Counseling

The Wellness Within mission is to hear each client empathically; to understand where they want more balance in their lives; and to support them to enhance their self-regulation, adaptability and resilience.

“My therapeutic approach is eclectic. I work from an integrated lens of holistic-based mental health treatment for those seeking a whole-person approach to building resilience. I am well-versed in Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), and Mindfulness. I support clients with a range of mental health concerns including anxiety, depression, grief, life transitions, coping through stress and enhancing sense of self. I also support and serve clients from all gender and romantic identities.”

Kristen Kauke, MSW/LCSW, RYT 500, AYS, Owner of Wellness Within

Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)

According to The Association for Contextual Behavioral Science, “ACT illuminates the ways that language entangles clients into futile attempts to wage war against their own inner lives. Through metaphor, paradox, and experiential exercises clients learn how to make healthy contact with thoughts, feelings, memories, and physical sensations that have been feared and avoided.” 

Language can be helpful in describing how you might feel, but sometimes, there just isn’t a word to describe what’s going on in your head. This can cause us harm, as we might turn on ourselves with negative thoughts that inflame already tender feelings. By weeding out the negative language with how we speak to ourselves, we can begin to create a new vernacular that helps us heal and improve our wellness.

ACT is also about letting go of what is out of your control and taking action in what enhances your life - your heart’s deepest desires for who you want to be and what you want to do. It’s about using core values to guide, motivate, and inspire behavioral change to get out of your head and into your life.

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)

The definition of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy by Psychology Today states that, “Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) provides clients with new skills to manage painful emotions and decrease conflict in relationships. DBT specifically focuses on providing therapeutic skills in four key areas. First, mindfulness focuses on improving an individual's ability to accept and be present in the current moment. Second, distress tolerance is geared toward increasing a person’s tolerance of negative emotion, rather than trying to escape from it. Third, emotion regulation covers strategies to manage and change intense emotions that are causing problems in a person’s life. Fourth, interpersonal effectiveness consists of techniques that allow a person to communicate with others in a way that is assertive, maintains self-respect, and strengthens relationships.” 

The reason I integrate DBT into my counseling practice is because of the compassionate lens and incredible results it can provide my clients. Sometimes we may find ourselves in situations that we can’t control and develop unhealthy thoughts and behaviors as a result. Seeking help to face these situations and break unhealthy patterns, no matter how severe, is the first and often most important step towards taking back your health and wellness.

Mindfulness

Psychology Today defines Mindfulness as, “a state of active, open attention to the present. This state is described as observing one’s thoughts and feelings without judging them as good or bad. To live mindfully is to live in the moment and reawaken oneself to the present, rather than dwelling on the past or anticipating the future. To be mindful is to observe and label thoughts, feelings, sensations in the body in an objective manner. Mindfulness can therefore be a tool to avoid self-criticism and judgment while identifying and managing difficult emotions.”

Mindfulness is the bridge between these two approaches to the counseling services I provide my clients. Teaching mindfulness has shown time and time again to help calm the nervous system in times of distress and remove mental tension that can cause my clients to feel stuck or trapped.