Thilini Nikeshala (She/Her)

As mentioned throughout my profile, I have worked with a wide range of trauma including PTSD. With PTSD clients I usually try to normalize their experience, centering that the symptoms they are experiencing are animal instincts gone awry--there is nothing wrong with them. Their bodies were built to love them and survive; but these bodies have become trapped in the states of hyperarousal and dissociation. We work to make the body feel safe and foster connection to the clients internal experiences

I have worked with and trained under clinicians who served a wide range of dissociative disorders. I have worked with DPDR, DID, OSDD, and PTSD that causes dissociation. As someone who experiences dissociation myself, I have intimate knowledge of how obtrusive it this manifestation is day to day. Together we will work on skills to ground and get the body out of the parasympathetic nervous system. Additionally, we will use psychoanalysis to understand your unconscious.

As someone who suffers from a chronic illness I know the pain and exhaustion with a horrible intimacy. Together we will work to ground the body and get your nervous system out of a reactive or dissociative state which will lower the cortisol flooding in your body. Cortisol exposure, especially over the life course, has been shown to cause immune system dysfunction, worsening of pre-existing conditions, decrease cellular repair and regeneration and more.

Internal Family Systems (IFS) is equipped to reconnect individuals to the parts of themselves that are wounded and sometimes forgotten. IFS functions on the belief that we all have child, teenage, and adult parts that show up in situations. When working with dissociative identities, this may be invalidating and so when I work with these clients I integrate IFS to help systems understand their roles, but don't push for re-integration or normalization of their experience.