About Me
Welcome! I am Monica Bergnes, a licensed clinical social worker and Certified EMDR Therapist who helps people who have experienced trauma and loss find a way to cope with the present while making meaning of the past. I offer a supportive and compassionate environment to help people make changes and reach their goals with patience, encouragement, and humor.
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Through our work together, I am confident you can experience self-growth and improved mental and emotional health.
I’d love to have a quick chat to see if we are the right fit.
Contact me today so we can start working to find you some relief.
The Approach
​​I will develop a specialized treatment plan tailored to your exact needs, I integrate proven, evidence-based approaches in my work, including:
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Psychodynamic (traditional “talk therapy”)
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Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
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Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment (TIST)
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Intuitive Eating (Certified IE Counselor)
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I work with emerging-to-mid-life adults around many areas of pain, such as anxiety, depression, boundary setting, feeling stuck, and needing help making decisions, but my favorite work is helping people through trauma, loss, and eating disorders.​
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TRAUMA
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Traumatic experiences—whether complex or a single incident—can cause long-lasting dysregulation of the nervous system. To heal from past experiences that are holding you back, you need more than catharsis and insight. You need to address the impact of trauma on your body and learn new ways of coping and relating to yourself and the world.
I incorporate traditional talk therapy with EMDR, a cutting-edge therapy to heal unprocessed memories using bilateral stimulation.
I have the tools to help you learn to regulate your traumatized nervous system, manage your triggers, process your experience, and, ultimately, heal.
There is hope from the impact of trauma. ​​
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LOSS
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Though loss is something everyone will face at some point, the experience of grief is widely misunderstood, which can make it feel very isolating and lonely.
You may feel like others don't understand what you're going through, and you may feel frustrated or disappointed by how the people in your life have responded to your grief.
I can help you manage your grief and find some relief from the pain you are experiencing.
Grief is normal, but that doesn't mean you have to go through it alone.​
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EATING DISORDERS
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While on the outside, eating disorders and disordered eating seem to be about food, they are actually complex reactions to a confluence of factors, psychological, emotional, biological and environmental. Recovery from eating disorders requires learning to listen to, understand, and respond to one's physical and emotional hungers.
I help individuals with eating disorders develop compassion for themselves and for what led them to disordered eating and reduce their stress and anxiety around food.
I believe that complete recovery from eating disorders is possible, you can get on a healthier and happier path and live the life you deserve.
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INTUITIVE EATING
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Intuitive Eating is an evidence-based approach to recover from chronic dieting.It consists of 10 Principles that can be worked through on your own or with the support of a therapist or dietitian who is trained as an Intuitive Eating Counselor.
Intuitive Eating is based in the idea that your body has always had the internal wisdom to feed itself in a way that is both health-promoting way and without restriction or guilt. That innate wisdom has been confused by the disordered messages of diet culture.
Working through the principles of Intuitive Eating is a proven way to end chronic dieting and transform your relationship with food from one of fear and shame to confidence and freedom.​​​​​​​​