The Dialogical Approach
Dialogic Healing is a holistic-somatic relational therapy. Dr. Omholt is a licensed clinician experienced in treating numerous psychological difficulties, disorders, and relationship/marital issues. He utilizes traditional psychotherapeutic techniques as well as holistic approaches from the yoga/meditation traditions, the naturalistic healing methodology of the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute, the dynamic RAID approach to somatic therapy, TRE (Trauma and Tension release exercises), Ayurveda, and the Dialogical tradition.
As a therapist with graduate degrees in both traditional clinical therapy and holistic therapy, Dr. Omholt, adheres strongly to the practice that both are vital for healing. The century-old establishment of clinical psychotherapy offers a solid foundation for the variety and vicissitudes of problems and disorders that can beset people, but the theories and techniques that have flowered from this multifaceted tradition do not always bring forth the experience of "healing".
The word "healing" means to restore health or wholeness. Whether this is the wholeness of an individual or a relationship, there are innate healing capacities which are far more powerful than the "talk therapy" techniques commonly found in traditional psychotherapy. Furthermore, these "capacities" are not ones that have to be developed or discovered by clients, but rather uncovered and engaged.
This is by no means to say that therapy is not hard work. Like most things in life, you get what you put in. There are techniques, understandings, and abilities that need to be developed, and yet, the most powerful facet of healing is already ours. We are all familiar with physical healing. When we get a cut, no matter how hard we stare at the laceration, we do not "will" the skin to heal. If we are well, the cut will simply heal on its own. Similarly, the capacity to heal physiologically and psychologically is not something that we need to gain, it is already ours, we just need to learn how to uncover and work with it.
When asked for his truth about life, a wise, learned, and aged man simply responded, "life is problematic." In life, there are some problems that we can handle, and some that suddenly, or gradually overwhelm us. When a certain caliber of problem besets us, or if we find ourselves caught in the repetition of certain negative relationships, relational patterns, thoughts, or emotional dynamics, if such difficulties were simple things to fix, professional therapists would not be needed. When such difficult times are upon us a variety of symptoms can occur in isolation or combination. Symptoms can manifest by plaguing our thoughts, ransacking our emotions, depleting our energy levels or bringing them into agitated excess. Such symptomology can penetrate through our behaviors and into our personal relationships and work-lives creating havoc or even ruin. More simply stated, deep problems can effect the "whole" of our lives.
As a clinician, Dr. Omholt has worked for years and continues to strive to be the most effective for his clients as possible. He is trained and works clinically through traditional psychotherapeutic techniques, and holistically, bridging aged modalities from Eastern traditions with burgeoning discoveries/perpectives informed by the world of neuroscience and integrating them through Dialogical Psychotherapy. Through reading various writings on this web site, potential clients can get an idea of some of the dimensions of Dr. Omholt's approach, but it is the processing that occurs during a session that can bring forth substantial change and a meaningful appreciation of the work:
• For one client who had been through a number of years of therapy prior to working with Dr. Omholt, having a significant release in his fifth session left him feeling and realizing that for the first time in his life he knew he could be happy, for he had tasted it.
• Another client, when a deep tension that was fueling her anxiety released, expressed, "I had no idea my body could do such a thing."
• Yet for another, the magic occurred prior to the vacation trip, when she and her long term partner fell in love all over again.
The look of healing can have many faces, often different for the same client from week-to-week. As clients gain understanding, as well as an ability to touch into an energized peacefulness and begin to feel an increasing agency in regard to their problems, the growth and joy in their lives is the true litmus test to their evolving well-being and the efficacy of the emobodied Dialogical approach.