Ginny Kington (she/her)

You may have just recently been diagnosed with a chronic illness, or you may have been coping with one for years. You are probably exhausted and frustrated with how long it took to get a diagnosis or to find the right treatment. You may feel alone in your experience and like no one understands what you are going through. Therapy can provide education about coping skills for dealing with these changes and emotions, as well as a place to discuss and get support for your experience.

If you've had one or more traumatic experiences, you would benefit from getting help in understanding what has happened to you, and finding ways to cope. Treatment can also help restore a sense of control over your life.​ I have extensive training and experience in treating trauma using several methods in psychotherapy. One of these methods is EMDR treatment. Research has shown that this method of treatment is quite effective in treating symptoms related to trauma.

Therapy can be a place to figure out how to adjust to parenthood and how to cope with the pressures that come with this new role. It also provides you with a place to get support for what you are going through. I work with men and women who are struggling with this adjustment in a more mild form as well as men and women who are experiencing postpartum mood and anxiety disorders.

I often work with clients from a relational perspective which means that I look at their patterns of relating to others, and how these patterns often originate from relationships earlier in life. Even though they begin early in life, they often continue throughout life, and they may cause problems in adulthood. Once people are aware of the interpersonal patterns they are engaging in during adulthood, we are able to start working on altering them if needed.

I most often work from an integrative perspective, which means I use techniques from psychodynamic, interpersonal, and cognitive behavioral theories. I use the techniques that are most appropriate for my individual client's situation, and the ones that appeal to them the most.

I have completed EMDR training through the EMDR International Association in order to be able to provide this life changing treatment to my clients who are having difficulty moving on from negative past experiences. EMDR is best known as a treatment for trauma, and can be used to treat symptoms of PTSD, but it can also help reduce distress associated with any negative past experience and can help people begin to see themselves in a more neutral or positive light.

I work with many individuals who have been through traumatic experiences and are experiencing symptoms related to those experiences, including symptoms of PTSD. After establishing that they have the coping skills to help them start to process the trauma, we typically use EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) to help them process the traumatic memory and decrease the emotional distress they feel when recalling the traumatic event.

I also work with clients who have been diagnosed with one or more chronic illnesses. They often experience symptoms of anxiety or depression due to the toll that the illness has taken on their lives. We work together to develop a plan to decrease their anxiety and depression and to help them cope with the symptoms of their illness. We also work to help them increase their support network, and to become more willing to ask for help from others since this can often be difficult for them.

I see anxiety in many forms in my practice, since it can be related to my specialties, including trauma, chronic illness, the postpartum period, or divorce. It can be related to social interactions or it can come out of the blue like panic attacks. I help clients identify the root cause of their anxiety, and to identify what is going on to maintain their anxiety. We then develop a treatment plan to address both the triggers and the maintaining factors involved in their anxiety symptoms.

I will use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to work with clients on symptoms of depression and anxiety. CBT involves looking at how your thoughts impact your feelings and your behaviors. When we are anxious or depressed, our thinking can become distorted, and it is important to be able to evaluate our thought processes before they impact how we feel. When we are anxious or depressed, we often need to address our thought distortions before they lead to us feeling depressed or anxious.