinical care. Lara’s work supports Clients who are recovering from a beautiful childbirth or who are exploring fertility treatments. Her clients may have experienced a traumatic birth or are grieving a child through miscarriage or still-birth. Lara knows that each person’s journey is unique, but the longing for wholeness is universal. Using knowledge and skills for the treatment of birth trauma, attachment wounding, and all things perinatal mental health.
Areas of Specialization
- Perinatal Mental Wellness
- Perinatal Infant Loss
- Birth Trauma
- Birth Worker Mental Health
- Women’s mental health
Credentials
- Licensed Masters Social Worker
- Brainspotting Level 1
- Internal Family Systems (Multiple Trainings)
- Embodied Recovery Phase 1
- Therapy for Birth Trauma Levels 1 & 2
- Perinatal Mood Disorders & Advanced Psychotherapy with Post Partum Support International
- Perinatal Loss & Grief Training
Psychotherapy for Relationships & Sexuality
Stephanie Schuster, LCSW-C
Relationship & Sexuality Specialist
Stephanie guides individuals, couples, and poly folks through struggle and conflict to find the healthy, fullfilling relationships her clients desire. Many clients come to Stephanie to explore and expand their connection with their own sexuality and relationships. Others seek support in regaining confidence as sexual partners. Thoroughly knowledgable in the wide range of healthy sexuality, Stephanie offers a therapeutic haven to people heal, own, and create their own sexual story.
Areas of Specialization
- Families/Couples
- Intimacy
- Sexual Function
- LGBTQ+
- Polyamory
- Kink/BDSM
Credentials
- Licensed Certified Social Worker – Clinical
- Masters in Human Sexuality Education
- Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Gottman Method Couples Therapy Level III