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HEMDA ARAD, PH.D.

PSYCHOANALYSIS AND PSYCHOTHERAPY

Individuals | Couples

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ABOUT ME


Welcome! My name is Hemda Arad. I'm a Seattle-based psychotherapist and psychoanalyst. Over the past 20 years, I have practiced in both public and private settings, working with adults, couples, families, and groups, helping them to overcome the emotional challenges of life. Additionally, I act as a consultant to professionals and therapists in training and I teach and present to professionals locally, nationally, and internationally. 

In my work, I combine verbal and non-verbal approaches including psychodynamic modalities, such as Relational Psychoanalysis and more embodied methods such as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). I strive to create a welcoming and compassionate therapeutic space for us to work together in a collaborative manner.

Credentials

  • Washington State Licensed Mental Health Counselor

  • Psychoanalyst, Graduate of the Northwest Center for Psychoanalysis 

  • Certified Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapist

  •  Ph.D., Behavioral Health, International University for Graduate Studies 

  • M.A., Psychology, Antioch University, Seattle

  • Approved Supervisor of therapists and counselors in the state of Washington

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ABOUT MY PRACTICE

In my practice, I provide the following services:

  • Individual psychotherapy for adults

  • Couples therapy

  • Psychoanalysis

  • EMDR

  • Parent guidance

  • Consultation and supervision

My areas of specialty include:

  • Depression - sadness, low self-esteem

  • Anxiety - in relationships, parenting, and at work

  • Women in the workforce

  • Current and long-term relationship and intimacy issues

  • Loss and grief

  • Life transitions - premarital, separation, divorce, aging, preparation and adjustment to college, career change, etc.

  • Gender identification

If my practice seems like a good fit for you, or you'd like to discuss your therapy options, please contact me to set up a consultation.

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CONTACT ME

My practice is open Monday through Friday and my Seattle Madison Street office is centrally located between downtown Seattle, South Lake Union, the University of Washington and the Eastside. You are welcome to call me at my office at 206-328-0853 at any time. If I am not available to take your call, you may leave a confidential message. I will return your call as soon as I am able.

Address:

2910 East Madison Street

Seattle, WA 98112

Convenient parking is available on Madison and surrounding streets

Email:

Phone:

206-328-0853

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FORMS

Please print the following information form, complete the requested information and bring it to our first meeting. I may provide you with additional forms as needed.

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FAQS

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WHY THERAPY?

At times life presents us with challenges that make us feel overwhelmed. We may feel sad, anxious or even helpless and lonely. Circumstances stemming from our experiences and life events may lead us to feel trapped without knowing how to move forward. When we are on the verge of transition such as during a change in relationships, a birth of a child, a child moving out of the home, career transition, or grieving the loss of a loved one, we may seem to know what might help, yet find it difficult to make a change on our own.  Sometimes it helps to talk with a professional about what troubles us to see clearly where we are and where we seem to be heading. You’ll receive honest feedback from me of where you are. Following initial conversations, we will determine your goals in therapy and consider the best treatment plan to help achieve these goals. Relief of symptoms associated with conditions such as depression or anxiety, or persistent difficulties with others in your personal life or at work may require different approaches in terms of focus and length of treatment. For example, an understanding of what contributes to discomfort in relationships can be reached through psychodynamic and psychoanalytic means or in conjunction with other verbal and non-verbal psychotherapies. I believe in exploration of patterns that may interfere with current relationships with self and others, as a path that can lead to enhanced quality of life.

WHAT IS RELATIONAL PSYCHOANALYSIS?

Relational Psychoanalysis is a contemporary school of thought and practice that appreciates pluralism. The relational approach focuses on different aspects of the inner and the interactional worlds in an attempt to create a space in which new understanding can be possible, enhancing quality of life and reducing the negative effects of life circumstances on our mind and body. Relational therapists move away from binary concepts such as good/bad, male/female, do/done to within which a person may struggle to find themselves. The analytic process is unique to each analyst/patient pair and is fostered by a personal and professional therapeutic environment.

WHAT IS EMDR?

Sometimes words are not enough to help us feel the full extent of what motivates us to behave the way we do. EMDR operates on the premise that traumatic events often cause a person to develop harmful beliefs and behaviors. EMDR processing opens patients to fresh understanding and insights that allow for new and helpful ways of thinking and behaving.  EMDR can be successful in relieving symptoms where other forms of therapy have yielded limited results. It helps in deepening the connection between feelings and thoughts so that they work together more fluidly. EMDR does this by engaging the emotions rather rapidly. This in turn allows for the felt conversation to take place more effectively, as change takes place when we are engaged emotionally.

