Areas of Therapeutic Specialty

Our team is educated and trained to support your therapeutic journey across a variety of specialized mental health needs.

The word “trauma” is ubiquitous today, but it has a specific meaning: being confronted by an event that overwhelms our resources. Trauma freezes the body and mind at a particular point in time, resulting in the conditions known as Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). With patient work, it is possible to regain both physical and mental flexibility, and to build greater resilience. Post-traumatic growth occurs when we can derive meaning from our experiences.

Clinicians at Living Fully use a variety of modalities to address trauma, often working together to address a client’s needs. Our clinicians have worked extensively with individuals who have experienced emotional, physical, and sexual abuse in childhood, as well as with survivors of sexual assault.

Trauma and PTSD

Dr. Pegah Moghaddam

Rand Basma

Offered by:

Eating disorders are comprised of many different behaviors, thoughts, and emotions that can negatively impact your relationship with food, your body, yourself, and loved ones. According to ANAD (National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders), 9% (28.8 million) of the US population will experience an eating disorder in their lifetime. An even larger number of people will experience disordered eating that creates significant distress and requires support.

Symptoms of eating disorders vary and there is no one way to have an eating disorder. Behavioral symptoms can include restricting what/when/how you are eating, binge eating, purging, over exercise, and emotional eating. While people with disordered eating can be underweight, the vast majority of individuals with disordered eating are not underweight. 

While talking about an eating disorder can be difficult, eating disorder treatment is effective. At Living Fully Psychological Services you will work with a therapist who is specifically trained in the treatment of eating disorders. We will work with you to meet you where you are at and help you move forward to where you want to be.

Whether you are on your journey, we are here to support you. We will help you develop a better relationship with food, be more compassionate towards your body, increase flexibility in rigid thinking patterns, and help you develop alternative coping skills to manage daily stressors. 

Everyone feels anxious or depressed at times. It is normal to experience anxiety, and to sometimes feel down or “blue,” in response to life events — especially when there doesn’t seem to be much “good” news in the world. But when anxiety becomes constant, and depression lingers, quality of life plummets.

Therapy can help.

Clinicians at Living Fully employ a spectrum of therapeutic modalities to break the cycle of depression and anxiety, which sometimes occur separately, and frequently appear together. In therapy, you can come to understand your habitual coping strategies and learn new ones; you can come to understand the ways that thoughts and emotions are interrelated; and can build greater resilience.

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It is a form of therapy that helps people heal from trauma or other distressing life experiences. EMDR therapy has been extensively researched and has demonstrated effectiveness for trauma and other mental health issues, including but not limited to: anxiety, depression, difficulty functioning, irritability, increased substance use, poor concentration, sleep disturbances, and stress.

When distress from a disturbing event remains, the upsetting images, thoughts, and emotions may create feelings of overwhelm, of being back in that moment, or of being “frozen in time.” EMDR therapy helps the brain process these memories and allows normal healing to resume. The experience is still remembered, but the fight, flight, or freeze response from the original event is resolved (source: EMDRIA.org)

We provide both bariatric surgery evaluations as well as pre/post-bariatric surgery behavior modification and therapy.

The process of undergoing bariatric surgery can feel exhausting. Meetings with surgeons, nurses and dieticians can be overwhelming at times. Learning that you also need a “psychological evaluation” can sound scary. At Living Fully Psychological Services, we hope we can make this part of the surgery process supportive and collaborative. You will meet with psychologists who are trained and familiar with the bariatric surgery procedures and behavioral changes that are required after surgery.  

During the assessment, we will talk about your motivation for surgery, readiness for this life changing event, and the emotional and behavioral challenges that you may encounter during the surgery process. Our goal is to help you identify and build supports targeting the changes that you will make after surgery to ensure the most successful post-surgery outcomes.

In addition to providing psychological evaluations for bariatric surgery candidates, we provide therapy services specifically targeted to address emotional and behavioral concerns before, during, and after the surgery process. Bariatric surgery can be a life changing process, which can bring both great joy and worry as people engage in significant lifestyle changes.

Life rarely unfolds the way we imagine.  The person you were 20, 10, and 2 years ago may hardly resemble the person you are today in some or many ways.  Individually, this can be complicated enough.  In the messy complexity of deep, intimate relationships, this can be especially difficult.  Living Fully therapists support those navigating communication challenges, recurrent conflicts, lack of sexual intimacy, entrenched resentment, identity differences, betrayal, and more.

In relationship therapy, we can help you learn and embody compassionate communication as well as discover, express, and respond to underlying needs, pains, and longings. We can work to institute effective boundaries and build individual and relational lives that spark pride in who you are and excitement about what is to come.  And, in those cases when separation becomes necessary, we will guide a dignified and thoughtful separation process.

We affirm and support all forms of consensual relationships, including monogamous, polyamorous, and open relationships.

Loss is inherent to life. Every birth ends in death, every beginning has an ending. Though we know this, the reality of loss is challenging. When we confront a loss — of a job, a dream, or a person — we must come to terms with the meaning of that loss through the process of grieving.

Each instance of grief, and of grieving, is unique. If you feel stuck or paralyzed in your process of grieving, or if a loss feels too big to bear, therapy can support you.