Dèyè mòn, gen mòn
Beyond mountains, more mountains.
In Haiti this is usually said with a sigh. Solve one problem, the next appears. That reading is the accurate one — and it is the most useful thing anyone has ever said about therapy. You will not run out of mountains. You can become someone who climbs.
Lauren Thaxter, Ph.D. · Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Virginia #0810009520 · Telehealth statewide
What therapy actually changes
The mountains don’t get smaller.
Almost everyone arrives hoping the range will be flattened. It won’t be, and treatment that promised that would be lying to you. What changes is the second line here.
What people hope for
The problems are removed.Nothing works this way.
What actually happens
Same terrain. Different climber.The navy line is what you can handle.
Who ends up here
Usually not in a crisis. Usually just tired of the workaround.
“I came home and everyone keeps telling me I’m fine.”
“I’m managing it. I’ve been managing it for six years.”
“Something happened, and I’ve built the rest of my life around not thinking about it.”
“The thing that made me good at the job is costing me at home.”
If one of those is close enough, that is a good enough reason to book a consult. You do not need a diagnosis to start, and you do not need to have decided anything.
The mechanic · try it
A stuck point, and what happens when you question it.
Cognitive Processing Therapy works on stuck points — beliefs formed at the worst moment of your life that have been running unexamined ever since. Here is one, before and after.
- Event
- My team took casualties on a mission I planned.
- Belief
- “I should have known.”
- Feeling
- Guilt · 92
The belief feels like a fact. That is what makes it a stuck point rather than a thought — it never gets examined, so it never gets updated.
- Event
- My team took casualties on a mission I planned.
- Belief
- “I made a reasonable call with what I had. Hindsight isn’t foresight.”
- Feeling
- Grief · 58
Notice what changed and what didn’t. The number came down — but more importantly the emotion is different. Guilt was manufactured by the belief. Grief is the accurate response to losing people, and it is not something to get rid of. That distinction is most of the work.
How it works
Twelve sessions. There is an end, and you’ll see it coming.
CPT is a manualised protocol, which means it is not open-ended and it is not improvised. You will know at the start what each phase is for.
Sessions 1–3 · Learn the model
How trauma changes belief, not just mood. You will write an impact statement — what you currently believe the event says about you and the world. We keep it.
Sessions 4–7 · Find the stuck points and learn to question them
Not positive thinking. A specific set of questions you apply to a belief until you can see whether it holds up.
Sessions 8–12 · Work the five themes, then re-read what you wrote
Safety, trust, power and control, esteem, intimacy. In session twelve you write the impact statement again and read the first one. Most people don’t need it explained to them at that point.
Rates
Stated plainly, because not knowing is its own stressor.
I don’t bill insurance. You will get a monthly superbill you can submit for out-of-network reimbursement, and I will help you check your benefits before you commit to anything. HSA and FSA cards work. You will get a written Good Faith Estimate before the first session.
Why no insurance: it keeps the work between us, it means no diagnosis is filed with a carrier to justify continuing, and it means the treatment plan is decided in this room.
Fifteen minutes, no charge, no commitment.
We talk about what brought you here and whether this is the right fit. If it isn’t, I will tell you and point you somewhere better.