SERVICES

There are many approaches to psychotherapy, and it is important to find a therapist who is a good match for your needs. Dr. Dughman's approach is integrative, bringing together a variety of theories, techniques, and empirical research. She most frequently draws from psychoanalytic traditions, which emphasize self-awareness and insight, mindfulness, which involves non-judgmental awareness, and trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral (TF-CBT) and dialectical-behavioral (DBT) orientations, which focus on coping strategies, goal setting, and skill building. Therapy is individualized to help you accomplish your goals. Beyond the specific approaches to therapy, Dr. Dughman believes that the most important predictor of successful psychotherapy is the quality of the patient-therapist relationship. Her style is active, direct, warm, and collaborative. She believes that trust, compassion, and a sense of humor are critical in creating a good working relationship. 

Dr. Dughman is experienced in working with people dealing with a wide range of issues, including: 

• Anxiety & Depression 
• Relationship problems
• Stress
• Traumatic experiences
• Frequent arguments 
• Divorce/Separation 

What is EMDR Therapy?

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is an extensively researched, effective psychotherapy method proven to help people recover from trauma and other distressing life experiences, including PTSD, anxiety, depression, and panic disorders.
 

How is EMDR therapy different from other therapies?

EMDR therapy does not require talking in detail about the distressing issue or completing homework between sessions. EMDR therapy, rather than focusing on changing the emotions, thoughts, or behaviors resulting from the distressing issue, allows the brain to resume its natural healing process. EMDR therapy is designed to resolve unprocessed traumatic memories in the brain. For many clients, EMDR therapy can be completed in fewer sessions than other psychotherapies.
 

How does EMDR therapy affect the brain?

Our brains have a natural way to recover from traumatic memories and events. This process involves communication between the amygdala (the alarm signal for stressful events), the hippocampus (which assists with learning, including memories about safety and danger), and the prefrontal cortex (which analyzes and controls behavior and emotion). While many times traumatic experiences can be managed and resolved spontaneously, they may not be processed without help. Stress responses are part of our natural fight, flight, or freeze instincts. 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.
 

Who can benefit from EMDR therapy?

EMDR therapy helps children and adults of all ages to address a wide range of challenges:

• Anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias
• Chronic Illness and medical issues
• Depression and bipolar disorders
• Dissociative disorders
• Eating disorders
• Grief and loss
• Pain
• Performance anxiety
• Personality disorders
• PTSD and other trauma and stress-related issues
• Sexual assault
• Sleep disturbance
• Substance abuse and addiction
• Violence and abuse

Adapted from emdria.org 

Play is an important vehicle for children to express their experiences and feelings.  Children use play to communicate, learn, and work through their emotions. It is through play that Dr. Dughman supports young children to express their worries and fears, to build resiliency and connection, and to heal and strengthen their relationships to their caregivers. During Play Therapy, Dr. Dughman will create a warm, accepting environment using specific toys, objects, and games to better understand your child's inner thoughts and support his/her unique developmental processes. Dr. Dughman has been a Registered Play Therapist for over 12 years and is an expert in developmental psychology.

Common problems that play therapy can address:

• Trauma
• Bullying
• Defiance
• Emotional outbursts (i.e., tantrums)
• Aggressive communication (i.e., hitting, kicking, biting)
• Sleep difficulties (i.e., difficulty falling or staying asleep, nightmares, night terrors)
• ​Academic problems
• Eating problems 
• Sensory problems
• Learning difficulties
• Difficulty maintaining friendships
• ​Sibling conflict
• Refusing to go to school 
• Odd behaviors (i.e., eating non-food substances, stereotyped or repetitive behaviors, hearing or seeing things that are not actually there)

During parent guidance and coaching, Dr. Dughman equips parents with tools to strengthen parent-child relationships, decrease problem behaviors, and build more peaceful homes. Guidance and coaching provide parents psychologically-sound strategies so parents feel more empowered and better equipped to handle the challenges in their household. In guidance and coaching work, Dr. Dughman incorporates evidence-based practices from the fields of child development, neuroscience, and emotion regulation. Her approach involves providing parents with both a deeper understanding of their child’s internal life and behaviors and also a concrete set of skills and interventions to use. Dr. Dughman partners with the unique cultural needs and values of each family she works with and strongly believes that there is not one right way to be a good parent.

Common topics for parental guidance: 

• Difficulty soothing
• Sleep difficulties
• Feeding difficulties
• Sensitivity to sound, touch, light, smells, or taste
• Drug exposure in utero 
• Parental substance abuse 
• Complications during or post birth (i.e., prematurity, NICU stay) 
• Not meeting developmental milestones (i.e., sitting up, babbling, crawling) 
• Domestic violence 
• Prolonged separations from primary caregiver(s) (i.e., divorce, incarceration, hospitalization, foster care, etc.) 
• Caregiver trauma (i.e., loss, victim of domestic violence, rape) 
• Special needs child
• Adoption
• Different parenting beliefs

In her work as a psychological consultant, Dr. Dughman advises management executives on issues that exist at the intersection of business and psychology. Dr. Dughman believes that an organization is only as strong as the relationships within it and, in its simplest form, she seeks to strengthen this foundation to help organizations thrive. Dr. Dughman provides culturally aware guidance and coaching to individuals and management teams to build self-regulation and focus, improve motivation and dedication, and increase performance within an organization. Her style is to-the-point, practical, and skill-building. Coming from multi-generations of entrepreneurs and successfully starting and running her own business (CRD Psychology©), Dr. Dughman brings nearly 20 years of business experience and utilizes her clinical training and the breadth of her psychological knowledge to help executives improve their management skills, reactions to stress and setbacks, and interpersonal effectiveness. Dr. Dughman has special expertise in building, operationalizing, staffing, and managing behavioral health programs within hospital and community mental health settings. 

Dr. Dughman frequently gives talks and leads workshops in business and school settings. She specializes in distilling down complicated psychological constructs and parenting topics to straight-forward, easily understandable talking points. Dr. Dughman's audiences appreciate her culturally-aware, down-to-earth, humor-filled speaking style and her understanding that audience members want practical, concrete interventions they can use. Audiences walk away with deeper reflection and understanding along with a set of strategies. She has experience speaking to large audiences as well as more intimate groups and has presented at hospitals, start-up companies, non-profit organizations, pre- and grade schools, and has led many teacher workshops.

Parenting and child-related topics have included: 

• Discipline that works
• Time-In: An alternative to Time-Out disciplining
• Why do kids act out? 
• Building self-confidence and positive self-talk
• Prioritizing connection: how to get your child to talk to you about tricky subjects
• Building resilience, grit, and frustration tolerance in your child  

 
General well-being topics have included: 

• Improving stress management and self-care
• Cultural awareness in the workplace
• Incorporating mindfulness into the workplace
• Communication effectiveness

Professional Trainings:

• Trauma and Development