From the Therapist's Chair: Jaclyn Sepp on Person-Centered Therapy
At Ensemble Therapy, we care deeply about the “why” behind our practice of counseling.
We believe there is not a “one-size-fits-all” approach to counseling; each therapist views the counseling process and their clients through a unique lens formed from years of education and experience. This means that as a client, you can choose the counselor who is the best fit for you or your child. While this freedom to choose the best-fit may sound nice at first, it can be difficult to know how to choose when there seem to be so many ways to do therapy. Not only are there lots of theories on how to practice counseling, often the language behind counseling theories is difficult to understand and apply without any previous background knowledge.
As the client or the caregiver of a child client, you deserve to know and understand how your counselor practices therapy. Counseling exists for the growth and well-being of you, your family, and your community; therefore, counseling should be accessible and easy to understand for the greater public. In an effort to make our counseling practice more accessible and easy to understand for our clients, we want to introduce you to our counselors and their respective approaches to counseling.
Throughout the next several months, we’re going to take you through interviews with each of our therapists so you can learn the “why” behind their practice of counseling. This week, you’ll get to know a little more about Jaclyn Sepp, Senior Therapist and Founder of Ensemble Therapy. We hope you enjoy getting to sit a moment in the therapist’s chair and learn a little bit about counseling from our eyes.
About Jaclyn
Jaclyn believes that all human beings, no matter how small, deserve a place to be accepted for who they are, which drove her to establish Ensemble Therapy in 2015 with the mission to bring high-quality therapeutic services to children, teens, and their families in Central Austin. Originally from Atlanta, she moved to Austin to study Psychology at UT and later earned her Masters in Professional Counseling from Texas State University. With 11 years of experience in public education as an educator and school counselor, Jaclyn understands the daily challenges that children & families face from a universal standpoint. She greatly values the capacity of the child's family and community to positively influence a child's social & emotional development. In the counseling room, Jaclyn incorporates Child-Centered Play Therapy and Mindfulness-Based Practices to offer her clients a safe place to explore their inner world of emotions and develop coping skills.
What is your theory/approach to therapy?
I practice from a foundation of Person-centered theory (also referred to as Client-centered theory) with Mindfulness-Based approaches. I was trained in Child-centered play therapy (developmentally appropriate Person-centered theory) which is based on the evidence-based research of Virgina Axline, Carl Rogers, Louise Guerney, and Garry Landreth. The assumptions of Person-centered theory are that human beings have the innate drive to solve their own problems and strive for self-actualization. Clients heal when engaged in a therapeutic environment that provides empathy, acceptance, genuineness, congruence, safety, and unconditional positive regard. As clinicians, we trust in our clients’ own abilities to understand themselves, gain mastery over their problems, and direct their lives in productive and emotionally healthy ways.
Axline (1969) outlined eight principles that are the foundation of my therapy practice with clients:
The therapist must develop a warm, friendly relationship with the child, in which good rapport is established as soon as possible.
The therapist accepts the child exactly as they are.
The therapist establishes a feeling of permissiveness in the relationship so that the child feels free to express their feelings completely.
The therapist is alert to recognize the feelings the child is expressing and reflects those feelings back to them in such a manner that they gain insight into their behavior.
The therapist maintains a deep respect for the child’s ability to solve their own problems if given an opportunity to do so. The responsibility to make choices and to institute change is the child’s.
The therapist does not attempt to direct the child’s actions or conversation in any manner. The child leads the way; the therapist follows.
The therapist does not attempt to hurry the therapy along. It is a gradual process and is recognized as such by the therapist.
The therapist establishes only those limitations that are necessary to anchor the therapy to the world of reality and to make the child aware of their responsibility in the relationship.
As a therapist, the most important thing is that I show up with presence in our session. It is not about “fixing” feelings or “rescuing” a client, but rather communicating that I’m right here with you, walking alongside you. I do this by communicating Landreth and Bratton’s (2019) five “be with” attitudes:
I’M HERE: Nothing will distract me.
I HEAR YOU: I will listen fully to what you are expressing verbally and what you are not expressing through nonverbal cues.
I UNDERSTAND: I communicate that I know what you are communicating, feeling, experiencing, and playing through my feedback and reflections.
I DELIGHT IN YOU: I see your strengths and I enjoy you as a person.
I CARE: By conveying the above attitudes, you will not see me as a threat and let me into your circle of safety, increasing vulnerability.
When I communicate these attitudes, I’m allowing my clients to show their world how capable, creative, resilient, and responsible they are.
Building off of the foundations of my Person-centered training, I realized the need for more directive mind/body integration through the research on neuroscience from Bruce Perry, Dan Siegel, Tina Payne Bryson, Lisa Dion, Robyn Gobbel, and Brene Brown. All behavior is communication. Trauma, stressors, changes in our life, sensory processing issues, developmental delays, and learning difficulties are all stored in our nervous systems. When we experience these threats, our brain does what it was biologically designed to do – keep us safe. It does this by activating the “downstairs” part of our brain, also referred to as our primitive brain or reptilian brain. Even though we may no longer be experiencing a threat, our brain is on high alert for self-protection. When our brain is in this dysregulated state, we see an increase in behaviors that are developmentally regressed or maladaptive (meltdowns, tantrums, aggression, anxiety, depression, lying, impulsivity, inattention, etc).
