Biography
Dr. Allison Hart is a licensed clinical psychologist (PSY34109). She received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Bowling Green State University, her Masters in Experimental Psychology from Saint John’s University, and her Bachelor's at Saint Mary’s College of CA. She completed her internship at the Veteran Affairs of Northern CA Healthcare System working in the PTSD, center for inpatient rehabilitation and extended care, and general mental health units. Her training emphasizes cultural sensitivity, is grounded in systemic thinking (individuals are part of, effected by, and effect social, economic, political, familial systems). This includes providing affirming therapeutic care for clients of marginalized or minority backgrounds and engaging in advocacy work when appropriate.
Her clinical interests include providing support for:
trauma/PTSD
perinatal/post-partum/maternal care to birthing persons and their families
Substance abuse/harm reduction/addiction
Depression/anxiety
Perfectionism
Life transitions
Religious and spiritual struggles
Borderline personality struggles
unhealthy relationship patterns (codependency, parentification, poor boundaries, role conflict)
Parenting – role, conflict, boundaries, responsive and firm parenting
Career changes and professional identity
Social performance difficulties
Dr. Hart takes an integrative approach to providing therapy, with a strong and guiding belief that humans heal in holistic and dynamic ways. This often requires attention to the present moment in therapy session, meeting clients where they feel most authentically themselves, sitting together with uncertainty or intense emotions, and compassionately challenging at appropriate times in order to help clients experience deep change in themselves, their relationships, and their life journey in much desired ways.
Therapeutic modalities include: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), functional analytic psychotherapy (FAP), Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). For clients with trauma, therapy will regularly include Cognitive Processing Therapy, which Dr. Hart is certified in, or Prolonged Exposure Therapy. She is also in the final stages of obtaining certification in Perinatal and Postpartum Health Treatment.
Work together will also regularly include components of mindfulness, action-oriented acceptance, somatic awareness and nervous system regulation interventions, behavior analysis, detachment, distress tolerance, clarifying values, and building a more workable and purposeful sense of self. When working with people who have relationship difficulties, Dr. Hart regularly incorporates tools for relationship effectiveness, including compassion, problem-solving, stress management, emotional tolerance, coping skills, healthier boundaries, and encouraging thoughts and feelings that support a fulfilling interdependent experience between self and others. Dr. Hart often states that the ultimate goal of any therapeutic endeavor is to be free from the suffering that holds us back from living and being fully ourselves, while learning to endure and hold to our values during inescapable suffering that’s ever-present in the human condition and this imperfect world, in order to create a meaningful and purpose-driven life.