Alexa Joy Bergeron, MA, LPC
I am deeply in love with the resiliency inherent in the human spirit, and I passionately believe in the power of psychotherapy to help people uncover their innate wisdom and heal from deep-rooted pain. Few things bring me greater joy than to witness people in the process of healing and transformation.
My passion for psychotherapy and the healing journey grew through my personal experiences with enduring and, eventually, befriending my own suffering. In a nutshell, my story includes growing up in a family gravely impacted by alcoholism and addiction, living with multiple chronic illnesses, and experiencing traumatic grief and loss. I used to look at everything above as a laundry list of problems that needed to be fixed. Until I received the gift of therapy. Through my own journey in therapy, I’ve grown to see that pain and suffering can be the doorway to boundless joy, love, and freedom, if we let it.
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My approach as a therapist is based on my belief that all feelings, including anxiety, fear, anger, depression, irritation, disappointment, shame, and grief, are actually messengers attempting to bring us closer to something inside that’s needing attention. From this perspective, everything inside of you has some purpose and, no matter how broken you may feel in this moment, you are already completely whole exactly as you are. There’s nothing inside of you that needs to be fixed or changed. However, there are parts of you that need to be seen and heard. My primary intention is to help you grow a kind, compassionate and loving relationship with all parts of yourself so that you can hear the message of your heart’s calling. From this place of deep listening exists limitless potential for positive change.
Additionally, I value and support diversity and inclusivity across sociocultural identities, including race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, religion, disability, and age. All people are warmly welcomed.
I have a Masters of Arts in Somatic Counseling Psychology from Naropa University, and have pursued additional training in trauma-informed, body-centered therapeutic modalities, including:
ABOUT
EMDR
EMDR is an evidenced-based, trauma-informed psychotherapy that helps people process and heal from traumatic life events and distressing life experiences. EMDR therapy is widely recognized as an effective treatment for symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) resulting from physical, sexual or emotional abuse; war; accidents, as well as additional life disturbing events, including phobias, panic attacks, complicated grief, eating disorders, addiction, codependency, anxiety, and depression.
EMDR therapy is a phase-oriented treatment, which involves: preparation, strengthening resources, and symptom reduction; desensitization and trauma processing; and integration and future implementation. We will use bilateral stimulation, which is facilitated through either visual, tactile, or audio stimuli, to both strengthen positive states and lessen the intensity of challenging states. Through this process, many clients report that the emotional distress associated with the original trauma or stressor is eliminated or significantly decreased, which gradually increases the potential for long-term psychological, emotional, and behavioral change.
IFS is a non-pathologizing, evidenced-based, and trauma-informed approach to psychotherapy based on the belief that within each person exists an internal community of parts, otherwise known as sub-personalities. The internal community typically consists of vulnerable parts, which may be holding painful feelings like grief and shame, and protective parts that developed to help manage your inner experience of the outside world. From an IFS perspective, every part of you, even the most self-destructive part, is here for a purpose and, in it’s essence, is trying to help you.
Another core component of IFS is the concept of the Self. Richard Schwartz, the founder of IFS, explains, “Everyone is at their core a Self containing many crucial leadership qualities such as perspective, confidence, compassion and acceptance. Everyone has this healthy and healing Self despite the fact that many people initially have very little access to it. The goal of IFS is to differentiate this Self from the parts, thereby releasing its resources...to help the parts out of their extreme roles.”
Many parts of yourself undoubtedly developed to help you survive the challenges you’ve encountered along your journey. How well we thrive depends largely on our ability to uncover these internal leadership skills, and develop a curious, compassionate, and accepting relationship with all parts of our experience. From this perspective, you actually don’t have to make any part of you go away in order to experience positive change. However, when you change the way you relate to it, and discover your capacity to compassionately be with it, you may find that it naturally transforms into the best version of itself. Through this process, you can help liberate parts of yourself that are stuck in the past, and discover inspiring new ways to exist in the present.
ABOUT
IFS
ABOUT
SPI
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (SPI) is a body-centered talk therapy that draws from body-centered psychotherapies, modern neuroscience, attachment theory and cognitive therapies. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is utilized in the treatment of various types of trauma, including:
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A single, traumatic incident that resulted in persistent symptoms of distress in everyday life
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Developmental trauma, or multiple and ongoing traumatic events throughout childhood and adolescence that may still currently interfere with optimal psychological and emotional wellbeing
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Attachment trauma, or symptoms of trauma birthed from childhood neglect, abandonment, and/or abuse
SPI is a phase-oriented treatment, which includes: symptom reduction and stabilization, trauma processing, and transformation and integration on level of mind, body, and spirit. This therapy draws on awareness of the physical body as a resource to both strengthen supportive internal states and also process painful or traumatic states still interfering with your daily life.
