Toni Culcasi, LPC, EMDR Therapist
Don't carry your struggles alone.
I’m here to walk through the waters with you. Each time someone invites me into their perspective, it is a complete honor to walk beside them. I am grateful to each person who welcomes me into their goals and healing journey. My experience has taught me that people find healing and wellness by recognizing their inner strength and being able to choose how they want to respond to situations. Rather than a life free of challenges, healing comes when you trust yourself to be able to overcome challenges.
I like to take a supportive approach and make an effort to help you connect your past, present, and future in order to work towards your ideal self. You’ll find a lot of present-moment experience and growth in awareness of your responses to situations. We look at the ways in which you hold strength as well as areas you want to grow stronger.
It’s important to recognize that I work for you. I hope to create an environment where you feel comfortable giving me feedback and letting me know if our work together feels like it’s helping you. There are a ton of different modalities for therapy and each person responds to a different one. This is your healing journey and we will pay attention to what you need as you change and grow. I encourage you to feel comfortable letting me know when something really sticks for you or when something falls flat so that we can try a new modality. This is YOUR journey and I want to make it tailored for YOU!
EDUCATION
- Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Oakland University
- Bachelors in Psychology, Oakland University
CERTIFICATIONS
- EMDR Certified Therapist
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
- Evidence-based trauma therapy
WORKS WITH
- Teens
- Adults
TYPES OF THERAPY
- EMDR
- Trauma Therapy
- Therapy for Chronic Pain
I focus on EMDR and psychosomatic chronic pain. For those who have experienced repetitive patterns that they can’t seem to shake or responses to triggers that they want to work through, EMDR can be really healing.
Unfortunately when we are in trauma, we often don’t get to experience or process it because our bodies are using all of their energy to endure the trauma. Afterwards, we can find ourselves having dreams, elevated emotional responses, or repetitive negative thoughts. EMDR can help to work through this feeling of being stuck in those responses and help to move to a lower feeling of disturbance.
Psychosomatic feelings focus on our bodies responses – just like how when we get embarrassed our cheeks turn red or when we get scared, our bodies tense up! Sometimes we may feel calm mentally but our physical selves still react. EMDR can also help with those physical responses. Our goal is to gain awareness of ourselves so that our reactions become choices rather than automatic responses.
I will not bring up religion unless you choose to do so first. But I am fully open to integrating religious and spiritual components into your therapy space if that is helpful to you. Some people can really benefit from integrating their beliefs and I hope you feel comfortable asking me to integrate them if you feel it may be helpful.
FAVORITE SELF-CARE
I love being outdoors. In the summer, I like to paddleboard. In the winter, I am hiking and sledding. Fresh air really helps to reset me!
FUN FACTS
- I have been figure skating since I was 3 years old. The ice arena is my home away from home!
- I also have a very serious goal of eventually owning a sloth!
LIFE MOTTO
Growing up, my mom always told us to do a job that we love. My skating coach deepened that by saying that he has a job but has never worked a day in his life because he loves what he does! I am grateful every day for being able to enjoy what I do. I truly do want to be here with each of my clients.
