Alicia Chiasson (she/her)

As someone who has spent most of her life somehow connected to spiritual communities, I can attest to how they can enhance our lives or create harm, and to a greater extent, trauma. This is why one of my specialties is focused on religious trauma, spiritual abuse, and healthy spirituality. With experience, certification, and continued studies in religious trauma, I remain dedicated to creating a safe place for you to process your experience with evidence-based treatments.

Do you experience a lot of anxiety? So have I! But we all have different ways of handling it - some helpful and some not. Through the use of Internal Family Systems (or IFS), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), & Somatic Therapies, we will work together to understand your anxiety. You'll be educated on your nervous system, learn effective coping strategies, and heal that part of you that is constantly trying to protect you. Because, just maybe, it doesn't need to work so hard.

PTSD is a physiological response that occurs when we experience something that is too much, too soon, or too fast and threatens our ability to cope and return to felt sense of safety. PTSD is NOT what happened to you, but HOW what happened impacted your feeling of safety in your own body. Therefore, it holds you in a state of heightened awareness even after the danger is gone. In PTSD Therapy, you will learn how to release the trauma from your body so you can feel safe once more.

With a certification in Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy, I am passionate about helping others rediscover safety within their own bodies. Somatic therapy (ST) recognizes the intrinsic connection between the mind and body and the way our bodies store our experiences. ST may help you: improve body awareness, release stress/trauma, enhance nervous system and emotional regulation, and alleviate chronic pain.

I've been using CBT since I first started doing therapy. Known as a "here and now" approach, it identifies and addresses our unhelpful thought patterns and helps us to challenge our perspectives and see our situations more clearly. Through CBT, you'll learn practical strategies to improve how you think and behave. But CBT can only get you so far. Since it is a "here and now" approach, it does not address deeply rooted trauma (PTSD or C-PTSD). For that, look to the other modalities mentioned.

IFS sees the mind as a group of "parts" with different roles and feelings, plus a core "Self." It's like having characters inside you - some protective, some hurt. IFS helps you talk to these parts, especially distressed ones. The goal is healing wounded parts and balancing your internal system for more harmony. It's about befriending all aspects of yourself, even difficult ones, to improve overall well-being and self-leadership. IFS has profound power to facilitate healing. Let's get started!