Aletha Eastwood

Aletha Eastwood (she/her)

Licensed Professional Counselor

MA, Certified Hakomi Therapist, Level 2 AEDP therapist

I offer a safe space for us to explore and heal hurtful patterns and to help you uncover and move in alignment with your authentic self.

Client Status

accepting clients

Contact

5032672565

5404 N Montana Ave.

Portland, 97217

At a Glance

Me

Rate: $125-$150

Provides free initial consultation

Practicing Since: 2021

Services

  • Individual
  • Relationship

Insurances Accepted

  • Out of Pocket
  • Out of Network

My Ideal Client

I work with individuals and couples who are looking for relief from distress or searching for clarity amidst confusion. This distress and confusion may be in relationship with yourself, with others, or with the world you find yourself in. I endeavor to meet you where you are to create a healing relationship with you. Together we will make a safe space for you to have new experiences of trust, ease, belonging, and authentic connection.

My Approach to Helping

I have been a Certified Hakomi Practitioner since 2013. I invite you into a place of curiosity and nonjudgment about your experience. Using mindfulness and experiential approaches drawn from attachment theory, Hakomi, AEDP, EFT, and interpersonal neurobiology, we can identify and untangle old patterns of behavior and process unhelpful beliefs and old or ongoing wounding or trauma. These old patterns and beliefs are based in our experiences of the world, often from our earliest experiences in childhood or through trauma. Over time, they continue to function and can create a barrier to living a more satisfying life. In our work together, I offer a safe space to explore and heal patterns that are no longer working for you and to help you uncover and move in alignment with your authentic self. Our relationship becomes a foundation for exploration, acceptance, and growth from which you learn new ways to create greater fulfillment and connection with yourself, others, and your world.

My Values as a Therapist

I see therapy as a relational process. Hakomi is a practice of active, deep listening that invites you, as the client, to experience your own inherent wisdom. With my presence and guidance, I help you to anchor into this wisdom. Holding an attachment-based lens and recognizing how trauma disrupts our natural attachment system, I adjust and attune when difficult feelings, thoughts, and experiences arise. I help you to find your deeper connection to yourself once again. From Hakomi and my Buddhist meditation practice and studies, I believe that even the parts of ourselves we would rather get rid of have wisdom. No part of our experience is without wisdom. It is in the listening that we discover what is needing to be heard. In my work with couples, I draw on Nonviolent Communication and Emotion Focused Therapy to strengthen communication skills and uncover rutted patterns that have become barriers to intimacy and connection.

Techniques I Use

Specialties

  • Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) External link

    AEDP recognizes that relational traumas occur when we are isolated in our experience in the face of overwhelming emotions. We become contracted around this traumatic experience, unable to move forward. Healing occurs in undoing the aloneness, giving space to gently re-orient the contraction toward our natural curiosity and creativity. In working together, we can rebuild your capacity to be with your emotions, out of survival mode, and into your natural state of flourishing.

Issues I Treat

Specialties

  • Loss or Grief External link

    Grief is complex, and each person has their own unique experience. Sometimes we collect our losses and do not recognize our deep need to grieve. Sometimes our loss is unrecognized by others. The dominant American culture often does not allow much space or permission to grieve. A sudden or unexpected loss can lead to traumatic grief, kicking in our body's survival mechanisms. Wherever you find yourself in the process, I can help you navigate to a place that feels workable and connected.

Contact Aletha

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