More Info – Gainesville Healing House

About Me

Kelly Nenezian

Kelly Nenezian is the president of Gainesville Healing House and a Licensed Mental Health Counselor. She worked in a residential facility for several years treating individuals suffering with serious mental health conditions and addictions. She then began working at Sarkis Family Psychiatry where she utilized her skills to help adolescents, adults, couples, families, and seniors manage and recover from trauma, depression, anxiety and other disorders. She also has experience helping individuals learn to manage disorders such as ADHD, OCD, personality disorders and more.

Kelly is passionate about deep level healing. She is described by former clients and colleagues as extremely empathic, intuitive and compassionate. She has specialized training in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Bioenergetic Analysis (a body-oriented somatic psychotherapy), and Dialectical Behavioral Inform Therapy (DBT). She loves working with clients who have been in therapy before and found it helpful but may be in need of deeper level healing. Her number one priority is helping those in need heal and live more fulfilling life journeys.

Kelly Nenezian is an EMDR Certified Therapist.

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Our Team

Eric Dutton

Eric Dutton is a therapist at Gainesville Healing House and a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. Through an internship at UF Health Shands Psychiatric Hospital (formerly Vista), he did family counseling and led group therapy sessions for children and adults. At Sarkis Family Psychiatry, Eric has helped clients in a variety of ways, including individual and family counseling, mindfulness meditation training, and transcranial magnetic stimulation.

Eric’s approach to therapy tends to be humanistic and strengths-based. When appropriate, he will often use mindfulness practices, behavioral activation, and EMDR with clients. He believes in the transformative power of group therapy, so he offers skills groups and process groups whenever possible. Eric aims to help each client find new ways of relating to the world–and to themselves–so that they can experience a life with less suffering and more meaning.

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Gina Vogt

Gina Vogt is a therapist at the Gainesville Healing House and a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW). Gina worked in both residential and outpatient settings treating people who struggle with addiction, mood disorders, anxiety, trauma, and personality disorders. She has worked with adults, adolescents, and families through individual, group, and family therapy. Gina also has experience helping people address grief and loss, self-esteem, and relational issues.

Gina’s approach to therapy tends to incorporate a combination of cognitive behavioral, mindfulness, and client-centered approaches. Gina has received training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), as well as Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) for PTSD. She is also trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). Her style is strength based, empathetic, and interactive. She is passionate about creating a supportive environment that helps people process and heal. Gina believes in a collaborative therapeutic relationship that facilitates healing, helping clients become empowered to overcome obstacles and begin building a satisfying and fulfilling life.

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Taylor Novak

Taylor Novak is a therapist at Gainesville Healing House and a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. She has worked with adults, young adults, teens and children in couples, group, and individual practices. She enjoys the use of evidence-based protective factors in navigating life changes, identity exploration, healthy relationships, and social power dynamics. Taylor’s approach to therapy is systems-, strengths-, and empowerment-based. She is neurodivergent affirming and identity-embracing.Taylor uses models such as EMDR, reality therapy, and acceptance commitment therapy, informed by parts work, motivational interviewing, play, and DBT. She knows human experiences are complex, and trusts that you are the expert of your life. Through a safe and interactive therapeutic relationship, she considers it an honor to journey beside you in wellness. She is also a Certified Prevention Professional, a registered yoga teacher, and a Spanish speaker.

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Audrey Sanchez

Audrey Sanchez is a therapist at Gainesville Healing House and a Licensed Mental Health Counselor. Throughout her career Audrey has provided mental health therapy within schools, clinical settings as well as in-home to children, adults, families, and groups. Audrey utilizes evidence-based interventions to address issues related to mental health, associated behavioral concerns, stress management and emotion regulation. Audrey has helped clients learn about effective parenting styles, communication styles and the effects of trauma on childhood development and behaviors.

Audrey’s therapeutic approach is based in humanistic theory and she utilizes expressive arts, therapeutic play, solution-focused, CBT amongst others. Audrey is empathetic, offers a non-judgmental space and collaborates with clients to understand symptoms in context and build individualized therapeutic goals. She speaks fluent Spanish.

