Victoria Ford
Effective therapy.
I offer a focused yet gentle approach in this alternative to traditional weekly therapy.
Find out how it may benefit and work for you.
Victoria Ford, M.S., LMFT
EMDR and Somatic Therapist
Welcome!
I am currently at full capacity and not scheduling clients. Feel free to email for referrals.
Victoria Ford, M.S., LMFT
EMDR and Somatic Therapist
victoria@waterstreetcounseling.com
Are you an adult with anxiety, high stress, feeling stuck, past trauma or relationship problems?
This is exactly what I successfully treat, with 20 years of experience.
It is really time for mental health services to have an update.
Covid highlighted our need for mental health support, and also highlighted for me the need to deliver services in a different way.
First, online sessions are convenient and effective. It surprised me as well as my clients. I have learned the research supports online therapy as effective, and there is even more research available now. I have taken ethical and advanced training in providing telehealth, and I am comfortable now and happy to have this option to provide excellent quality therapy to my community. Most of the clients that I was seeing during the worst of Covid are by choice continuing to work with me online, as needed.
Clients save time, have less interruption in their day, and can feel safe and sound in their own comfortable environment. I offer a hybrid of both online and live sessions for the time being; with most online.
Second, weekly sessions don't work well for everyone's lifestyle. Sometimes you need to process something big or deep, and it needs a few hours of attention, not one hour at a time for weeks and months.
I offer blocks of time set aside to be with the heart of the matter, and kindly and safely move towards change. It's such a relief for me the clinician to spend more time with you and know that in a manner of hours and days you can get through what may have taken months otherwise. EMDR Intensives have been around for a long time. It is an approach to therapy that does require specialized training to deliver well and safely. An experienced therapist often has a full calendar and that is true of me; however I've adjusted my schedule to allow for this because I see how powerful and helpful it is to clients.
As an EMDR and Somatic Therapist, I am trained to offer you a couple of different approaches to work through trauma or distressing experiences. Somatic Therapy (soma= Greek word for body) pays attention to how a body is affected as it is coming out of trauma and supports a new felt experience, regulation and resilience.
EMDR Therapy is powerful in its ability to reprocess trauma and offer relief from disturbing images, nightmares or unrelenting experiences. Before we begin, an assessment is important in order to treat you with the the most excellent and kind care. I will tailor your treatment with the most safe and effective approach.
EMDR Intensive Therapy is a focused and accelerated form of therapy. If you have experienced trauma such as an accident or witnessing violence, PTSD, relational trauma, abuse, chronic tension and stress, or complicated grief and loss...EMDR Therapy is designed to address these problems. Somatic Therapy works with the same issues, in a different way that is also effective and quite gentle.
My commitment is to provide competent and compassionate assessment and treatment for you.
Read more about EMDR Intensives, benefits and research here.
I refer to other therapists with a specialty if your struggle is substance abuse or an eating disorder. You deserve the right therapist with the best education and experience to support you in these areas you'd like to work on. EMDR or Somatic Therapy may help what is underlying; I do adjunct work with primary therapists and could collaborate with them at the just right time for you.
If you would like to learn about EMDR Therapy, read more here.
Victoria Ford, M.S., LMFT, is an independent practitioner
How could this support you?
Contact me
When I have openings again I will update this! At this time I am not accepting new clients. Feel free to reach out for referrals.
Specialized approach
When the body remembers trauma...EMDR and Somatic Therapy are a powerful combination.
"No amount of talk therapy will undo what the body remembers; the trauma is stored outside of your thinking brain. So you can't think it out. An old survival response - in behavior, thinking, or emotional or physical reactions- might be running your show. It may have once been adaptive, protective or helpful to you, but it's not anymore. Sometimes defensive patterns are stuck in the nervous system and musculature. You deserve an approach that includes your whole person, especially when trauma is involved.