WILL MY SESSIONS BE CONFIDENTIAL?

All information in therapy is kept confidential, and is treated with the utmost respect to ensure that you feel safe and secure. Information will be released only with your full consent, except in circumstances in which you are a danger to yourself or others.

HOW DO I GET STARTED?

Contact me to set up a consultation. Before your first session, please print and fill out this patient information form and be sure to bring it to the session.

FEES AND INSURANCE

The type and frequency of therapy determines the fee. Although I do not accept third party insurance payments directly, as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor my services are qualified for reimbursement. Your insurance company may reimburse your therapy fees in full or in part through out-of-network benefits. You may wish to inquire with your carrier about how to access these benefits. You will pay me directly and I will provide you with a statement for your paid bill which you can submit to your insurance company for your reimbursement.

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SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Integrating Relational Psychoanalysis and EMDR: Embodied Experience and Clinical Practice

2018

Integrating Relational Psychoanalysis and EMDR: Embodied Experience and Clinical Practice provides contemporary theoretical and clinical links between Relational Psychoanalysis, attachment theory, neuroscience, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, all of which bring both the patient’s and analyst’s embodied experience into the forefront of clinical thinking and practice. The author grounds an in-depth view on the ways psychoanalysis and EMDR can be effectively integrated to complement each other through a presentation of fundamental concepts and an abundance of insightful and moving clinical vignettes.


Hemda Arad outlines the theoretical and clinical concepts that allow the integration of Relational Psychoanalysis with EMDR’s unique contributions, specifically appreciating the neurological and embodied experience in an individual’s development in relation to the classic talking cure’s approach to dealing with "big T" trauma and with "small t" everyday attachment-related trauma. Arad describes a view of a modified EMDR approach capable of reaching many patients, beyond the trauma work for which it originally became known, in order to lend its more embodied approach to the advancement of the relational endeavor. Vivid clinical illustrations, chosen to elucidate theoretical concepts, make the complex theoretical ideas more accessible. The clinical portions illustrate a range of ways that EMDR and relational work, which may at first seem incompatible, may be integrated to help therapists navigate the two methods.


Integrating Relational Psychoanalysis and EMDR: Embodied Experience and Clinical Practice will appeal to psychoanalysts, psychoanalytic psychotherapists and psychodynamic therapists who wish to learn about the relational tradition in theory and practice or are seeking a way to integrate their work with other versatile approaches such as EMDR, as well as advanced students studying across these areas and EMDR clinicians who would like to broaden the scope of their skills.

Hemda Arad weaves together a rich tapestry of relational psychoanalytic thought, brain research, trauma theory, and attachment theory to illuminate how integrating EMDR into a relational-psychoanalytically informed clinical practice can be invaluable in working with patients to help release the affective and embodied experience that lie beyond the reach of words. This book will be invaluable to clinicians seeking a better understanding of how to help patients for whom the “talking cure” is not enough.


- Karen E. Starr, PsyD



This is a ground-breaking book which brings together two apparently disparate approaches to treatment. Arad imaginatively challenges her readers to expand their therapeutic repertoires. This is a courageous and much needed text.


- Robert Winer, MD


Hemda Arad’s book translates solid EMDR function to poetic analytic introspection in an extensive, comprehensive manner, including research, deep exploration of both techniques, and case histories that interweave them. 


- Robin Shapiro, LICSW

Arad, Hemda (2018). Integrating relational psychoanalysis and EMDR: Embodied experience and clinical practice. New York, NY: Routledge.

Raising Children Cross-Culturally

2018

Arad, Hemda (2018). Raising children cross-culturally. In Adelman, A. (Ed.), Psychoanalytic reflections on parenting teens and young adults: Changing patterns in modern love, loss, and longing (pp. 128-146). New York, NY: Routledge.

Intergenerational and Intercontinental Loss

2019

Arad, Hemda (2019), Voices: The Art and Science of Psychotherapy Journal of the American Academy of Psychotherapists, Summer 2019: Volume 55, Number 2, pp 41-48.

On Being Lost And Found: Where Patient And Analyst Subjectivities Converge

2022

Arad, Hemda (2022), Loss, Grief and Transformation: The Therapist’s Personal Experience in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis (Ed. Shoshana Ringel, Routledge, 2022 in press)

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