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Our Interns

Molly O’Brien

Molly O’Brien is a Graduate Student Intern currently working towards her Master’s Degree in Counseling at Adams State University. She has a background working in inpatient and outpatient mental health settings caring for individuals with various mental health conditions and substance use disorders. She has also spent time volunteering at the Alachua County Rape Crisis Center and an Equine Therapy Center helping children, adolescents, and adults recover from trauma-based symptoms.

Molly’s approach to therapy is integrative, with a foundation in person-centered care. Through her time in internship, she looks forward to gaining additional training in EMDR, and somatic-based therapy. Molly has a passion for working with individuals with abuse histories, and relational trauma seeking to unseat long-standing patterns in their lives. She believes in the transformative power of an authentic, collaborative relationship between client and therapist. Her main goal is to provide a safe space for clients to access their own internal wisdom and truths to live a more holistic and meaningful life.

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Andrew Henkin

Andrew Henkin is a Master of Social Work student at the University of South Florida. He spent a year working as a Crisis Counselor at the Alachua County Crisis Center, where he witnessed the transformative power of simple empathic listening. He is also a certified Life Coach from the Robbins-Madanes Center for Strategic Intervention, where he has learned approaches for state management, belief change, and meeting our deepest and most fundamental human needs.

Andrew is interested in a variety of therapeutic and change approaches, including neuro-linguistic programming, cognitive behavioral therapy, Strategic Intervention coaching, Emotional Freedom Technique, the Sedona Method, and Bioenergetic Analysis. He sees a strengths-based approach as a fundamental basis for effective and empowering therapy, as well as for life in general.

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Office Manager

Ashley

Ashley (she/her) is a UF graduate with bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and Sociology. She is passionate about making others feel welcome, affirmed, and celebrated. In her free time, she loves to play with her dog and cat, take care of her plants, read fantasy books, and volunteer with the Pride Community Center. She is so excited to start her journey with the Gainesville Healing House community and hopes to become a trauma-informed mental health counselor in the future. Please feel free to say hi and ask her for any help you might need while visiting us!

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OUR APPROACHES

Talk Therapy

“The conscious mind may be compared to a fountain playing in the sun and falling back into the great subterranean pool of subconscious from which it rises.”
― Sigmund Freud

“The past affects the present even without our being aware of it.”
― Francine Shapiro

Talk Therapy plays a critical role in the treatment of emotional and mental health conditions. Most of our life is interpreted and responded to on an unconscious level. If there is unresolved conflict in the unconscious or maladaptive coping strategies stored we will likely struggle in many aspects of our life. Experience changes brain chemistry and brain structure which results in emotional and mental health conditions. Talking through issues, exploring unresolved emotions and understanding your patterns will allow you to make changes in your life. Successful psychotherapy has been shown to manifest in mood changes, more emotional regulation and increase in overall happiness. Research also shows that psychotherapy alters brain function and in certain cases will alter the brain over time similar to medications with more beneficial long term effects. Psychotherapy helps us challenge old and unhealthy neural connections and make new ones.

We provide an integrative psychotherapy approach and have experience with Psychodynamic, Humanistic, Gestalt, and Cognitive Behavioral approaches. The approach will be tailored to the person in order to provide the best quality care. Psychotherapy is a collaborative process built on the relationship between the patient and therapist. It is critical you find a therapist you feel safe with in order to embark on this vulnerable and powerful journey.

Find some helpful articles below for more information on Psychotherapy!

Mindfulness Training

“In mindfulness practice, none of our humanity is denied. We are discovering a way to be present to everything
—our full humanity—so everything becomes a gate to freedom, to compassion and to ourselves.”
― Gil Fronsdal

Mindfulness meditation is an ancient practice that has been heavily researched in the last few decades and found to be helpful for a variety of conditions and for improving general well-being.

Mindfulness can be described as a state of intentional, non-judgmental attention to your experience of the present moment. Meditation and other techniques are used to cultivate an increased capacity for mindfulness, which can help us relate to our experiences in more skillful ways. Using these techniques, we can develop healthier relationships with our minds, bodies, emotions, and with other people. Mindfulness training helps you develop a consistent, skillful, and dynamic mindfulness meditation practice.

Find some helpful articles below for more information on Mindfulness!