I provide that with EMDR Therapy and Somatic Experiencing therapy...these are evidence-based, effective therapy approaches. Your capacity to enjoy life, to take a full breath, to feel your own capacity and healthy energy for life is profound and possible. And the world needs you, uniquely you showing up as your whole self. When you're ready to work things through so that you can be more of yourself, I am here. I can't wait to meet you!"
- Victoria Ford, EMDR Certified Therapist
Intensive Programs
Most Common Program Options for EMDR Intensives
Common Programs: All Options are Tailor Made for You
Half Day Intensive: Total 6 clinical hours
90 minute pre-intensive clinical assessment
3 clinical hours of therapy for the half day
90 minute post-intensive therapy session
1 Day Intensive: Total 9 clinical hours
90 minute pre-intensive assessment session
Personalized treatment workbook
6 clinical hours of therapy for the day
90 minute post-intensive therapy session
3 Day Intensive: Total 21 clinical hours (weekday or weekend):
90 minute pre-intensive assessment session
Personalized treatment workbook
6 clinical hours of therapy for each day (18 hours total)
90 minute post-intensive therapy session
Paying up front versus Over Time
I have updated the way I deliver therapy based on research, based on experience and based on what my clients tell me.
Providing dedicated, uninterrupted time to work through past experiences is time saving overall, and often cost savings. Weekly sessions over months adds up. Meanwhile you are setting time aside frequently, dipping in to the deeper issues yet needing to pull up before ending a 50 minute session to carry on with normal life.
Most clients are in therapy for at least 6 months and often longer. That is NOT a bad thing; it's just important to consider the financial cost and cost of waiting for results. Time is absolutely valuable, and behavior change does take time. However if it's stored trauma from the past that's burdening you (and creating the behaviors or experiences you don't like) - an EMDR Intensive could be very beneficial to you. See research on the economy and effectiveness of EMDR Intensives here. Some of my clients with Complex Trauma schedule an Intensive every other month or once quarterly to benefit from a therapeutic relationship over time, while still fully addressing their core concerns.
Your Therapist's Experience Counts and Adds Value for You
I have 20 years experience with families, individual adults, couples, teens, and children. I have countless hours of training each of those 20 years; far beyond what is required to remain licensed. That means that you benefit. I have advanced training in EMDR Therapy, as well as Somatic Therapy, Trauma, Couples and Family Relationships, Family of Origin training, and training in how to provide EMDR Intensives safely and effectively. I bring all of this to support you in your current struggle, for the direct benefit of your healing and wellness. That's what I'm here for!
EMDR Intensives as Adjunct Therapy
Colllaboration: EMDR as Adjunct Therapy
We've all had those moments in therapy where we feel stuck or loop on issues related to negative life experiences. It can be discouraging for both the client and the therapist. Often times, when the primary therapist and client collaborate with an EMDR therapist, this partnership can help move treatment forward.
I partner with primary therapists and their clients to target their clients’ specific memories, body sensations, or limiting beliefs with EMDR. By narrowly targeting specific traumatic memories or intrusive material, brief adjunct EMDR can accelerate progress in traditional therapy, help the client and the primary therapist to resolve stuck points, and enrich their ongoing work.
Adjunct therapy does not replace or interrupt ongoing therapy; it is supplemental to the primary therapeutic relationship. With adjunct EMDR therapy, clients continue to receive treatment with their primary therapist. Usually adjunct therapy is short term. Treatment is often scheduled in an intensive format.
The success of treatment is based on clearly defined goals for the EMDR therapist, defined in collaboration with the primary therapist and client.
Email me if you are interested in Adjunct EMDR Intensive services, as a client or collaborating therapist.
Why do I offer this?
Why am I inspired to offer Intensives?
I absolutely love providing EMDR Therapy.
Why? Because I have a front row seat to witness lives change for the better, and often dramatically. Clients are changed by EMDR, and their relationships and many aspects of their lives are improved...and that gift carries on to the ones they love and care about.
