↓
 

kTherapy with Katherine Allen, LMFT

Bringing balance back to lives • 45 Lyme Rd. / Suite 310A, Hanover, NH 03755 • 833-4-BSPKAT (833-427-7528)

  • Home
  • Forms
  • Contact + Directions
  • Make a payment
  • Blog
    • Pandemic In Review – One Year Later
      3/3/2021
    • A Little Feel-Good Visit with Brené Brown
      3/30/2020
    • COVID-19 Business Update
      3/12/2020
    • Sane Information regarding COVID-19 and the Upper Valley
      3/4/2020
  • Like
  • Follow @ktherapycom

Category Archives: Good Things

A Little Feel-Good Visit with Brené Brown

kTherapy with Katherine Allen, LMFT Posted on March 30, 2020 by Katherine AllenMarch 30, 2020

I figured we all could use a little feel-good time, and who better than the marvelous Brené Brown to share that with.

Enjoy.

Posted in Good Things | Tagged Brené Brown, courage, feel-good, feeling, vulnerability | Leave a reply

Happy Autumn

kTherapy with Katherine Allen, LMFT Posted on September 19, 2018 by Katherine AllenSeptember 19, 2018

Fall is absolutely my favorite season. I love the cooler crisp temperatures, the smell of apples and crunch of fallen leaves, pulling out sweaters and everything back-to-school related. I love Halloween and pumpkins and the colors of orange, red and yellow that sometimes make it look like the sun is shining on a foggy day.

It can also be a tough time of year for many as PTSD triggers can be the very same things that I love. Our olfactory nerve is directly linked to our amygdala, making smell our most powerful memory source. This is great in the case of fire or rotten food. Unfortunately, sometimes smells like Aunt Jane’s casserole or Uncle Max’s aftershave can drop someone to their knees. And with shorter days, more time indoors, close quarters, Fall and Winter can be very very tough for many.

The good news is that we now have tools to help find and heal these PTSD triggers. Brainspotting is remarkably effective at targeting and focusing on the core source of the trauma pain and aiding in it processing through and releasing, no matter how far back the incident was, or how recent it may be.

At kTherapy Katherine is now in New Hampshire full-time and is available to help you move through the landmine field of past hurts with Brainspotting, creating a new landscape to explore with fewer or no triggers.

I accept both NH and VT Medicaid as well as self-pay and HSA/FSA for payment. Please don’t hesitate to contact me and see how we can get you started.

 

Posted in Brainspotting, Good Things | Tagged amygdala, autumn, Brainspotting, change, fall, fear, Hanover, heal, help, Katherine Allen, memories, pain, process, PTSD, therapy, triggers | Leave a reply

Read This!

kTherapy with Katherine Allen, LMFT Posted on August 2, 2018 by Katherine AllenAugust 2, 2018

I was introduced to this book on the Brainspotting with Veterans closed Facebook group. I just bought it, $0.99, and it is truly amazing! The author, Barry Zworestine, has made this gift available for such a low price, please look into it.

Even though it is written by and for veterans, it is adaptable and relevant to most humans with trauma, addiction, PTSD, relationship struggles, athletes and on and on. I am so excited to have found this small but truly gem-like tool. I am going to share it as far and wide as I can!

Posted in Brainspotting, Change Process, Good Things | Tagged book, civilian, guide, healing, help, hope, PTSD, reintegration, resource, tools, trauma, triggers, veterans | Leave a reply

Now accepting NH Medicaid Insurance

kTherapy with Katherine Allen, LMFT Posted on January 28, 2018 by Katherine AllenJanuary 28, 2018

kTherapy is now accepting NH Medicaid Insurance. I am happy to let you know, too, that VT Medicaid is pending approval.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me for appointments.

Posted in Good Things | Tagged accepting, appointment, insurance, NH Medicaid, VT Medicaid | Leave a reply

Thoughts for downtime days during the holidays

kTherapy with Katherine Allen, LMFT Posted on December 23, 2017 by Katherine AllenDecember 23, 2017

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy New Year, Happy Holidays!

This time of year typically brings a huge amount of anxiety and depression when people are focused on keeping up appearances or making up for perceived lack or life about-turns or dealing with grief and loss, all the while trying to maintain a cheery positive exterior. Every single day I mention to clients that they are better off just being “a good honest version of you” and not a shiny version that someone else needs, just to make them feel better or avoid tough feelings or facts. Ugh. It’s so much work not being you!

Our teens are, sadly, struggling too. Holiday downtime might be the very best time to “detox” kids off of their screens and develop better eating and time management techniques; there’s no school schedule to adhere to, we can give them the 3-5 days that any detox takes and they can enter the next semester cleaner and calmer. But, as I also see every day, this is a very unpopular idea. (btw, flip phones have had their single biggest year of sales increase last year…)

The key is not just closing down the devices, maintaining regular sleep and clean eating patterns, getting out into nature and being active, and encouraging a healthy dose of boredom – it’s that they need ALL of these simultaneously. Many practitioners are stuck in focusing on the surface symptoms (depression, disordered eating, anxiety, cutting, etc.) instead of seeing these as the clues to the deeper issue: kids have pain. And, frankly, much of their pain is our fault. Just because we have these shiny devices and ridiculous sports schedules and convenient drive-throughs it does not mean that their developing brains can manage or deal with it. In our home, devices are typically referred to as “portable dopamine pumps” (citing David Greenfield of The Center for Internet and Technology Addiction). And that’s exactly what they are; for adults to a certain degree, but completely to adolescent brains. As I also say every single week: Mother Nature will win this one. We must honor and work with the facts of healthy brain development, quick fixes and scapegoating will get us more of the disastrous results we are seeing.

I love natural solutions and amino-acid supplements as bridges from a toxic landscape into a healthy valley. Trudy Scott always offers wonderful, scientifically-backed (not popular with big pharma) solutions for self-empowerment and taking the reins back. Her recent blog post is very good at describing tools and methods to get teens off of pharma by using amino acids, diet and lifestyle change to traverse this difficult landscape. Parents need to make all of the same changes too, which in my humble opinion, is often why it’s even harder for households to admit and adhere to the changes that are needed. There will be pain – for one and all. But the pain of good change is always preferable to the pain of remaining the same.

Recently, I have become smitten with a local NH advocate for letting kids experience the gift of failure. Jessica Lahey brings sensible, sound and do-able tips to overwhelming feelings and the fear of change. So many parents are terrified of their kids being out-paced or left out or left behind, but have we all slowed down enough to really wonder about where this more-faster-opportunity-fear path is leading us, and them?

So, there you have it, my reflections and offerings to one and all this holiday season. We can all disengage and unplug just a bit more, make a few healthier changes each day regarding diet and time management, and get outside even for a few more minutes every single day. May these changes make you and your 2018 healthy and bright!

Posted in Brainspotting, Change Process, Family Therapy, Good Things, Healthy Brain Development, Social Implications of Technology | Tagged anxiety, David Greenfield, depression, devices, diet, downtime, family, Hanover, healing, holiday wishes, holidays, hope, Jessica Lahey, outdoors, pain, sleep, technology addiction, teens, Trudy Scott | Leave a reply

Recent Posts

  • Pandemic In Review – One Year Later
  • A Little Feel-Good Visit with Brené Brown
  • COVID-19 Business Update
  • Sane Information regarding COVID-19 and the Upper Valley
  • First Ever Brainspotting Phase 2 Training coming to NH in April

kTherapy on Twitter

My Tweets
©2023 kTherapy with Katherine Allen, LMFT • (833) 4-BSPKAT / 833-427-7528 • Unauthorized duplication prohibited
↑