Minda Sanborn, LMFT, EMDRIA Certified (She/Her)

Therapy for the Overwhelmed, the Stuck, and the Still Figuring It Out

I work with teens and adults experiencing trauma, anxiety, depression, emotional overwhelm, chronic illness, medical trauma, grief, and major life changes. I also especially enjoy supporting people who have felt misunderstood, out of place, or uncertain about how to make sense of their identity, needs, or strengths.

People are complicated, and the things that bring us to therapy rarely fit neatly into one category. Anxiety may be connected to trauma. Chronic illness may affect your relationships, confidence, identity, and sense of safety in your body. A life transition may bring grief, relief, fear, and possibility all at once.

Because of that, I do not believe therapy should follow the same formula for every person.

I practice from a trauma-informed and strengths-based perspective and draw from EMDR, Brainspotting, DBT-informed skills, mindfulness, and relational therapy. In less clinical terms, that means we may work on understanding how past experiences continue to affect you, finding practical ways to manage what is happening right now, or doing both at the same time.

Some days, our work may involve processing painful experiences. Other days, it may mean slowing things down, learning how to feel more grounded, strengthening a boundary, noticing a pattern, or simply having a place where you do not need to pretend that everything is fine.

Healing is not a straight line, and I will not pressure you to talk about something before you are ready. We will work at a pace that feels manageable while continuing to move toward the changes that matter to you.

Clients often describe me as compassionate, authentic, creative, and easy to connect with. I want therapy to feel like a real relationship with a real person, not like you are being studied, judged, or pushed through a standardized treatment plan.

Together, we can make sense of what you have been carrying and help you build a life that feels more present, connected, and genuinely your own.

Trauma, Stress, and Emotional Overwhelm

Difficult experiences can continue to affect the nervous system long after the immediate danger or stress has passed. You may feel constantly alert, emotionally numb, easily overwhelmed, disconnected from yourself, or confused by reactions that seem stronger than the present situation.

Trauma therapy does not require you to share everything at once or repeatedly describe painful experiences in detail. The work begins with creating enough safety, trust, and stability to approach difficult material at a manageable pace.

Together, we may focus on understanding trauma responses, strengthening emotional regulation, reducing shame, and helping your mind and body recognize that the present can be different from the past.

Healing does not mean forgetting what happened. It means increasing your sense of choice, connection, and control over how those experiences affect your life now.

Chronic Illness and Medical Trauma

Living with chronic illness, pain, medical uncertainty, or a difficult healthcare experience can affect nearly every part of life. You may be grieving changes in your body, abilities, independence, relationships, identity, or plans for the future.

Medical trauma may also leave you feeling anxious, powerless, dismissed, or afraid of future appointments and procedures. Even necessary medical care can become emotionally overwhelming when your body has learned to associate healthcare settings with pain, uncertainty, or a loss of control.

Therapy offers space to process these experiences without minimizing their impact. Our work may focus on grief, anxiety, self-advocacy, identity changes, emotional regulation, and finding ways to live meaningfully within circumstances you may not have chosen.

The goal is not to suggest that emotional work can remove a physical condition. It is to support your psychological and relational well-being while honoring the realities of your body and experience.

As an EMDRIA Certified EMDR therapist, I use Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing to help clients process distressing memories and experiences that continue to affect their emotions, beliefs, relationships, or nervous system. 

EMDR does not require you to describe every detail of an experience. Instead, it uses structured methods of bilateral stimulation to support the brain’s processing of memories that may feel unresolved or emotionally charged.

EMDR may be incorporated into ongoing therapy to address concerns such as:

• Trauma and distressing experiences
• Anxiety, panic, and fears
• Grief and loss
• Medical trauma and chronic pain-related stress
• Negative beliefs about yourself
• Emotional numbness or disconnection
• Performance anxiety and confidence concerns

Minda currently offers standard EMDR appointments for clients age 14 and older and extended EMDR intensives for clients age 16 and older. 

DBT-Informed Skills

At times, deeper insight is not enough. You may also need concrete tools for getting through an intense moment, communicating more clearly, or responding differently when emotions feel overwhelming.

I incorporate DBT-informed skills to help clients strengthen:

• Emotional regulation
• Distress tolerance
• Mindfulness and present-moment awareness
• Communication and relationship skills
• Boundaries and self-advocacy
• The ability to pause before reacting

This is not a comprehensive DBT program. Instead, skills are thoughtfully integrated into individual therapy according to each client’s needs and goals.

Brainspotting

Brainspotting is a focused, body-aware therapy that uses visual positioning and present-moment awareness to help clients access emotions, sensations, and experiences that may be difficult to reach through conversation alone.

This approach can be especially supportive for clients who feel stuck, become overwhelmed when trying to explain an experience, or notice that distress is held as much in the body as it is in their thoughts.

Brainspotting may be used independently or integrated with other trauma-informed approaches. The process is collaborative and does not require you to force an emotional response or move faster than feels manageable.

Therapy for Teens

Adolescence can bring enormous change. Teens are navigating identity, relationships, academic expectations, family dynamics, increasing independence, and the pressure to understand who they are, all while their emotional and developmental needs continue to evolve.

Before becoming a therapist, I worked as a special education teacher. That experience continues to shape my understanding of neurodiversity, learning differences, adolescent development, and the importance of recognizing strengths that may be overlooked in traditional environments. 

I support teens experiencing:

• Anxiety, depression, or emotional overwhelm
• Trauma, grief, or significant life changes
• Identity and self-esteem concerns
• Neurodivergence and learning differences
• Friendship or relationship difficulties
• Academic stress and pressure
• Family conflict or communication challenges
• Difficulty regulating intense emotions

Therapy gives teens a space where they can speak honestly without feeling judged, lectured, or treated like a problem that needs to be fixed. Together, we work to build emotional awareness, coping skills, confidence, and a stronger understanding of what they need.

When appropriate, caregiver collaboration may also be included to strengthen communication and help the adults in a teen’s life provide meaningful support while respecting the teen’s growing independence.