Allegra Saunders-Sawicky

Hey! Welcome to my little space, glad you’re here! I’m Allegra, I imagine if you’ve made it here you're wondering what it would be like to start therapy. You are not alone. There are many people who consider giving therapy a chance. Maybe it's to help them see things a bit differently. Some are hoping for significant changes in the way that they interact with the world around them. Others are simply looking for someone to help them untangle the labyrinth of their minds. No matter the reason you are seeking support, my hope is to be a trusted witness to your unique experience. I believe that your story in your words carries power and with a bit of intentionality and awareness, together, we can help you move towards a place of greater peace and well-being.

Over the years, I have found that I align well with folks who are open to exploration, curiosity, and opportunities for reflection and gentle challenges. I am pretty fluid in my style and approach, and value quality time to build rapport that allows you to feel known and understood. I tend to align with people who are not looking for a quick fix, but are instead open to the process of discovering what best serves you over time. I also have a propensity for folks who have experienced acute and/or chronic trauma and thoroughly enjoy helping people navigate through the twists and turns of their healing journeys.

Most of my sessions are guided by narrative therapy as I believe people are best understood through their stories. This is the guiding principle of narrative work: deconstructing troublesome dominant stories and re-authoring more preferred stories that serve you well. When navigating trauma, I blend narrative work and trauma stabilization skill-building with EMDR to offer those with chronic and/or acute trauma an opportunity to relate to their experience and story differently. EMDR is far more than a technique, but an understanding that trauma exists in our system today and is often felt emotionally and somatically. I typically engage in EMDR upon developing rapport, exploring life skills for emotional regulation, and defining a preferred stance to the event(s) to re-process.

I include somatic-based practices from the first session until discharge. Depending on your presenting concerns and/or what you are working on, I may encourage reflection related to how the body is holding emotions. This is done primarily in a collaborative capacity, as you are the expert in your own body.

I seek to understand folks using psychodynamic and attachment lenses, exploring the histories of those who came before us and how they have an impact on our present experience of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. This is done so I can better understand you and how you make decisions, but also allows you to see patterns, trends, and make sense of situations that find their root beyond your own experience. I find that attachment styles are important in understanding how we relate to one another. I spend a lot of time reviewing interpersonal functioning and childhood experiences from an attachment lens. This is more or less woven into my approach to addressing trauma and how we relate and develop relationships that seek to serve and support us.

Simply put, insight, awareness, and humor. You can expect to take things a bit slow at first while we get to know one another and build up a therapeutic relationship. During this time, we'll explore what serves you most, who and what may be helpful, and ultimately develop hopes for what our time together will look like. You can also expect me to be transparent and true to myself as I encourage the same of you.