Our Specialties
Ambiguous, Living,
and Nonfinite Losses
Loss is present in every human experience. While our society commonly thinks of loss as it relates to death, our therapists at Healing Concepts also honor many ambiguous, living, and nonfinite losses. For example, the loss of a relationship, the loss of one’s physical health or ability, the loss of one’s job, or the loss of trust or safety, and many others. These types of losses can be continuous with no clear ending, intangible, unclear, and are often unrecognized or unacknowledged by others as a loss. It can be hard to make sense of or to find “closure” within these experiences, which can lead to a sense of confusion, “stuckness”, isolation, and sorrow. Our therapists will help you to honor your unique losses, understand the important meaning associated with them, and to determine a meaningful path forward.
Ambiguous and living loss-related issues that we commonly support include:
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Addiction-related Losses
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Adoption-related Losses
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Alzheimer’s and Dementia
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Chronic Sorrow
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Coronavirus-related Losses
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Divorce and Breakups
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Infertility and Pregnancy Loss
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Job Loss
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Lifecycle Transitions
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Living with Physical Illness
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Lost Hopes and Dreams
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Relationship Endings
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Trauma-related Losses
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Traumatic Brain Injury
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Unrecognized Loss/Disenfranchised Grief
Anxiety, Depression, and
Bipolar Disorder
Struggling with anxiety, depression, or bipolar disorder can be overwhelming and isolating. Our therapists help you explore experiences with mental health challenges with curiosity and compassion. Together we help you to understand what is happening, why it is happening, and to learn new coping tools. We understand that the goal is not to eradicate symptoms, or what we call “parts”, but to listen to the meaning inherent in emotional experiences, heal wounds, and work towards rebuilding a life in which you can thrive.
We frequently work with:
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Bipolar Disorder
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Generalized Anxiety Disorder
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Major Depressive Disorder
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Medical Anxiety
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Panic
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Persistent Depressive Disorder
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Phobias
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Postpartum Depression
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School-related Anxiety
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Seasonal Affective Disorder
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Social Anxiety
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Trauma-related Anxiety/Depression
Chronic and Life-limiting Physical Illness
Our therapists are Philadelphia and Chester County's most respected illness experts. Our team at Healing Concepts has a long history and deep passion for supporting individuals and families through the complexities inherent in navigating chronic, life-threatening, and life-limiting physical illness. Together we help you to explore the meaning of your illness journey, sort through anxieties, hurts, losses, and fears, and foster hope and well-being in the context of illness.
Our team has long standing relationships with several nationally renowned medical centers. We regularly partner with Chester County's SHiNE foundation and Unite for HER to provide counseling and support groups for cancer patients and are trusted experts for the MS Association of America. We teach coping with illness and end of life classes all over the country to master’s level social work students and other helping professionals.
Some of the concerns we commonly support include:
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Adjusting to a New Diagnosis
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Ambiguous Losses
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Balancing Hope and Grief
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Caregiving from Near or Far
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Coping Together—Couples & Families Finding Their Way
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Coping with Challenging Emotions
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Coping with Grief and Sorrow
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Dementia Caregiving
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End of Life Planning and Anticipatory Grief
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Fertility Concerns
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Intimacy and Sexuality
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Medical Trauma
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Pain Management
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Recurrence
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Relationship Stress
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Stress Management
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Supporting Children through Illness
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Transitioning to Palliative Care or Hospice
Medical experiences that we frequently support include, but are not limited to:
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ALS
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Alzheimer's Disease
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Brain Injury
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Brain Tumors
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Cancer
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Chronic Pain
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Dementia
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Diabetes
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Heart Disease
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Lyme Disease
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Multiple Sclerosis
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Parkinson's Disease
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Polycythemia Vera
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Transplants
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Traumatic Injuries
Creative
and
Art-Inspired Techniques
We believe in the power of talk therapy, but also understand that words are not the only way nor always the best way to self-express. We use a range of creative and art-inspired techniques to tap into your innate wisdom in ways that are distinct from the verbal expression of meaning. We find that methods including art, journaling, music, mindfulness, and imagery allow you to overcome the limitations of language through connecting to your sensory, perceptual, and symbolic experiences. By incorporating these methods into our work together we give voice to the mind, body, and spirit in ways that profoundly deepen your sense of understanding, self-compassion, and inner connectedness.
