Hello and welcome to my Expanding Psychotherapy site. My name is Ann Yates and I am a Psychiatric Advanced Nurse Practitioner. I have been a Registered Nurse for 30 years and a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner for 15.

I named my site Expanding Psychotherapy because I expand how I use psychotherapy to include mind, body, and spirit and because that approach helps you to expand your ability to manage life’s challenges. This starts with you discovering all parts of you, which make up your Self. These parts are created by you as a child, to help you manage life growing up. But even as an adult, these parts continue to direct how you feel, react, and think and since you’re often unaware of them, you feel confused and overwhelmed. Maybe you also feel anxiety or fear, sadness or depression, moodiness, irritability, low energy, not feeling good enough or even acceptable, as well as intrusive thoughts. Those child selves often show up in your body when they are triggered, e.g., your stomach drops, your head aches, your shoulders tighten, and those responses cycle back through your nervous system, passing the message of distress throughout mind and body.

I combine Internal Family Systems or IFS* work with somatic or body-based practices plus mindfulness skills. All practices are simple, do not require equipment or things to buy, take minimal time,and are designed for you to do on your own, outside of time in session. You are not left relying on me or our sessions to help you because you are able to help yourself. *A modality created to work with the parts of Self which I will explain more about if you decide to work with me.

As we do this work I find it naturally leads to exploring your spirituality, which may or may not include religion, depending on your beliefs. The point is to bring in what IFS calls True Self or what psychology calls “internal identity,” that which makes you unique amongst billions of people, the only You there is. It’s your gift and it can’t be destroyed, no matter how harshly life treats you. And, it’s always there to support and guide you. But as we grow up it gets covered up. So we are disconnected from it as adults, allowing those child selves to run the show. I want to help you reconnect and expand into managing your challenges while reducing your suffering.