Rae Littlewood, PhD, LLC

Have a look at my CV if you're curious about my education and training. What I really want you to know about working with me is that I show up for you wherever you are with ideas and energy to fuel your growth and transformation. I've worked for fifteen years in private practice. Continuous training, consultation, and experience have shaped my approach to therapy. I believe that personal growth and fulfilling relationships are developed through three processes: *self-awareness - developing a full understanding of your strengths, weaknesses, perceptions, reactions, and values *self-regulation - which encompasses emotions, behaviors, and context and the interaction of all three *psychological flexibility - a concept named in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy... your capacity to hold your thoughts and emotions lightly so that you can act on longer term values and goals rather than short term impulses I believe that "feeling better" is a transitory by-product of self-awareness, self-regulation, and psychological flexibility. To make forward progress in life, it is more important that we can tolerate difficult feelings and hardship while doing what needs to get done to have a healthy body, meaningful connections, valued work, and a safe place to sleep. There are a couple of areas in which I have developed some expertise over the years: *Assessments for organ donors, egg donors, and surrogates *Emotion-focused couples therapy *Pregnancy, pregnancy loss, infertility, postpartum, and parenthood *Parenting *Recovery from toxic relationships *Disorders stemming from over-control & under-control of emotions and behaviors And, there are a few people and places that continue to influence my work: *Tara Brach, specifically Radical Acceptance and RAIN, who taught me how to recover from my own attachment wounds *Stan Tatkin, author of Wired for Love & We Do, where I learned that codependency is human nature and not a defect of character *Sue Johnson, founder of Emotion-Focused couples therapy (and trainers Nancy & Paul Aikin who first introduced me to the pursuer/withdrawer and the negative cycle) *Rick & Forrest Hansen's podcast "Being Well", always a thoughtful and thoroughly researched conversation *Dialectic Behavior Therapy, where I learned that having intense emotions in relationships is not pathological and how to find stability in the middle of an emotional storm The associations that inspire me and inform my work: *New Mexico Emotion-Focused Therapy Community - www.newmexicoeft.com - I'm currently serving as co-chair and working on increasing access to and training in EFT *Association for Contextual & Behavioral Science - this is the international organization for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and a hub for many Third Wave Therapies *Third Wave Psychotherapy of New Mexico - co-founder of a group practice located in Albuquerque, NM