Welcome to the Website of Kathia Lopez Murdock

Thank you for visiting my website. Here you will find an introduction to my approach to providing counseling and psychotherapy services. You are taking the first step on the road to emotional recovery and resilience. You may also be looking to manage stress or deal with anxiety. There are a multitude of therapists to consider as you search out the support that you need. Not all of them are right for the issues that you are confronting.


Stress, anxiety, and feeling tense or uneasy, are all symptoms that often can be the result of your life history or specific events. If you have experienced trauma in your past, be it physical or psychological, caused by family, friends or even an accident, then you should consider contacting me to discuss how therapy can lead you to a better place. I will work with you to provide a safe environment and to develop stability in your current life experiences. We will set goals including becoming more tolerant of external triggers and being able to regulate emotional responses. Our sessions can help you, through commitment to our work together and through self-analysis coupled with reflection, to reduce the level of life stress and help you regain a sense of balance.

Treatment Modalities

RELATIONAL THERAPY
Relational psychotherapy is an approach that allows clients to work towards establishing relationships based on empowerment and mutual respect. Through decades of research, this system of psychotherapy was developed to assist individuals in recognizing the role relationships play in shaping daily experiences. The principle is that strong and fulfilling relationships with other individuals can help people maintain emotional well-being. When anxiety exists leading to emotional distress, relational psychotherapy can be an effective treatment enabling the client to develop new ideas about relationships, and permitting them to be healthier and longer-lasting.

I work with clients so that they can develop an understanding of themselves, whereby they move toward psychological well-being through finding and creating better relationships that provide support and promote growth. Working together we attempt to help you understand patterns appearing in the thoughts and feelings you have toward yourself. We take into account the context and cultural facets of your life, examining how current or past realities including power differentials, privilege, stress, as well as dominant and subordinate roles play out in your relationships. The therapeutic connection we develop at times may serve as a model for your use in healing within other important relationships in your life.

EMDR
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy is an evidenced-based treatment for trauma based on the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model—both developed by Francine Shapiro. The AIP model utilizes our brain’s natural inclination toward health, and sees many emotional and mental health issues as being the result of unprocessed or maladaptively processed experience. By identifying and reprocessing pivotal experiences in the past, current struggles and symptoms diminish significantly. For more information, see the EMDR International Association website.


CLINICAL HYPNOSIS
According to the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH), this treatment involves a set of skills and interventions that a trained clinician uses to elicit trance for therapeutic purposes. Trance is a natural human experience that occurs for most people during most of their “waking” day. Trance facilitated through hypnosis promotes access to the unconscious mind and its vast resources of knowledge, skills, and abilities. Hypnosis requires a willing and voluntary participant. There are many benefits that can be appreciated with hypnosis including, but not limited to, pain management, control of unwanted habits, depression, improved athletic performance, healthier sleep, and improved energy. For more information, see the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH) website.


For inquiries, call me using the phone number listed on this website.