Jennifer Reid

I have been working solo in private practice for over 20 years. I practice out of my home, a space I hope people feel comfortable and find confidential. I am trained in psychodynamic psychotherapy, meaning I believe the relationships we have early in life set up expectations for future relationships. Human beings work on pattern and predictability, meaning we often use past experience to view current or new experience. We also figure out coping mechanisms (our defenses) to deal with the pain and anxiety of injury, anxiety, and loss when things don't go well. These coping mechanisms help form our character styles. Sometimes when a person has been fundamentally interfered with, as in cases of childhood abuse or neglect, their personhood has been threatened by their experiences, which are brought forward into their adulthood/life in terms of expectations about the patterns of relationships to expect and the defense strategies that will be used to handle the possibility of repeat injury. This means the past is alive and well in the present until it is addressed. Therapy provides the opportunity to explore in the here and now the patterns and expectations and defensive maneuvers that have been developed in the past. This can be done by exploring the relationship one has with me/the therapist or that one has with other people in their life. I am also a trained/certified EMDR therapist.