Individual Therapy

“It’s the relationship that heals.”
-Irvin Yalom

At the Atlantic Recovery Institute, the guiding principles of treatment are simple: a compassionate, genuine, respectful therapeutic relationship is the foundation on which all changes are built--and in many cases, thanks to advances in therapies that draw upon neuroscience, full recovery from even chronic mental health issues is now possible.

Dr. Fritzges strives to provide care that is:

• Patient-centered : meeting your goals for change
• Ethical: consistent with standards of ethical codes governing the practice of psychology
• Culturally conscious : acknowledging, embracing and supporting the lens through which you see the world
• Effective : using therapeutic interventions that deliver results and help you feel better
  
• Multi-modal : using a variety of treatment modalities to provide a customized treatment experience-- never one-size-fits all, but instead, adapted to meet your needs at your pace, using several validated psychotherapeutic techniques together
• Research-based : reliant on interventions that are supported by research
• Socially relevant: delivered with an eye toward raising awareness of mental health issues and advocating for change at the individual- and community-level
  

By addressing these factors together, the Atlantic Recovery Institute seeks to offer innovative
solutions to treatment-resistant mental health conditions and other complex problems in living.

At your first appointment, you’ll meet with Dr. Fritzges individually for approximately one hour. At that time you’ll be able to share your reasons for seeking therapy, and identify what symptoms or concerns you’d like to address. Dr. Fritzges will complete an initial evaluation to better understand how to best assist you. We’ll discuss your personal history, social and family life, any health conditions you have, and explore what symptoms or problems brought you to treatment. You’ll leave the first appointment with a diagnosis and proposed treatment plan about how therapy could help you meet your goals.

As a licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Fritzges has training and experience treating the following conditions: depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, psychotic disorders, somatoform disorders, and behavioral/conduct disorders. She specializes in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), complex PTSD (C-PTSD), and dissociative disorders. She enjoys working with members of the LGBTQIA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, intersex, and allies) community, and works with those who practice ethical nonmonogamy/polyamorous relationships, and are kink-friendly. Dr. Fritzges aims to meet the needs of patients who represent all communities, minority-identified and otherwise.

Dr. Fritzges created the Atlantic Recovery Institute with the vision of offering neurologically-based, personalized, compassionate therapy that delivers measurable results. While many therapists offer supportive psychotherapy, Dr. Fritzges’ training as a clinical psychologist has emphasized the use of evidence-based treatment methods, which are supported in the research as being highly effective.

EMDR , short for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, is one type of evidence-based treatment. EMDR is a type of specialized therapy that works to heal traumatic memories that are stored in the body and mind. These memories do not heal on their own over time; instead, they stay frozen in the mind, keeping a person trapped in old feelings and reactions that no longer work in the here and now. Instead of talking about these memories over and over-- which only results in increased distress-- EMDR heals these memories by pairing eye movements with recall of the memories. The result is that the memories are digested by the mind. The result is permanent healing of the difficult memories.

Dr. Fritzges utilizes a dynamic, relationship-based approach to treatment that uses best practices drawn from several therapy approaches. Each patient’s treatment plan is different, and may consist of psychodynamic work, somatic awareness, EMDR, attachment repair, and third-wave cognitive behavioral interventions such as mindfulness and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). These approaches can be adapted to benefit children, too.

Please note: the Atlantic Recovery Institute offers individual therapy to children ages 6 and older; teenagers; and adults of all ages, including those of advancing age. At times, it may be helpful to have a couples or family session to help the individual patient’s treatment, but ongoing couples and family therapy is not a service Dr. Fritzges primarily provides.

Dr. Fritzges accepts some insurance plans, and in some cases, may be able to offer sliding
scale payment arrangements to make treatment more accessible for patients who will be paying
on their own.