Bioenergetic Analysis

“Bioenergetics is an adventure in self-discovery. It differs from similar explorations into the nature of the self by attempting to understand the human personality in terms of the human body. Most previous explorations focused their investigations on the mind.”
― Dr. Alexander Lowen, Bioenergetics

Bioenergetics is a form of therapy designed to promote deep level healing. It promotes an understanding of the self that we often avoid. This method of therapy promotes emotional expression utilizing the entire body. The idea is that as we face trauma we develop muscular tension in our bodies as a response. For instance, a child is taught that what they say doesn’t matter may develop a tense jaw. We have basic understanding of this demonstrated by sayings such as, “you’re a pain in the neck” or “I have too much on my shoulders”. Our emotions directly impact of physiology. In bioenergetics we utilize somatic experience and the principle that the body remembers everything.

We often utilize psychological defenses to avoid uncomfortable truths. However, our body always embraces and expresses the truth. Through the body we can move past the defenses and into ourselves. Tapping in to the truth that our bodies carry can be very powerful. As Dr. Alexander Lowen stated,” The primary nature of every human being is to be open to life and love. Being guarded, armored, distrustful and enclosed is second nature in our culture. It is the means we adopt to protect ourselves against being hurt, but when such attitudes become characterological or structured in the personality, that constitute a more severe hurt and create a greater crippling than the one originally suffered.”

This method of therapy can be very powerful. It is great for individuals who feel that something is missing from their lives or feel stuck despite utilizing other therapeutic approaches. Individuals who have gone through traditional talk therapy and realize the need for a deeper level healing could benefit greatly from this method.

Find some helpful links below for more information on bioenergetics analysis!

Dialectical Behavioral Inform Therapy (DBT)

“DBT’s catchphrase of developing a life worth living means you’re not just surviving; rather, you have good reasons for living. I’m also getting better at keeping another dialectic in mind: On the one hand, the disorder decimates all relationships and social functions, so you’re basically wandering in the wasteland of your own failure, and yet you have to keep walking through it, gathering the small bits of life that can eventually go into creating a life worth living. To be in the desolate badlands while envisioning the lush tropics without being totally triggered again isn’t easy, especially when life seems so effortless for everyone else.”
― Kiera Van Gelder

Dialectical Behavioral Inform Therapy (DBT) is an empirically validated form of therapy. This method requires regular and active participation in and out of therapy sessions including daily logging, journaling, practicing skills, and practicing new behaviors. This method is widely recognized to help treat emotional dysregulation or reactivity such as found with individuals struggling with Borderline Personality Disorder. It is also proven effective in treating depression, bulimia, binge-eating, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic-stress disorder, and substance abuse.

Find some Helpful articles below to learn more about DBT!

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

“Changing the memories that form the way we see ourselves also changes
the way we view others. Therefore, our relationships, job performance, what we are willing to do or are able to resist, all move in a positive direction.”
― Francine Shapiro

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a well-researched and considered an empirically validated form of treatment that utilizes the brain’s natural processing mechanism to reprocess information. Through bilateral stimulation we are able to target specific neural pathways in order to desensitize and reprocess information that causes issues in an individual’s life. This was originally developed to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in veterans coming back from wars. Since development it has been researched extensively in the treatment of trauma. Recently, we have started to find it beneficial in treating depression, anxiety, phobias, addictions, and more.

Find some helpful articles below for more information on EMDR!

Links

Talk Therapy:

BENEFITS OF TALK THERAPY

LEARNING MORE ABOUT PSYCHOTHERAPY

UNDERSTANDING PSYCHOTHERAPY

HOW PSYCHOTHERAPY CHANGES THE BRAIN

Mindfulness Training:

WHAT IS MINDFULNESS?

WHEN SCIENCE MEETS MINDFULNESS

MINDFULNESS-BASED INTERVENTIONS

Bioenergetic Analysis:

BIOENERGETIC THERAPY

LEARN MORE ABOUT BIOENERGETIC ANALYSIS

Dialectical Behavioral Inform Therapy:

ABOUT DBT

DBT AS A TREATMENT FOR BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing:

WHAT IS EMDR

EMDR THERAPY

MORE ON EMDR