Transformational

Psychotherapy

Conscious Container Coaching

Not typical talk therapy

EXPERIENTIAL

SOMATIC

EMDR

PARTS WORK

KETAMINE ASSISTED

EXISTENTIAL KINK

WORK WITH ME

Welcome! I’m Dana Howley

My name is pronounced DAN-uh.

After 13 years in a first career (choral musical education), I was burnt out, chronically sick, and not happy with life. Fortuitous therapeutic meetings with an alumnus from the Center for Humanistic Studies (Detroit, MI) began to change my interior emotional landscape.

I became curious about where life might take me if I took a risk and made big changes. I applied to the Michigan School of Psychology for the 2008-09 all-in-one-year master’s degree — course work, thesis, and practicum all in 10 months! The self-exploration was so fun. It was by far one of the most transformative experiences of my life.

Four years later I earned a doctorate from the same school. I researched Self-Compassion in Obese Dieters and it became the title of my dissertation. Writing on such a close topic to home was an incredible heuristic experience. In 2014 I became a fully licensed psychologist (LP) and have been practicing psychotherapy in Michigan since. I find my work and my life to be fun, more balanced than ever, and I live with a deep feeling of connection to myself. Overall, I feel like therapy saved my life.

I use depth psychology together with mindful embodiment in therapy and counseling spaces to help people transform areas of their lives to achieve more fulfillment and pleasure in their own existence.

Portrait photography credit: @azaraimages

(I took the other nature photos on this website.)

SERVICES

EMBODIED PSYCHOTHERAPY

Parts Work (Internal Family Systems), EMDR, Focusing Technique, Tapping
This offering is available for private pay clients and those using BCBS (not BCN) insurance.
KETAMINE ASSISTED PSYCHOTHERAPY

In-person ketamine-assisted therapy sessions. In partnership with Michigan Progressive Health, Royal Oak and Ann Arbor, MI.
michiganprogressivehealth.com
SELF-COMPASSION SUPPORT

Available as individual or group sessions, learn the basics of Self-Compassion. Meetings are centered around experiential activities and also include psycho-education about the obstacles to being self-compassionate.
Joint Parts Work

Joint parts works sessions are a way for two people in a relationship to gain empathy and clarity around a core relationship issue. This is not a traditional couples counseling format. If you are curious, let’s discuss!
PSYCHEDELIC SUPPORT

Psychedelic medicine experiences can be helpful journeys of self-discovery and healing. Often, these experiences yield the best result when careful preparations are made and integration and processing are part of the aftercare. I offer support for preparation and post-journey processing. I can facilitate the integration of psychedelic experiences into everyday life.
Intuition support

“Trust your gut!” It can be easier said than done. Many of us want the ability to use and trust our intuition more often, but it’s easy to doubt ourselves. I can help you connect to your own inner guidance and teach you how to start trusting your intuition.
Dreamwork

Would you like to explore what your body and mind are trying to tell you through dreams? I highly recommend recording your dreams as soon as you wake up. Write them down! I use Gestalt dream methods and also the Clark Moustakas phenomenological dream analysis method. Both provide ways to understand the energies and themes in your dream, and how the dream material might be showing up in real life. This is one of the most powerful ways I’ve seen a person “meet” themselves.
Conscious Container Coaching

Coaching for individuals (self-care, life goals, personal growth) or partners together (relationship coaching). I have experience with ethical non-monogamy and polyamory, and can provide help for those in non-traditional relationship strutcutres.

PHILOSOPHY

Depth Psychology is a branch of psychology that explores the examination of the unconscious mind and its influence on human behavior, experiences, and development. It seeks to uncover the hidden motives, patterns, and symbols that shape our thoughts, emotions, and actions. Many clients that begin with me are seeking support in understanding the unconscious influences shaping their lives.

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it fate.” — Carl Jung

“A radical inner transformation and rise to a new level of consciousness might be the only real hope we have in the current global crisis brought on by the dominance of the Western mechanistic paradigm.” — Stanislav Graf

“The heart of justice is truth telling, seeing ourselves and the world the way it is rather than the way we want it to be. More than ever before we, as a society, need to renew a commitment to truth telling.” — bell hooks