Types of experiences that creative and art-inspired techniques can help include:
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Academic Stress/Distress
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Ambiguous, Living, and Nonfinite Losses
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Anxiety
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Chronic and Life-limiting Physical Illness
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Depression
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End of Life
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Family Stress
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Grief
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Life transitions
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Panic
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Professional Stress/Distress
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Relationship Stress
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Religion, Spirituality, and Existential Concerns
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Trauma
EMDR
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a type of psychotherapy that helps people to heal from distressing thoughts, feelings, and memories associated with their experience of traumatic events. During EMDR, you focus on memories of the distressing event while also focusing on external, bilateral stimulation such as eye movements, tapping, or alternating sounds in earphones. This process is intended to help both sides of the brain to communicate more effectively with one another, which supports your ability to work through upsetting experiences related to the event more efficiently. By focusing on two things at once you can recall your memories with less emotional intensity, and this process is continued until you experience a change in the ways you remember and react to the event.
Types of traumas that EMDR can help include:
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Accidents and Injury
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Attachment Injuries
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Childhood Abuse.
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Childhood Neglect
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Discrimination or Marginalization
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Emotional Abuse
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Intimate Partner Violence
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Medical Trauma
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Military-related Trauma
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Sexual Abuse
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Sexual Assault
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Vicarious Trauma/Secondary PTSD (e.g., trauma experienced by First Responders, Health-care Workers, etc.)
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Workplace Harassment/Violence
End of Life
Facing the end of a life is full of many complex emotions. It is important to find ways to honor all that is possible in the present moment while also preparing to leave a legacy for those you love. Our therapists are gifted at providing compassionate support and expertise throughout the end-of-life planning process. Together we explore how your lived experiences and identity impact your end-of-life process. We process your emotional experiences and offer healing techniques to help you move through your anxieties, uncertainties, and emotional suffering. We also support you in setting goals that allow you to enter the end of your life with dignity and authenticity.
In our nationally recognized Circle of Care program, we work collaboratively with clients, families, and care teams to provide guidance, improve communication, and help ensure that there is mutual understanding and support throughout end-of-life planning. Grief support is also offered to families following the death of the identified client. Clients and family members regularly express how helpful this comprehensive program is during a time when they feel scared, distressed, and overwhelmed by what is happening.
End of life experiences that we commonly support include:
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Anticipatory Grief
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Anxiety
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Communication with Care Teams
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Depression
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Dying and End-of-Life Planning
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Grief
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Family Guidance
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Funeral Planning
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Life Review and Legacy Projects
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Religion, Spirituality, and Existential Concerns
Grief
Powerful losses may be anticipated, sudden, traumatic, or historical, and are often deeply unsettling, lonely, and confusing. Our society and culture do not always provide the safe and supportive space necessary to hold the pain of grief, which can feel deeply isolating. Our therapists are nationally recognized grief experts who understand that grief reactions are incredibly diverse. We do not believe that there is a “right” or “wrong” way to grieve, nor that there is a time limit to the grieving process. We help you to safely explore and honor your specific grief reactions and guide you on the challenging yet important journey of understanding the unique meaning of your important losses. We support you in developing healing rituals to honor the person’s legacy and to promote continued bonds. Together we work to help you to better understand the impact of loss in your life, how to heal, and ultimately, how to reconstruct a meaningful life despite the pain of grief.
