Discover Our Therapy Services
Welcome to our services page. You will find an overview of the therapeutic approaches I use to support healing, growth, and self-understanding. Whether through talk therapy, art therapy or body-based therapy, each method is grounded in compassion and tailored to meet you where you are. I invite you to explore the services below and reach out if something speaks to you.
Talk Therapy
In individual work, Shifan accompanies you on a journey of self-discovery and healing: unveiling unconsciousness and raising self-awareness with gentle queries; interpreting incomprehensible impulses and urges with kindness, understanding, and compassion; and re-creating a space where your once wounded inner child can finally be seen and heard.
In couple work, Shifan helps each partner hear the hidden message under their superficial arguments. “Why aren’t you waiting for me to start dinner?” is probably a mask over “I am scared that I am not important enough for you.”; A silent sulk is probably a desperate cry for intimacy; An intellectual debate is probably fear of one’s emotions and vulnerabilities. In therapy, Shifan creates a safe space where couples can unveil their true messages to each other. Shifan also helps couples explore their communication patterns and find ways to break free from these unhealthy patterns. Shifan believes a relationship is organic and therefore needs constant care and nurturing.
Expressive Therapy offers a creative pathway to explore emotions, memories, and inner experiences that may be difficult to express in words alone. Through drawing, movement, writing, or sound, this approach invites you to connect with your authentic self in a safe and supportive space. It’s not about artistic skill, but about allowing your inner world to take shape in new and meaningful ways — unlocking insight, release, and healing.
Expressive Therapy
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a trauma therapy developed by psychologist Dr. Francine Shapiro in 1987.
EMDR practitioner believes that at the time of a traumatic event, you are so overwhelmed with negative emotions, your memory network fails to integrate and process this event. This moment becomes “frozen in time.” Later when triggered by a similar image, smell, sound, and feelings, you will be reliving the traumatic experience all over again, which can interfere with your daily functioning, change your belief system and the world around you, and impact how you relate to others. For example, you were humiliated in front of the whole class by a classmate when you failed to give the right answer. You saw other kids whispering and laughing at you. In that moment, you felt stupid, mortified, and ashamed. A belief took root: I am stupid. Today when you make a presentation for your client, the same feelings are triggered when you see a few people in the audience exchanging comments and laughing. You cannot continue your speech as you are overwhelmed by sense of shame, and inadequacy.
EMDR therapy appears to work by directly affecting the brain and “unfreezing” the traumatic memories, allowing you to resolve them.
Over time, you’re able to work through the disturbing memories and associated feelings, until you are able to think about the event without reliving it. The memory is still there, but it is less upsetting. Taking the same example, EMDR can help you to integrate the memory with a new belief: Teenagers can be cruel and I am fine as the way I am. You will no longer be triggered when you see people whispering while you are making a speech.
EMDR is shown to be an effective treatment for trauma, PTSD, anxiety, and panic.
Brainspotting is a brain and body-based therapy which is predicated on the belief that certain eye positions correspond to trauma capsules in a memory network. Focusing on these positions can evoke emotions, sensations, and memories as they have access to specific brainspots where traumatic memories are stored.
Brainspotting aims to help clients process difficult emotions and/or traumatic experiences using the brain’s innate self-healing function.
Originally, brainspotting was developed by David Grand as a trauma treatment but has since been expanded to be used for a wide range of mental conditions which include but is not limited to the following:
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or complex trauma
• Attachment issues stemming from childhood trauma
• Dissociative disorders
• Emotion regulation problems, including anger issues or mood swings
• Symptoms of depression or sadness
• Anxiety disorders or specific phobias
• Substance use disorders or addictions
During brainspotting, a practitioner will help clients position their eyes to target sources of negative emotion. With the aid of a pointer, a practitioner slowly guides the eyes of clients across their field of vision to find appropriate “brainspots,” an eye position that activates a traumatic memory or painful emotion. Once an eye position is identified, the practitioner and client will hone in on the difficult feelings and process them.
Brainspotting
Somatic Experiencing
Developed by Peter Levine, Somatic Experiencing (SE®) is a body–mind therapy specifically focused on healing trauma by helping clients draw their attention to their bodies.
SE is based largely on the idea of a freeze response. When you encounter some type of physical threat or anything that causes fear or anxiety, your body typically responds by preparing you to either fight the (real or perceived) threat or flee from it. However, if you feel overwhelmed, trapped, or helpless in the face of such threats (for example, children’s response to physical or emotional abuse), you will freeze, akin to a trapped animal playing dead.
The problem is that you can stay trapped in this freeze response long after the threat disappears. You’re no longer in danger, but your body still holds the energy built up from the fight-or-flight response. Because you froze, the energy wasn’t used, so it lingers in your body and prevents you from completely recovering from the experience.
SE helps you access and address this trauma that lingers in your body, allowing you to work through emotional symptoms, including feelings of anger, guilt, or shame.
This approach prioritizes the mind-body connection in treatment to help address both physical and psychological symptoms of certain mental health concerns, including trauma, grief, anxiety and depression.