Call: (571) 989-6100 x101
About Diane Hoekstra
Education and Training:
I earned my doctoral degree (PhD) in Clinical Psychology from the University of Virginia in 1991 and I have been licensed to practice since 1993. In 2003, I founded my own psychotherapy practice focused on individual therapy with adults.
I have the Authority to Practice Interjurisdictional Telapsychology granted by the Psypact Commission. This means that my practice extends to Telehealth with clients in other states that have approved Psypact Legislation.
I am a Certified Sensorimotor Psychotherapist. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is a state-of-the-art comprehensive model for psychotherapy, which combines "talk therapy" with exploration of the somatic experience in the body. This approach applies the most up-to-date neuroscience findings to understand how healing and transformation occur in psychotherapy. I work with survivors of childhood trauma as well as survivors of trauma experienced in adulthood using this model.
Education and Credentials:
Memberships:
American Psychological Association (APA)
Virginia Academy of Clinical Psychologists (VACP)
Northern Virginia Academy of Clinical Psychologists (NVCP)
Former Vice-President and Continuing Education Committee Chair (2010-14)
International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy (ICEEFT)
Professional Member -- Postpartum Support Virginia
Member--Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology (ACEP)
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute Professional Association (SPIPA)
Specialized Training:
Circle of Security® Parenting™️ Facilitator
Completed Advanced Training in
Trauma Informed Stabilization Treatment (TIST) Developed by Janina Fisher, PhD.
TIST Supervision Group (monthly, led by Janina Fisher (2018-2022).
Certified Sensorimotor Psychotherapist; Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, 2021.
Intuition in Psychotherapy Study Group Led by Marilyn Stickle--Author of Intuition in Psychotherapy: From Research to Practice 2019. (Cohorts 2-5)
More About Me:
My focus is to help clients become who they are truly meant to be. I have taken the very same path of self-discovery in my own life, psychologically and spiritually. While trained in traditional talk therapy in the1980's, I continue to evolve and grow----to expand my sense of what healing means and to broaden my awareness of the wide array of healing modalities available to us.
As a young clinician, I was drawn to Attachment Theory, an exquisite model of human growth and development. In this highly-researched model, the caretaker--child relationship is a critical factor in childhood development. Sometimes, our “template” for relationships is wobbly. Safe, secure relationships are elusive. Living, being, loving and parenting are all more complicated and sometimes painful. It is so hard to create what you have not experienced. Psychotherapy can help us to notice which early “templates” or adaptations work for us as adults in the present and which do not. This awareness allows us to have choice about how we respond moving forward. We can learn to feel and embody security, repair and growth.
In 2014, I began to study Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (SP). This approach both upended my understanding of what therapy can do and transformed my practice. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy focuses on both the neuroscience of trauma experience and includes the body in the work psychotherapy. I use SP to process old wounds, emotions, pain and limiting beliefs. Working with the experience in the body tends to deepen the healing that is possible. SP is a gentle, collaborative and humanistic model of healing and transformation.
Trauma in childhood and adulthood is much more common than our culture recognizes. For those who experience trauma (that includes most of us), the impact or legacy of the trauma often lives on in our bodies as physical and emotional symptoms. I help clients lessen the impact of past traumas so they can live more fully in the present. In collaboration with my client, I work somatically to process trauma that is held in the body long after the trauma is over.
I have also completed Advanced Training in Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment (TIST), a model developed by Janina Fisher, PhD, an Internationally recognized expert on Trauma and Complex Trauma. TIST is a trauma-informed parts method that helps survivors work with the parts that carry the legacy of those traumatic environments – parts that are still scared, still hypervigilant, still ashamed, still mistrustful, still angry. The healing comes through the development of a relationship between parts and client that repairs or creates a new ending to their past experiences of exploitation and abandonment. Her motto is “Trauma treatment shouldn’t have to hurt.” It can be gentle if the goal is to repair the past, not to relive it.
I also work intuitively in psychotherapy, trusting the inner wisdom when it arrives and helping my clients to develop their own voice and internal wisdom. I also regularly collaborate with providers offering alternative methods of healing, including energy workers, intuitive massage therapists, and Alternative Medicine providers.