Grief-related issues that we commonly support include:
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Bereavement and Mourning
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Chronic Sorrow
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Coronavirus-related Losses
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Homicide Survivorship
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Miscarriage and Pregnancy-related Losses
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Overdose Bereavement
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Sudden Death
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Suicide Survivorship
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Traumatic Losses
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Unrecognized Loss/Disenfranchised Grief
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
The Internal Family Systems (IFS) Model is a gentle, non-pathologizing, evidence-based psychotherapy that our entire team has trained extensively in. This model has gained significant global recognition for being an extraordinary vehicle for deep healing. The IFS model views the human mind as having multiple different “parts” or sub-personalities. Within this complex inner world each part of us has distinct roles, rules, preferences, beliefs, and burdens. Each one of our parts has a positive intention for us, and serves to protect us from behaviors, actions, or reactions that could jeopardize the harmony and functioning of our inner system. Our parts also have complex relationships with each other and to others in the outside world. When our parts experience inner conflicts (i.e., competing beliefs and desires), these are often at the root of experiences such as anxiety, depression, low self-worth, and shame.
Through IFS therapy you will learn to listen to all parts of yourself from a place of curiosity, compassion, creativity, connection, clarity, courage, calm, and confidence. By learning to listen to your parts in this way you can gain deeper insight into the workings of your inner world and facilitate more cooperative interactions among them. Through IFS therapy clients commonly report experiencing less reactivity and distress and a greater sense of ease, confidence, wise decision-making, and more balanced relationships to both themselves and others.
We are so proud to announce that Lara Krawchuk has achieved the highest level of training approval in IFS—IFS certification. She is now available to support client healing AND professional education including clinical supervision and CEU classes through the IFS model. Click here to learn more!
IFS is commonly used for:
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Academic Stress/Distress
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Addictive Behaviors
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Ambiguous, Living, and Nonfinite Losses
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Anxiety
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Attachment Injuries
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Chronic and Life Limiting Physical illness
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Depression
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End of Life
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Family Stress
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Gender-identity and Sexuality
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Grief
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Life Transitions
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Professional Stress/Distress, Compassion Fatigue, Vicarious Trauma
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Trauma
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Relationship Concerns
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Religion, Spirituality, and Existential Concerns
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Self-esteem and Self-worth
Mindfulness and Guided Imagery
Mindfulness is an evidenced-based clinical technique that involves bringing one’s awareness of their internal and external experiences to the present moment while taking an orientation of openness, acceptance, and curiosity. By relating to our experiences in this way, we are better able to separate ourselves from challenging thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations before they become too overwhelming. Mindfulness practices consequently help you to change your patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving so that growth and healing can occur. Our therapists incorporate a variety of mindfulness-based techniques into their practice including breathing exercises and guided imagery to provide you with a holistic healing experience.
Mindfulness is commonly used for:
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Academic Stress/Distress
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Addictive Behaviors
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Ambiguous, Living, and Nonfinite Losses
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Anxiety
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Bipolar Disorder
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Chronic Pain
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Chronic and Life Limiting Physical Illness
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Depression
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Grief
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Life Transitions
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Panic
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Professional Stress/Distress, Compassion Fatigue, Vicarious Trauma
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Trauma
Narrative Therapy
and
Meaning Making
Humans are narrative beings. We place meaning to our experiences to make sense of the world and our place within it. The stories we create profoundly shape our identity, purpose, and the direction of our lives. At times, we live through the lens of stories that do not serve us, which can limit our ability to live full, meaningful lives. At Healing Concepts, we view you as the expert of your experiences and as separate from your problems. Through narrative therapy our therapists will empower you to recognize the impact of the stories guiding your life and will support your exploration of alternative stories that contain the possibility for the changes you hope to create. Together we will help you to disconnect from your historical interpretations of events and to learn how to create meaning in the present moment that is constructive, healing, and empowering to your life’s narrative.
