Affirming, Evidence-Based Psychology
Hello, I’m Jameson Kelly. As a clinician, I’m known for being empathic, genuine, and calming. I’m client-centered by nature. This means I am focused on listening with empathy and understanding your experience from your perspective. I start by meeting you where you are and using evidence-based techniques to help you address your symptoms. Clients often report feeling understood and safe discussing difficult, painful truths with me. My passion is being present and supportive as you grieve and reprocess your experience.
A part of my style is to collaborate with you throughout our work together. Sometimes people find that grieving or reprocessing their experience meets their goals for therapy. Sometimes people notice a pattern of hurt in their lives that they want to change. If change is your goal we will collaborate on how to best meet your needs.
Trouble is universal. Healing is personal.
I meet a lot of people in the midst of a crisis in their lives. People can start to feel like their emotions are, “too much” or hear from others that they are, “overreacting.” I am passionate about helping people erase these shaming, blaming, and disempowering messages. Your emotions, just like physical feelings, are simply information from your environment. Physical pain lets you know to stop what you are doing and protect yourself. Painful emotions tell you the same thing— you are hurt and you need to heal. It is tempting to try and ignore these, “difficult” emotions. Unfortunately, that can mean you ignore the information they are trying to convey-that you need to change. I can sit with you in that uncomfortable space. We can work to help you gain awareness of what you are feeling, and begin to understand what it means. You can learn to tolerate emotions and respond effectively, improving your life.
What I have learned
I have worked in many different settings. I started out working in an adult residential program for the chronically mentally ill. I have worked in clinics in universities, primary schools, and hospitals. I have worked for tribally run programs supporting Native American tribal members. I am currently working in private practice. I have learned that good therapy is always based on a supportive and respectful relationship between a client and a therapist. Having a clear-sighted, affirming person with you while you’re struggling is helpful and healing. Each person’s private identity, their fears and hopes, are sacred and deserve to be respected.
What to expect in
therapy with me
My work is empowering people in the midst of their struggle. I begin by creating a safe space for you to open up as we develop rapport. I will work with you to explore how to diminish the intensity of anxiety, panic, anger, and overwhelming visceral experiences in your life and increase your ability to regulate emotions. Once you are able to ground and regulate emotions more effectively, processing can begin. You may find that reprocessing an event is cathartic and healing enough to meet your therapeutic needs. You may discover instead that you need to change your lifestyle to meet your goals. If this is the case, we may move on to a phase of therapy that I think of as collaborative information exchange.
You are the expert in your experience, clarifying the details of your story as you see fit. I am providing information about psychological models, data from research, and my clinical experience. I am transparent about my thinking and process. I typically explain the model I am using, sometimes drawing and using visual aids, and then fill out the components based on what I understand from your story. Hopefully you will correct me and offer your ideas as we work together. I typically utilize Cognitive Behavioral models as a framework to organize and process human interaction. For the purposes of understanding I will discuss what my CBT therapeutic plan might look like. Bear in mind that I will encourage you to discuss your experiences and reactions to different techniques, models, and interactions in session. Based on these discussions we jointly decide how to move forward; Therefore, your individual plan may be organized differently than what I present below.
If we utilize CBT, I will ask what thoughts were going through your mind, what actions you took, how your body responded (e.g. sensory experiences, or physiological changes), and what emotions you were experiencing during a distressing event. This phase of work often requires you to focus on your body and become increasingly aware of your experiences in the moment. I like to categorize your sensations and emotions as data or feedback about the environment and situation. By categorizing sensory experiences and emotions in this way, I hope to remove some of our preconceived judgments about emotions (e.g. “I shouldn’t be mad”) and focus on understanding how each dimension of the model interacts to create your unique pattern within the context of your environment.
Once we have created your individualized model of functioning we can plan and try out interventions. We will probably look at each component of your individualized model and craft changes that might be effective for you. We may examine your cognitions and challenge some of your assumptions or thoughts. For example, is it really true that you are, “the worst person ever”? This process seems to bring humor into the session for many people as they notice what thought is actually going through their mind. People notice inaccuracies, half truths, or a lack of context. Challenging these seems to provide context and a bigger picture for many people. It can also highlight how powerfully our culture impacts our thinking, even when we don’t consciously align with some of those mores. You may then begin replacing inaccurate thoughts with more accurate, honest thoughts such as, “I am currently grumpy, but I am a kind person overall.”
Behaviors are also an area we can impact through intervention. For example, if you typically step back and remain silent when others hurt you, what would it be like to speak up? You can create and practice using boundary-setting statements and expressing your needs in session. Notice what it feels like to protect yourself and teach others how you prefer to be treated. I may ask you to try these statements with other people and notice how they respond. We may also discuss how these new behaviors impact your emotional experience. For example, do you feel proud of yourself when you clarify what you want instead of staying silent? Do you enjoy how people treat you after the intervention? You can use this information to determine what behavioral changes are effective and you would like to maintain.
It is fairly likely we will need to intervene with problematic physiological reactivity. Many people experience the physical symptoms of stress, such as muscle tension, nausea, increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, and poor sleep. I will explain, demonstrate, and with your permission lead you in calming exercises and skills. You will learn how different calming exercises impact your stress and when you like to use them. Please notice how these impact your body, trust your perception, and continue seeing your medical providers as needed. I have had several clients report that they incorporated their favorite calming exercises into their daily schedule and were subsequently taken off hypertension medication by their primary care physician. I also advocate for people to understand how exercise, excellent sleep hygiene, and proper self care have a significant positive impact on overall stress, emotional regulation, and physical health. Medication will also have an impact on your physiology, so it will be important to continue meeting with any prescribing physicians.
Finally, we will re-evaluate your emotional experience. Remember that I consider your emotional experience to be data about your functioning. If your presenting problematic emotional experience is shifting for the better (e.g. diminishing sadness, increasing joy) we can continue our intervention. If your emotional experience remains symptomatic we can try different interventions.
I will provide relevant information and teach skills that have empirically and/or clinically demonstrated effectiveness. You will try these skills and report the outcomes of your experiments. Together we will work to find adaptive choices that play to your unique situation and personal skills