Devin Bard (she/her)

I have been providing support for people with relationship challenges for over a decade, and it is a main focus of my clinical work. My relationship specialty centers around clear communication, healthy boundaries, improving intimacy and managing conflict. Clients may seek my expertise for support in all types of relationships including lovers, spouses, friends, family, coworkers, and authority figures.

I am trained in Lifespan Integration, a trauma treatment that helps individuals integrate past experiences that are still impacting them today. These past experiences may include more conventional definitions of trauma (violence, a sudden loss, sexual assault / abuse) as well as more subtle examples like growing up in a chaotic home or experiencing chronic bullying or put-downs. I help my clients heal their trauma without reliving it, empowering them to experience the freedom of the present.

This specialty is near and dear to my heart. In an increasingly overstimulating and frightening world, more and more people are suffering from anxious thoughts, feelings, and sensations. I use a mind-body approach in treating anxiety, integrating mindfulness, CBT, and emotion-focused therapies to help clients manage self-defeating and self-judgmental thoughts, reduce or eliminate panic, and ultimately soothe their nervous system.

I use somatic therapy to help connect clients to their sensations during session. Our thoughts, sensations, and emotions are intricately connected. Often clients are unaware of their sensations, posture and movements. These physical factors have an impact on their wellbeing and provide essential data on the client's functioning. Somatic therapy aims to create more wholeness for clients, and help them clear emotion, settle the mind, and connect with their personal power.

As a psychodynamic therapist, I believe much of our behaviors, emotions, and thoughts emerge from unconscious parts of ourselves. These are aspects of our being we're unaware of and disconnected from, that may be governing our interactions with others and informing our sense of self. My role through this specialty is to help clients know themselves better by reflecting curiously on the meaning of their experiences, which includes the experiences that unfold in the therapeutic relationship.

Attachment Theory focuses on how our adult selves were impacted by childhood and adolescent relationships and experiences. We all need emotional attunement, support, kindness, and challenge from our care givers and loved ones so that we can enjoy healthy and balance relationships with others and ourselves. Through an attachment lens, I encourage clients to reflect on the impact their upbringing had on who they are today, from their greatest strengths to their greatest struggles.

This research-supported, mind-body approach to trauma (both acute and developmental) works quickly without re-traumatizing clients in the process. "More than 30 positive controlled outcome studies have been done on EMDR therapy. Some of the studies show that 84%-90% of single-trauma victims no longer have post-traumatic stress disorder after only three 90-minute sessions." https://www.emdr.com/what-is-emdr/

Having boundaries, saying now, and advocating for ourselves is difficult. This is especially true for highly sensitive individuals, women, and particularly sensitive women in male-dominated fields. I love supporting my clients in accessing their voice, their strength, and finding connection through differentiation.

So many of our defenses - people pleasing, avoiding, self-judgment, worry, numbness, perfectionism - emerge as a direct result of us being unable to tolerate our core emotions, e.g. sadness, anger, fear, etc. AEDP is a psychotherapy modality through which I support clients in accessing their core emotions so that they can take authentic and empowered action in their lives. If you feel stuck, depressed, or anxious, AEDP supports you in opening up to yourself with courage and self-compassion.

When addressing PTSD, C-PTSD, and developmental trauma, I use EMDR and Lifespan integration. These mind-body techniques help the client access the calming and organizing parts of the brain to relegate the trauma event(s) to the past where they belong. Trauma is the past disrupting the present, and these therapeutic tools bring the client's entire nervous system back into the present so they can relate to what used to trigger them with clarity and peace.

I've worked extensively with depressed clients, and find the process of helping them access their core emotions and take empowering action in their lives very rewarding. Depression can be so painful, confusing, and debilitating. Whether the depression is short-term, cyclical, or chronic, we can get to its root and access your aliveness.