Narrative Therapy is commonly used for:
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Academic Stress/Distress
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Ambiguous, Living, and Nonfinite Losses
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Anxiety
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Attachment Injuries
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Bipolar Disorder
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Chronic and Life Limiting Physical Illness
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Depression
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Family Stress
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Gender-identity and Sexuality
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Grief
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Life Transitions
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Professional Stress/Distress, Compassion Fatigue, Vicarious Trauma
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Relationship Concerns
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Self-esteem and Self-worth
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Trauma
Healing Concepts also offers support to professionals through CEU classes, Memorial Services, Workplace Retreats, and Supervision. Click here to learn more!
We commonly explore:
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Anxiety and Stress
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Bereavement at Work
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Boundaries with Work
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Burnout
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Career Changes
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Compassion Fatigue
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Moral Injury
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Organizational Distress
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Secondary Traumatic Stress
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Vicarious Trauma
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Work-life Balance
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Workplace Distress
Professional Stress and Distress
While it can be a gift to be a helping or medical professional, it can also be exhausting, distressing, and overwhelming. It is common for helpers to struggle to set boundaries with work, to make time for self-care, and to process the physical, mental, and emotional impacts that their work may have on them. When left unaddressed, these concerns can have a significant impact on your health and well-being and may even lead you to leave your profession altogether.
At Healing Concepts, we understand that helpers need to be helped too! Our therapists will work with you to identify the root causes of your stress/distress, to learn skills to promote your overall health and well-being, and to explore creative paths towards healing to put you back on the road to professional satisfaction.
Our therapists recognize that life’s challenges are experienced by both the mind and the body, so healing must involve both as well. While traditional talk therapies engage the mind in the process of making sense of our experiences, somatic and body-based approaches involve bringing awareness to the stories our bodies hold. We believe that there is a profound wisdom inherent in the ways our life experiences manifest in the body. We work with you to gently explore the stories inherent in your bodily sensations, gestures, and physical impulses. By using a combination of dialogue, mindful awareness, breathwork, and other grounding-techniques our therapists can help you to release physical tension stored in the body and to feel more at ease.
Somatic and Body-Based Approaches are commonly used for:
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Academic Stress/Distress
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Ambiguous, Living, and Nonfinite Losses
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Anxiety
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Attachment Injuries
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Chronic and Life Limiting Physical illness
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Depression
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End of Life
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Family Stress
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Grief
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Life Transitions
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Panic
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Professional Stress/Distress
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Relationship Stress
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Trauma
Traumatic events and hurtful attachment experiences that occur within one's family of origin can have a complex and lasting impact on one’s life. Exposures to unanticipated, violent, or frightening events can be deeply unsettling. Feelings of anger, anxiety, confusion, numbness, panic, and sadness are common reactions to traumatic experiences. Our therapists at Healing Concepts recognize and validate all forms of trauma. For some this may include experiencing severely distressing events such as domestic violence, sexual assault, or death. For others this includes experiences of complex and relational trauma that tend to be long-term, hidden, or invalidated by others including being raised by a parent who was emotionally absent or facing discrimination.
Because trauma frequently occurs in the context of relationships, our therapists understand the power and importance of creating a trusting, safe, and stable relationship within which healing can take place. Together, we help you to understand your unique responses to the traumas you have experienced, to explore current challenges to well-being in everyday living, to facilitate healing from past hurts, and to support the recreation of a meaningful life that you can be proud of.
Healing Concepts also offers CEU courses and classes on trauma work to professionals longing to learn more effective skills for helping. Click here to learn more!
Some issues we commonly see include:
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Accidents and Injury
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Adoption Wounds
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Attachment Injuries
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Childhood Abuse History
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Childhood Neglect History
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Discrimination or Marginalization
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Emotional Abuse
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Family Dysfunction
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Intimate Partner Violence
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Medical Trauma
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Military-related Trauma
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PTSD
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Sexual Abuse
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Sexual Assault
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Sudden Illness
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Workplace Harassment/Violence
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Vicarious Trauma/Secondary PTSD (e.g., trauma experienced by First Responders, Health-care Workers, etc.)