This is where mindfulness-based techniques come into play.
We build resiliency by practicing going through difficult things within a safe relationship with a regulated individual. When someone shows up for us in a time of adversity it makes the difference between our client becoming fragile (think of fight/flight/freeze reactions from our downstairs brain) versus our client developing resiliency.
After developing a strong therapeutic alliance through Person-centered theory, I take a closer look at the demands of the client’s environment versus my client’s capacity to handle it. I use both wonder & curiosity to figure out what is going on and what insight can I gain from this information. I ask myself, “How can we temporarily reduce the demands we place on this client while we help them build capacity? Which skills will help them thrive when demands increase?” This gap between situational demands and a client’s capacity is commonly referred to as the window of tolerance.
We increase our window of tolerance through practicing mindfulness-based skills that require us to step into a feeling rather than avoiding it within a safe relationship.
“In order to help re-pattern a child’s nervous system, the child first needs an external regulator to integrate the dys-regulated states in their nervous system. Integrating intensity starts first with the therapist.” - Lisa Dion
Mindfulness is quite the buzzword these days. Mindfulness is the ability to notice what is going on in the present moment and prioritize what you pay attention to. In the moment of a client’s big feeling, if you show up and communicate that you can tolerate their big feeling, it creates an environment of safety where resiliency grows and thrives. Essentially, through secure attachment and connection, we lend our regulatory capacity to our clients until they start to believe that they can do it on their own – we begin with co-regulation skills to build confidence towards internalized self-regulation.
Cueing a client to bring attention to and notice what is happening in their body helps them sit in the uncomfortable experience of a big feeling a little bit longer, eliciting a belief they are safe and they can handle this feeling. Every moment we sit in dysregulation a little longer, we rewire our brain and repattern our nervous system, shifting our client’s perception of self and increasing their capacity. We can cue a client into the present moment through sensory-based experiences, grounding activities, breathing sequences, progressive muscle relaxation, body scans, guided imagery, walking, meditation, and yoga to name a few. Practicing mindfulness skills with our clients while they are in a regulated state empowers them to increase self-awareness and focus, reduce symptoms of anxiety & depression, and increase their patience and tolerance towards stress.
How did you come to practice from this theory? What drew you to it?
As someone who regularly attends therapy for anxiety and adverse childhood experiences, I began exploring mindfulness, meditation, and yoga practices to increase the integration of my body and mind. After personally experiencing the positive effects of mindfulness, I pursued the 200-hour teacher training through Practice Yoga Austin to earn the Registered Yoga Teacher credential to use with clients. I’ve experienced firsthand the healing power of a daily meditation practice and mindfulness techniques alongside Person-centered therapy.
What is your favorite thing about this theory?
My theoretical orientation stems from a strong foundation of Person-centered theory with Mindfulness-based approaches that embody the “why” in the creation of Ensemble Therapy’s mission. It meets clients where they currently are at this moment. It builds on secure relational attachment, respecting and trusting the client as the expert on themself. Clients are able to truly learn who they are, explore their unique selves, accept themselves, and take full responsibility for their behavior, attitudes, and emotional growth. Alongside a safe therapist, they are learning about themselves, stepping out of their comfort zone, practicing mindfulness techniques, making changes in how they handle stressors, and ultimately facilitating healing in their daily life.
What client is your theory best suited for?
Person-centered theory is categorized as a humanistic therapy and suited for all humans across the lifespan — young children, adolescents, and adults. It is an evidence-based practice effective for individuals experiencing common mental health problems and is helpful to those experiencing more moderate to severe symptoms.
Evidence-Based Practice Links:
References:
Axline, V. M. (1969). Play therapy. New York: Ballantine Books.
Landreth, G.L. & Bratton, S.C. (2019). Child-Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT) Treatment Manual: An Evidence-Based 10-Session Filial Therapy Model. 2nd Ed. New York: Imprint Routledge.
Interested in booking a session with us?
WRITTEN BY JACLYN SEPP, MA, LPC-S, RPT-S™, NCC, RYT® 200 (SHE/HER/HERS)
Jaclyn believes that all human beings, no matter how small, deserve a place to be accepted for who they are, which drove her to establish Ensemble Therapy in 2015 with the mission to bring high quality therapeutic services to children, teens, and their families in Central Austin. Jaclyn is a Licensed Professional Counselor Supervisor (LPC-S), Registered Play Therapist Supervisor™ (RPT-S™), National Certified Counselor (NCC) and Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT® 200). She received her Master’s Degree in Professional Counseling from Texas State University (CACREP Accredited Program) and her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology with a Minor in Applied Learning & Development from The University of Texas at Austin.
