There comes a time when the old way of doing things no longer works.
Our human nature is to grow.
Elena Georgouses graduated from CU Boulder with a BA in psychology and a minor in English then went on to receive a Master’s in Social Work from Loyola University in Chicago. She has trained in many modalities of Somatic Psychology and Eastern Psychology. A licensed clinical social worker, Elena has operated a private psychotherapy practice in Vail, Colorado for over 25 years. Early in her career she was a medical social worker at Vail Health (formerly Vail Valley Medical Center) in hospice, home health, and inpatient care. She supervises LCSW and LPC candidates working toward licensure requirements. In addition to her clinical work, she teaches yoga and meditation and hold retreats for groups upon application and request.
About Me
Like you, my journey began as a quest to find myself. As a therapist, my job and passion is to create a supportive container to help you connect with yourself. I endeavor to help you see, identify, and remove whatever blocks you from connecting with the inherent wisdom of your Self, to uncover your innate inner resources to heal, thrive, and experience your intrinsic capacity for joy.
I have a great appreciation for human resiliency and the powerful transformations that occur when we can be with the direct experience of difficulties that most of us were conditioned to avoid.
Helping you connect with yourself is the guiding principle of my work, whether it’s teaching meditation to support your process or being with the discomfort of emotional material. With a solid base in depth psychology, body-centered psychotherapy, attachment based therapy, and transpersonal psychology, I meet each client where she/he/they - is/are and collaborate with the client to develop approach to healing and change while focusing on each client’s or couple’s goals. Carefully listening to your particular situation, lifestyle, emotional vulnerabilities, patterns, and relationships, I’ll support you in unraveling conditioned thinking patterns and behaviors that contribute to your problems and keep you back. If it’s relevant we explore how the past effects the present and shapes how you treat yourself which in turn influences how you relate to others and contribute to the world. I will provide you with structure and accountability to help you achieve what you haven’t been able to on your own.
Who do I work with?
If you are someone who is not satisfied with easy answers, who is curious about the nature of your challenges and emerging patterns, if you want to take a deep dive to connect with your inner experiences, feelings, thoughts, and master the art of taking responsibility for your life (because blaming others keeps you stuck and unhappy), then my services may be a great fit for you. I ask that you prioritize your mental health, and commit to regular therapy initially, so you can create lasting change in your life. I am committed to holding your life’s challenges with you, as you commit to your healing and growth.
How do you know therapy is working?
Evaluating progress is an essential component of the process.
You will know therapy is working for you when you feel engaged, challenged, and more curious about yourself. You are learning about yourself and your relationships. You notice that your perspective on life’s challenges evolves from burdening to interesting. You’ll notice that you’re starting to change behaviors in ways that feel good. Your mood may lift. People close to you may notice that you are calm and less reactive. You notice progress in the goals you set for yourself when you began therapy. Your relationships might feel different. You intentionally think about the choices you make and how your choices impact your feelings about yourself.
How long does it take?
The amount of time you commit to therapy is personal and depends on your goals, needs, and how deep you want to go. The number of sessions varies by presenting problems and conditions. If therapy is going well most people report feeling better after 3 months. Some conditions like PTSD take longer to address.
Therapy promotes a lifestyle of self-inquiry. The majority of the work is done outside the therapy hour. Therapy is like a workout for the mind, heart, spirit, and body. It takes time to notice and sustain results but it feels beneficial from the 1st session/workout. The more you put in, the more you get out of it. The biggest detriment to progress in psychotherapy is that people stop doing the behaviors that support change.
How do you know when therapy is done?
Therapy is a collaborative relationship where both parties actively participate in addressing goals. Sometimes it’s timing. Sometimes the work feels done. Often people return for a ‘tune up’ over the years.
Knowing when to end therapy can be confusing. Look for these markers.
Your overall sense of wellbeing has increased. You’ve made some courageous changes that you weren’t able to make prior to therapy and you’ve seen positive results. You’ve recognized the unhealthy patterns that were inhibiting joy and creativity and you’ve developed effective ways of navigating challenges. You can extend self-compassion, self-love, and gentleness toward yourself. You notice that you’re implementing skills you’ve learned in therapy without thinking about it (a sign you’ve integrated the work). You are more forgiving and don’t blame others or yourself for your problems,. You’ve met most of your goals. You and your therapist decide together it’s time.
Methodologies
Somatic Therapy
The wisdom of the body is an integral source of information and resource for accessing and processing difficult, emotional, relational, and traumatic experiences. The body is a vehicle for understanding and the focus of therapeutic activity. Somatic therapies are experiential and embodied. Notice it, be with it (not in it), and feel it in order to heal it, is the approach. Somatic therapies are effective for treating complex trauma and relational trauma. Traumatic experiences, loss, emotions, and even negative thought patterns can manifest as pain, tightness, discomfort, postural issues, and emotional symptoms. When we go inside (interoceptive attention) we connect with the wisdom of the body and structures of the brain that are dysregulated to effect positive change.