For over 20 years I have enjoyed working with children, families and couples as well as adult individuals. I am a relationship-minded therapist. Now I am gathering in all of this experience and training, and working with individual adults one at a time to promote the healing you need to be well in these important relationships. When the work is left unfinished, it usually hurts and limits our life.
I witnessed how unresolved trauma was causing so much pain and disruption in families. I am motivated and dedicated now to provide one-on-one EMDR Intensives to support you in enjoying your own life and relationships. Intensives simply get you there sooner, when they are an appropriate option.
I recognized the limitations of weekly sessions. Sometimes time is drained during and between sessions, not intentionally - but due to time needed to open and close sessions, addressing the current moment situations that inevitably need tending - and opportunities are taken away from reprocessing the driving, core problem.
Sometimes people's lives prevent them from coming to therapy every week or they simply don't want that kind of time interruption in their work or home life. -People are having difficulty finding skilled, experienced therapists with openings, and that pains me and includes me.
So I did something about it; I have redesigned my practice and trained in effectively delivering EMDR Intensives for you. After piloting this program, I am sharing this availability now.
I offer flexible options to access therapy through gentle EMDR Intensives personalized for your goals and your timeline.
EMDR Intensives are truly beneficial and if you're curious about how this may help you, feel welcome to email me for FAQs and pricing information, and a 15 minute free phone consultation if desired.
About Victoria
Co-founder of Water Street Family Counseling
After 12 years in community work as a Marriage and Family Therapist, colleague Carmen McHenry and myself founded Water Street Family Counseling together. We discovered this beautiful house in downtown Liberty, and had only dreamed of this very kind of setting. I think we may have skipped around in the yard. We were so excited!
We shared an agency office space previously, and for YEARS we had a picture framed in our office, hung right behind a couch where we saw it every day. The picture was a doorway with beautiful scenery, including a bicycle leaned against the home. The address above the doorway read "117." The exact address of our Water Street practice now!
It was by design and in us all along, to come to this community in this historic home and provide a home-like atmosphere for ourselves and our clients. That bicycle represented movement, availability, transition and freedom. As in life, sometimes it takes years to realize the dream and destiny that is right within you. When the time is just right, the answers and opportunity line up and show themselves.
This is how Water Street Family Counseling was born - and evidence that there is always a future and a hope. There is a design that is working in the background of life if we can get out of our own way and reach towards the future that is meant to be ours. -When this is true, it benefits others as well.
I can help you connect more strongly to your own values and life principles too, in a way that fulfills and serves you, and others. I have had to sort through fears, doubts and stuck life energy to get to this place. And that continues, as we are always evolving. Thankfully, I received support from others including friends, family and professional therapists. You deserve support too; therapy is life changing. It's ok to reach out!
Compassionate, Competent and Skilled
I can help you effectively and kindly. How you are in the process matters; you deserve a kind, flexible and effective approach.
Human Being Experience :)
There is something beneficial about working with someone who has a healthy amount of life experience. That I do!
Personally - I am a mom, wife, adult child to older parents, sibling to a twin and a sister. I spend as much time in connection with them as I can, given we are spread out across the country!
If not working, I'll be camping or planning a trip, taking photos of a pathway, a bridge or some other inspiring and delightful scene to share and remember. You will find photos from Smithville Lake and Colorado on this website; a couple of my favorite places!
A healthy therapist is good for you
"I treasure taking breaks to breathe and reconnect emotionally, mentally and spiritually - and I come back to you a healthier, happier, more creative version of myself. I have learned to truly care for myself.
After lots of healing, life changes, soul searching and supportive therapy over the years, my life is so different now. Calmer, happier, more peaceful, more joyful, more spacious. I can care for you better from this place.
When I accept a new client into my practice it's because I have room in my being to fully be with you, and I look forward to that meeting."
Best Wishes for you,
- Victoria