Welcome to Pivot Power!
The unpredictability of our world requires the ability to pivot. A pivot can be defined as a fundamental change in your direction. It requires attention, persistence, and the ability to re-evaluate a new approach when factors change and shift.
Although life’s pivotal moments can be painful, they also create an opportunity to do just that. Whether you're battling anxiety, depression, trauma, or other concerns, it is possible to pivot to a path that leads to happier times. This concept is what I believe plants the seeds for post traumatic growth. Imagine you could effectively manage your stress, anxiety, and depression. How would your life be different? How would your relationships, work life, family, and your overall life experience improve?
Together, let’s ignite your pivot power!
Ashley Dunn, MS, LCMHC, LCAS, CSI
Founder/Owner/Therapist/Disrupter
Vision
Empowering leaders and creative entrepreneurs to honor the past, ignite the present, and design a dynamite future.
Mission
We provide an unparalleled therapeutic experience through exceptional clinical care. We achieve this by offering individual therapy, training, and workshops grounded in radical acceptance and generational healing.
At Pivot Power PLLC, we integrate techniques to promote Whole Person Wellness within each of the eight dimensions of wellness; Emotional, Environmental, Financial, Intellectual, Occupational, Physical, Social, and Spiritual.
Many of our clients come to therapy stuck in the same patterns, unsure how to break the cycle but knowing they want to make a change. We all need help with what we think is “okay” or think is positively contributing to our functioning. We help our clients understand where these patterns come from, how these patterns served them in the past, and empower them to shed those parts they have outgrown. We collaborate with our clients to integrate their past experiences with greater bodily and emotional awareness to make choices with agency and authentic presence.
Therapy is not reserved for when “you’re having a hard time.” Sometimes therapy is off-season training/maintenance/preparation.
About Me
I am dually licensed as a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor and a Licensed Clinical Addictions Specialist. These skills were thoughtfully cultivated in competitive academic programs and extensive clinical training.
I have served children/adolescents/adults/families for almost two decades through direct care. This coupled with my leadership and organizational management opportunities have provided me great insight on the collateral impact of unprocessed trauma (across systems and across generations). Some of these positions include Guardian ad Litem Program Supervisor, Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Counselor, Regional Director/Clinical Supervisor (various mental health agencies). These experiences have inspired me to start my own private practice.
Those are my credentials, now let me tell you about what’s important. I am a disrupter. I open the cans and study the worms. I ask questions. I push back on systems and institutions. Recognition of misalignment (in areas of my own life) is something that happens in real time as I work with my clients. Self-examination is a requirement for me as I continue to navigate entrepreneurship and other life challenges. I am doing this WITH you.
I am a professional lesson collector. This skill was cultivated by my faith and my parents. When I was growing up, my mother thought every moment was a teachable moment. One of her go-to phrases was “do you need me to help you remember?” Some of my greatest lessons come from what others may consider “failures.” My parents began planting seeds to shape my mindset on how to handle “falling” and how to get back up.
Upon collection of a lesson, I examine it to decide what said lesson means for me, my life, and who I want to be. I teach my clients the same because we are not wasting any pain. It cost too much. I like to save time, bandwidth, and energy. We only have so much available and need to decide how to allocate it. This is when and why we shift the focus to post traumatic growth.
Areas Of Expertise
Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART)
Accelerated Resolution Therapy, or ART, was created to help people who have experienced trauma. The protocol that is delivered is meant to bring up original traumatic experiences and actually change the way that the information is ultimately stored. ART is comparable to EMDR. Although both therapy modalities use eye movements to guide you through trauma, ART is a more direct, more rapid approach than EMDR. ART is considered to be an upgraded version of EMDR.
The Oxford University Press reports that ART has shown effective reduction in PTSD symptoms in adult civilian and military populations within an average of four treatment sessions with a completion rate of approximately 90%.
Like EMDR, this therapy uses eye movements to help the brain process traumatic events. What makes it different from EMDR is that you don’t have to talk about your trauma for this to work. This is because ART is procedural, though creative; and the client is really in control of the process.
Although some traumatic experiences such as rape, combat or loss of a loved one can be very painful to visualize, early in the ART session the client has already rapidly moved beyond the place where they are stuck in these past experiences and is making positive changes of their choice.
Here are some issues that have been quickly and effectively treated by ART:
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Anxiety
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Depression
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Phobias
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Panic Attacks
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Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
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Post Traumatic Stress (PTS)
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Addictions/ Substance Abuse
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Performance Anxiety
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Family Issues
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Victimization/Poor Self Image
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Victimization/Sexual Abuse
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Codependency
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Grief
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Job-Related Stress
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Pain Management
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Memory Enhancement
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Dyslexia Anxiety
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Family systems therapy is based on the premise that you cannot be understood in a vacuum because you are part of a larger context-the emotional unit of your family of origin. With this understanding, family systems therapy helps people resolve any number of issues by working with the family dynamic.
Although family systems therapy and internal family systems therapy sound similar they have a key difference. IFS focuses on your inner workings while family systems therapy focuses on the ways family members interact with and affect one another. Think about your own family. Everyone has a role in how your family functions.
Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a type of therapy that believes we are all made up of several parts. IFS helps us understand the parts of you that work to control and protect you from perceived danger. IFS focuses on healing the wounded parts and restoring mental balance and harmony by changing the dynamics that create discord among your parts. Think about the part of you that wants to get up vs the part of you that wants to hit snooze. Every part has a role/function. Once you better understand the parts of you, you can better operate.
This is your movie. You are not only the main character, you are the director.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a type of psychotherapy that combines cognitive therapy and behavioral therapy to help you manage problems by changing your thoughts and behaviors. It's a common and well-studied treatment for many mental health issues, including anxiety and depression, as well as emotional concerns like grief and stress. CBT can also help with non-psychological health conditions like insomnia and chronic pain.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
CBT helps you understand how your thoughts affect your emotions and behaviors. DBT is specially adapted for those who experience emotions very intensely. “Dialectical” means combining opposite ideas. DBT focuses on helping you accept the reality of your life and behaviors, as well as helping you learn to change your live, including unhelpful behaviors.
My Approach
I spend time getting to know your “ingredients.” Everyone’s ingredients are different. I need to understand the institutions that have shaped you (i.e. caregivers, education systems, religion, culture, peers, vocation, society, social media) and how they impact you today. It is important that I get to know you and understand your personal values, beliefs, and goals. In this way, I can provide you with individualized care to meet your unique needs while recognizing that you function as part of several larger systems.
Your treatment will be tailored to optimize your strengths, encouraging relationship building, and self-actualization. I believe a sense of balance fosters clarity and the ability to make well informed choices. I believe a sense of humor fosters joy and laughter-so I use that too.
Many of us need help with what we think is “okay.” The people who raised you are not unwounded. They have thoughts and opinions on the world based on their experiences and perception of those experiences. You were not born with the opinions/beliefs that you currently hold-neither were they.
I work to understand what you believe-about everything. I work to understand what you want. Specifics. Results. I examine all eight dimensions of wellness; Emotional, Environmental, Financial, Intellectual, Occupational, Physical, Social, and Spiritual. How are you doing in each dimension? How would you like to be doing in each dimension? Your limiting beliefs stand in the way. We will challenge them. We will work through them. Once we restore your hope (must happen first), then we figure out how to get there. I am a former athlete who has been coached by her Marine father. So, we are here to work. This will be work and you must want the results bad enough. I already want it for you. Let’s go.
