Specialty
Mind-Body Health
When your body keeps carrying what your mind cannot put down
Your body and your mind are not separate systems. Stress, fear and unresolved experiences show up physically, and physical symptoms shape how you think, sleep and move through the world. If you are living with pain, poor sleep, a health condition or a body that no longer feels like yours, you're already aware of this.
Many of the people we work with have spent months or years in medical settings. They have had tests, seen specialists and followed advice, and something is still not right. Some have clear diagnoses and are struggling with everything the diagnosis brought with it. Others have symptoms that no scan fully explains, and they are tired of feeling dismissed.
To be clear from the start, your symptoms are real. Working with a psychologist does not mean anyone thinks your pain, your fatigue or your sleepless nights are imaginary. It means taking seriously how the nervous system, emotions and stress interact with the body, and using that understanding to help you feel better. Mind-body therapy complements appropriate medical evaluation and treatment. It never replaces it.
Our psychologists use evidence-based approaches, including clinical hypnosis, EMDR and somatic and experiential therapy, to work with the whole person rather than a single symptom. Meaningful change is possible, even when the body has felt stuck for a long time.
Common types of mind-body health we treat
Clinicians who specialize in mind-body health
Our psychologists share an integrative, mind-body informed approach while each bringing particular areas of focus. The descriptions below can help you sense who may be the right fit for what you are carrying. *
ACT · EMDR · Hypnosis
Dr. Laura Faiwiszewski is our primary mind-body and health-focused clinician. She works with chronic pain and persistent physical symptoms, sleep difficulties, health-related fears and the emotional weight of living in a body that feels unpredictable. Her work often combines acceptance and commitment therapy with clinical hypnosis to help calm the nervous system patterns that keep symptoms and fear feeding each other.
Full profile →
EMDR · Hypnosis · Insight-Oriented Therapy
Dr. Leora Citrin is particularly relevant if your struggle centers on health anxiety, medical trauma or the emotional aftermath of frightening medical experiences. She helps people process what happened to them in hospitals, procedures and diagnoses so the body and mind can stop bracing for it to happen again.
Full profile →Modalities
Therapy approaches that may help
We integrate these techniques, custom-tailored to you, in the order your nervous system can use first.
Selected Research
- 2020Psychological therapies for the management of chronic pain (excluding headache) in adultsCochrane Database Syst Rev · PubMed ↗
- 2015Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Chronic Insomnia: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysisAnn Intern Med · PubMed ↗
- 2022Hypnosis to manage musculoskeletal and neuropathic chronic pain: A systematic review and meta-analysisNeurosci Biobehav Rev · PubMed ↗
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is mind-body therapy?
- It is psychotherapy that takes seriously how the nervous system, emotions and physical symptoms influence each other. Rather than treating the mind and body as separate problems, it works with the whole person, using evidence-based approaches such as clinical hypnosis, EMDR and somatic and experiential therapy.
- Are you saying my physical symptoms are psychological?
- No. Your symptoms are real, whatever their cause, and nothing about this work suggests otherwise. The mind, nervous system and body constantly influence one another. Therapy can help change the way your system responds to stress, pain and other physical experiences without implying that your symptoms are imagined.
- Do I need to finish medical testing before starting therapy?
- Not necessarily. In many cases, therapy can begin while you continue appropriate medical evaluation or treatment. The two can complement one another, and we will always encourage medical follow-up when symptoms warrant it.
- Which concern should I start with if several apply to me?
- You don’t have to figure that out before reaching out. Pain, poor sleep, health anxiety, illness stress and other concerns often overlap and affect one another. We’ll help you make sense of what’s happening and decide together where it makes the most sense to begin.
- What role does clinical hypnosis play in this specialty?
- Clinical hypnosis can be an important part of this work, particularly for pain, sleep difficulties and stress-related physical symptoms. It helps us work directly with patterns of attention, nervous system arousal and the way physical sensations are experienced. It’s collaborative and skill-based — very different from the stage version of hypnosis.
- How long does mind-body work usually take?
- It depends on what you’re hoping to change and how longstanding the concern is. Some people come for focused work around a specific symptom or pattern, while others benefit from longer-term work addressing the stress, emotions or experiences connected to it. Your clinician will talk with you early on about what a realistic treatment path might look like.