Somatic therapies are holistic, body-centered approaches that facilitate the release of constricted energy. We connect with the body to access internal experience to feel less tension, and stress and greater aliveness and ease.
EMDR
Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) is a technique originally used to alleviate distress associated with trauma and disturbing life experiences, is now also be helpful for people suffering from anxiety, panic attacks, post-traumatic stress or other emotional issues.
EMDR uses bilateral stimulation – stimuli that employs visual, auditory or tactile left to right rhythmic pattern – to heal the mind from psychological trauma faster than other models of therapy by helping activate their own natural healing processes.
Emotional Focused Therapy (EFT)
Emotionally Focused Therapy or EFT, is a highly effective treatment approach for helping couples improve their relationship and remove obstacles to deeper connection. We’ll work to identify points of distress and create a road-map to foster a secure bond between partners.
Research has shown that 70-75% of couples undergoing EFT therapy successfully move from distress to ease and couples experience a 90% improvement in their relationship through EFT therapy. Although short in nature – couples usually attend between 8 and 20 sessions, EFT has excellent long-term success.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a form of psychotherapy that cultivates awareness and challenges distorted thinking while changing destructive patterns of behavior. Short-term and goal oriented, CBT takes a hands-on approach to making you feel better. CBT provides you with tools to change attitudes and behaviors by challenging beliefs, images or thoughts that have held you back from living life fully.
Highly effective for a variety of symptoms, CBT is effective for treating anxiety, depression, and eating disorders. It can also be a helpful tool for anyone looking to manage stressful stress by effectively changing the thoughts and patterns that create the experience of stress.
Yoga Therapy and Trauma Informed Yoga Therapy
A body centered approach that is designed to heighten body awareness, release tension, reduce fear, and tolerate uncomfortable sensations. Yoga therapy helps you foster a connected relationship with the body so you feel safe, centered, and comfortable in your skin. Aimed at improving self-regulation by gaining comfort with your own body, yoga therapy helps you notice what is happening in your body so you can remain present without reacting.
Sometimes movement is an important part of the transformation process. Trauma Informed Yoga or Yoga Therapy can be effective for anyone who has experienced trauma, has anxiety or panic, depression, or is looking to gain self-regulating skills that trigger your own healing process.
Coaching - A Positive Psychology Approach
Utilizing the practices of positive psychology this approach focuses on the enhancement of resilience, achievement, and well-being. We explore the pathways to a life well-lived including, joy, engagement, and meaning. Psychological coaching is psychoeducational and can help you understand your strengths, values, promote positive emotions and learn optimism. Coaching is useful to gain clarity or discover how to move into a different phase of life. Sometimes we can’t seem to cross that last hurdle that stands in our way and life coaching can help you understand and remove obstacles. We work together to move you forward by providing structure and accountability for you to make new choices, take action, and thrive.
Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy
Ketamine is a psychedelic drug that is legal for use in a therapeutic setting. Often people mistake ketamine assisted psychotherapy with ketamine infusion treatments. In Ketamine assisted psychotherapy (KAP) ketamine, (100-200 mg) is taken sublingually in the therapy session. Ketamine acts as catalyst and accelerant to work with painful memories, feelings, sensations, beliefs, and traumatic experiences. Painful and overwhelming experiences that cause anxiety, depression, dissociation, and other symptoms related to trauma come to the surface in the KAP sessions. There is less fear with ketamine which enables clients to engage experiences while the autonomic nervous system stays online. This allows the body to process highly charged emerging material. Additionally, brain scans have shown that in KAP sessions the brain is available to new learning that both supports the therapeutic process and aids in the integration of the experiences. The goal in KAP is to leverage the psychedelic effect of the drug and the relationship with the therapist to work with the underlying causes of symptoms that cause the client distress and disrupt functioning and quality of life.
KAP sessions are somatic processes. As the therapist I create a safe setting with the client that invites the repressed aspects of the subconscious to surface. My approach is relational and very active. My approach is informed by attachment theory, body centered psychotherapy, and depth psychology.
I foster a safe physical and emotional setting so the client can communicate their feelings, thoughts and experiences without judgment. A core tenant of the model I utilize is that humans are inclined toward healing, growth and wellbeing. The client plays an active role in healing supported by the therapist as she/he/they makes discoveries and decisions that will enable growth and change. The KAP sessions include designated time in the process for initial integration following the medicated session.
To maximize the benefit clients are encouraged to journal on their own the day after the session. Further integration sessions follow the ketamine sessions. Integration sessions help synthesize the body and mind following the non-ordinary state of consciousness. In the process the client explores and shares with the therapist insights that arise during the ketamine experience. Feelings, sensations, thoughts and ideas are explored to make meaning of the experience. The integration sessions are a vital component of KAP because integration therapy increases the potential for healing, transformation, and happier daily functioning.
KAP sessions with me require an in depth intake to assess if you are an appropriate candidate for KAP and an appointment with a nurse practitioner physician, psychiatrist, or other healthcare provider who is legally authorized to prescribe ketamine.