Heidi McKinley, LPC · Individual Therapy
Ongoing IFS + EMDR therapy.
For understanding what's happening now — and working with what's at the root.
Many of the patterns that bring us to therapy make sense when we understand what they developed in response to.
I use IFS, EMDR, and other experiential approaches to help you get to know the parts of yourself carrying old pain, work with experiences that still feel present, and develop a different relationship with your inner world.
What this is
Therapy that goes beneath insight.
Understanding why we do what we do can be enormously helpful. And sometimes we understand a pattern very well and still find ourselves right back inside of it.
That's where experiential therapy can offer something different.
Rather than only talking about what happens, we can slow down and work with it as it shows up — the parts involved, what your body is doing, the memories or beliefs underneath it, and what your system has learned to expect.
Sometimes that means getting to know a protective part through IFS. Sometimes it means using EMDR to reprocess a memory or experience that still feels activating in the present. Sometimes the most important thing is what is happening in your life or relationships right now.
Ongoing therapy gives us room for all of it.
What is parts work? →Who I work with
You might be a good fit if…
- You've been in therapy before and understand quite a bit about yourself, but some of the same patterns keep showing up.
- You're living with the effects of C-PTSD, attachment wounds, or complex relational trauma.
- Different parts of you seem to want very different things.
- You find yourself repeating patterns in relationships even when another part of you knows better.
- You're high-functioning in many areas of your life while carrying more internally than other people tend to see.
- You're curious about your inner world and interested in therapy that is experiential, relational, and trauma-informed.
What ongoing therapy makes possible
Room to follow the work.
We don't have to decide at the beginning exactly where therapy will take us.
We may spend a period of time focused very specifically on a trauma memory or relational pattern. At other times, the work may move toward something happening in your current life, grief or transition, a protective part that keeps appearing, or an older attachment wound underneath what brought you in.
The continuity of ongoing therapy lets us follow those connections as they emerge rather than organizing our work around one predetermined target.
How I work
IFS is my primary lens.
Internal Family Systems starts from the assumption that our internal contradictions make adaptive sense in the context of our histories.
The part of you that wants closeness and the part that pulls away. The part that knows you're safe and the part whose body is certain you're not. The part that wants to change and the part that keeps doing the thing you've promised yourself you wouldn't do again.
Rather than trying to get rid of these responses, we're interested in getting to know them — what they learned, what they're protecting, and what they might need now.
IFS is my main modal, I return to most, but I also integrate other modalities I've been trained in.
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Parts work, protective strategies, and developing greater access to Self.
EMDR
Reprocessing memories and experiences that continue to feel present or shape how your system responds now.
AEDP & relational work
Using emotion and the therapeutic relationship as part of the work itself.
Narrative Therapy
Listening to the stories your parts hold and helping you become the author or your own life.
Ongoing or focused?
IFS and EMDR for both ongoing therapy and Focused Trauma Reprocessing
With ongoing therapy, I'm your primary therapist. We have room to work with what emerges over time, including current life, relationships, parts work, attachment, and trauma reprocessing.
Focused Trauma Reprocessing is shorter-term and organized around a particular issue or trauma target. It's often a good fit for someone who already has a therapist they want to continue seeing, or who wants to address a particular piece of trauma work without beginning open-ended therapy.
Learn about Focused Trauma Reprocessing →Fees
Fees & payment
Private pay only. I do not accept insurance. Superbills are available upon request for clients who wish to seek out-of-network reimbursement.
Sessions are offered by telehealth to clients in Wisconsin and Louisiana.
Getting started
Interested in working together?
My ongoing caseload is currently full, but you're welcome to join my waitlist. I'll reach out when a space becomes available.
If you're interested in Focused Trauma Reprocessing, I currently have availability for short-term/intensive work.
