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"Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes."
About Me
I’m Nichole Aiken, a Licensed Professional Counselor in Reston, Virginia.
I am a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist whose work focuses primarily on encouraging the relational healing and post-traumatic growth of relationally betrayed partners. Those who have been impacted by the sexual and emotional betrayal of infidelity, sex addiction, or compulsive sexual behavior in their primary relationship will find my expertise and compassion of extreme value.
I am also trained in Brainspotting, a powerful, focused therapy approach which works by helping people locate, process, and release sources of emotional and physical pain and trauma where it has been suppressed in the brain. Through brainspotting, mindfulness, and my trauma informed yoga certification, I use a mind body approach as part of the healing process. Through both individual and group therapy, I am trained to provide expert support and guidance for a betrayed partner’s healing, clarity, and growth. My empathetic and sensitive style along with my clear modeling of boundaries define my work as a therapist.
I also use my Mindfulness Based Addiction Trauma Therapist (MBATT) training to inform the work that I do with my clients. This research based and mindfulness technique offers help to support addicts in reducing relapse and increasing healing and growth in long term sobriety. In addition, I use these techniques when working with betrayed partners and family members that have been impacted by addicts to reduce triggers and further their healing. Learn more about MBATT.
Background and Certifications
I am certified by the International Institute of Trauma and Addiction Professionals as a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist. In addition, I am a CPTT- Candidate (Certified Partner and Trauma Therapist) to help partners of sex addicts deal with the complex betrayal trauma and issues specific to their own therapeutic journeys.
I also hold a certification in Brainspotting. Brainspotting is a powerful, focused treatment method that works by identifying, processing and releasing core neurophysiological sources of emotional/body pain, trauma, dissociation and a variety of other challenging symptoms. Brainspotting is a simultaneous form of diagnosis and treatment, enhanced with biolateral sound, which is deep, direct, and powerful yet focused and containing.
I am in the process of completing a trauma informed yoga course which is an innovative evidence-based training that demonstrates the necessity of the integration of yoga into the treatment of trauma healing.