Anthony M. Pastore, Jr. | Family Therapy | PTSD Therapy | Trauma Therapy | Individual Therapy | Virtual Therapist | Raleigh Therapist | Pennsylvania Therapist
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THERAPY SERVICES
Who We Treat
Currently accepting new patients.
Available for In person therapy and virtual therapy in the Raleigh, Research Triangle area.
Available for virtual therapy in Pennsylvania.
The Therapeutic Approach
Through the diversity of my patients, through their bravery of revealing some of the most horrific of life events, and in their unwavering decision to cure all that was ailing them, is where I learned that the most effective way to treat everyone is through an approach that focuses on: Neuroscience—Knowing how your brain/body system works, and how it doesn’t, how the effects of UNTREATED trauma affect the brain/body system, knowing how to effectively treat trauma, and through concept of wellness. I call this approach: a brain/body-based, trauma-based, wellness-based approach to creating wellness in your life, and the final irrefutable truth is this:
This plan is flawless. It works every single time. for one and one main reason. I know something you don't. I know how your brain works. I know how everyone's brain works Cause they all work the same. And more importantly, I know how powerful your brain is.
Who, What & How I Treat
I treat across the lifespan. I’ve treated children as young as 4 years old, and I’ve treated adults who were in their 70s.
The challenges I’ve worked with include: Chronic Pain, long-term illnesses, Grief & loss, OCD, Depression, birth trauma, post-partum, forced abortions, marital discord and separation.
I’ve worked with patients who have long-term medical traumas, life stage transitions, BPT, PTSD, Attachment trauma, self-esteem, low motivation, Bipolar, mood disorders, the inability to control racing thoughts, sleep patterns & routines, anger, frustration, and “how to help patients create “calm “ in the brain-body system.
I also specialize in Couples Counseling/out children, Parents, children, & teenagers. In addition, I treat child and Adult ADHD & ADD, using cognitive-behavioral approaches to helping patients understand the necessity to develop mindfulness, reduce urgency, and manage only a few things at a time.
I have experience with Anxiety & Social Anxiety, and AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER for kids, teens, and young adults who have difficulty with social settings, interpreting social cues, poor organizational skills, and providing and giving directions. I treat “the teenage perception” of identity and self-worth. Actually, I began working with teen boys and girls while I was in graduate school..
Family Therapy
For 10 straight years, I was, in fact, the de facto court-appointed family therapist working with 8 county judges throughout a 5-county region in Northeastern PA.
It was my legal responsibility to treat individuals and subsystems of a family system and provide my professional clinical assessment and recommendations for those families. As a result, my testimony has been admitted as EVIDENCE in over 125 mandated family court cases, where court orders were written based on my clinical recommendations.
Court-ordered Family therapy is by far the most high-conflict, complicated, emotionally overwhelming, and DIVISIVE type of therapy I’ve ever encountered. Court orders are written, visits are granted, and exposure to children or parents is parceled out in increments of time, be it hours or days. Everyone has something to lose.
I’ve worked helping parents with basic parenting skills, such as setting up proper parental boundaries, working with “blended family systems” when new caregivers or a “second adult” is introduced, co-parenting through divorce or separation, and parental reunification.
I’ve worked with children and teens individually who were in those types of challenging situations, far more so than the parents themselves.
With children, it's all about “Indirect Play.” Indirect play means that a child would never be able to tolerate direct questioning like an adult. It would be too confrontational for them, and in saying something, they would think they are betraying family secrets. But with “indirect play, we talk while we play. I normally use sensory-based play items or puppets to discuss the concerns of their life. Me they will tell nothing to.
30-second snippets of time every day, the more the unknown becomes known to you and you fear it less.
While playing with puppets, or through the use of kinetic sand or clay, children reveal on a subconscious level, and I learn everything there is to learn about what is occurring in a child’s life. Also, think of the practicality of indirect play: Sometimes words are crude approximations for what people in general are feeling. A child’s vocabulary is very limited, reframing what they are saying more concisely allows them the conform of confirming or denying.
I’m quite confident that I can successfully treat your family, your children, the parental couple, or any subsystem of your family. I also hold certification in DBT, ( Dialectical Behavioral Therapy) CBT, (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy ) and Anger Management.; 30-second snippets of time every day, the more the unknown becomes known to you and you fear it less.
Trauma Therapy
I have been an EMDR-trained Trauma therapist for more than 10 years, and I am also a Certified Clinical Trauma Specialist. Trauma is one of my primary areas of expertise.
Understanding trauma and the pervasive negative effects it has on a person’s life has changed how I work. The traumatic incidents many people have endured and survived are probably something I can never accurately describe if I were to give it any justice at all.
Strangely enough, the cure: the ability to clear away the traumatic imprints from the past that keep intruding into your current life, is equally as spectacular in its simplicity. I operate from the Trauma protocol called EMDR, (eye-movement-desensitization-reprocessing). EMDR is an experientially-based treatment approach. That means we don’t “talk” about your trauma or the traumatic incident.
EMDR resolves whatever type of emotional, behavioral, cognitive, physical, and neurological remnants of your trauma that are still unprocessed, and allows those remnants to fade into your past, remembering only that it was a horrible time in your life, but that the horrible event is over, and it will never resurface again.
There is no more reliving your trauma “AS-IF” it were occurring all over again for the very first time.
Trauma gets resolved. Emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and appropriate cognitive functioning are restored. What leaves your brain/body systems is over-personalization, false myths you believe about yourself as truths, and cognitive distortions. The untrue becomes untrue again.
I have worked with many veterans, victims of child molestation, sexual assault, emotional and physical abuse, and both direct and indirect domestic violence. I have worked with abandonment trauma, kidnapping, sex slave trade, death & loss trauma, medical traumas, and traumatic brain injuries, to name a few.
Individual Therapy
In order to seek wellness, and rid yourself of intrusive elements in your life, I utilize a variety of approaches and techniques ranging from sensory integration, somatic experiencing, mindfulness, and attunement strategies, as well as many brain-based psycho-educational teachings to help you understand how to create and develop “NEW” into your life.
I utilize direct observable and measurable skills from such paradigms as Anger Management, CBT, and DBT.
I help you to recognize all the information your body is receiving and providing to your brain. I help you to become attuned to what you need, then we create a step-by-step plan to trust what you’re feeling and go from there. Basically, I’m going to help you to trust your decision-making, to gain insight and awareness, to take immediate action, and most of all, I’m going to help you trust your sense of trust.
Because that’s all the time it takes to go from fearful to fearless.
To challenge your fears a little bit at a time, step by step, bit by bit, about the size of an anthill, every day. The more you seek out the unknown in those 30-second snippets of time every day, the more the unknown becomes known to you and you fear it less.
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