Dr. Switzer has been a psychotherapist for more than 20 years, practicing in private practice, community mental health, partial programs, and inpatient settings. She received her master's degrees from Boston College and The University of Hartford in counseling and clinical psychology respectively, and her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Hartford, Graduate Institute of Professional Psychology.
Her training also included a fellowship at Yale School of Medicine, a specialized certificate program in Traumatic Stress Studies at the Justice Resource Institute’s (JRI) Trauma Center in Boston, and training in the Newington VA’s Department of Neuropsychology and the West Haven VA Hospital’s PTSD Unit. Furthermore, she was trained in EMDR by the EMDR International Association in 2002 and Brainspotting in 2010.
She is a member of the Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing International Association (EMDRIA) and the National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine (NICABM).
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In 2013, Dr. Switzer blended her private practice with her peak performance company Top of Your Game, LLC.
She primarily provides both individual and couples psychotherapy. She also specializes in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Brainspotting (BSP), both of which are specialized treatments for trauma and peak performance issues. Additionally, Dr. Switzer offers Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) which is a skills-training therapy that develops distress tolerance, emotion regulation, mindfulness, and interpersonal effectiveness skills.
Dr. Switzer is a Certified Therapist in EMDR. She is also a certified provider of Alpha-Stim Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation (CES) and Microcurrent Electrotherapy Stimulation (MET), LENS (low energy neurofeedback), and The Listening Program (TLP). When applicable, she introduces Heartmath (biofeedback programming) to calibrate heart rate, breathing and brain synchrony as a means to achieve improved mental functioning and productivity.
Finally, Dr. Switzer provides seminars on the following topics: Emotion Regulation, Emotion Coaching: the Heart of Parenting, Parenting From the Inside Out, Couples 101, and Coping with Anxiety.
Dr. Switzer’s areas of clinical interest and expertise include helping individuals cope with: depression, anxiety, trauma, stress, grief and substance abuse, as well as performance, leadership, and relationship issues.
Last but not least, Dr. Switzer is a proud supporter of our first responders. She regularly attends related conferences to keep up with the best methods and practices to respond to both recent and cumulative traumas. She is well-versed in and advocates for early intervention (EI) techniques. She does not participate in fitness for duty evaluations; her only goal is to reboot and get them back in the game as soon as possible.
Links to learn more about some of the treatments listed above:
