Aida Baker
Licensed Marriage Family Therapist, #51176

Whether working with individuals, couples and/or parents, Aida is quite passionate about facilitating the innate healing potential that exists within all people.  Along with a depth approach to the psyche, she is particularly interested in implementing the latest discoveries in neuroscience with regard to attachment in adult love relationships, trauma resolution, and parenting.

About Aida

Aida has completed three year long trainings promoting psychological processes which include the body.  It has been said that the mind can create many fabrications, but the body never lies.  The inclusion of the body in psychotherapy  has deepened and expanded the possibility of more complete assimilation of past trauma and developmental wounding which contribute to psychological disturbances such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, and relational conflicts. 

SAFEHAVEN PSYCHOTHERAPY 

Aida is a Certified Emotionally Focused Couples Therapist, (EFT) a model developed by Dr. Sue Johnson and incorporates EFT into her work with couples and families. This model holds an exciting paradigm for relationships which is grounded in attachment theory and helps individuals gain understanding of how their early bonding with caregivers impacts the quality of their adult love relationships and how this can change and heal. Neuroscience is now validating what attachment theorists have known for many years; that human beings do not do well in isolation; that being emotionally close to loved ones tranquilizes the nervous system; and that attachment is a process not just occurring in early childhood, but is necessary throughout the lifespan. 

Additionally, Aida has been teaching and giving presentations based on the book, Parenting from the Inside Out, by Dan Siegel and Mary Hartzell and has also completed a training with the authors.  This method is a process for parents to become more aware of how their own childhood wounds are affecting their relationships with their children.  Research shows that the more self understanding parents have about their own childhoods the more likely their children will securely bond to them.  It is now known that securely attached children thrive in school, have increased capacity to self regulating their emotions, get along better with their peers, enjoy increased self esteem and later develop healthier relationships as adults.  You can listen to Aida’s radio interview on this topic in the Classes and Workshops page on the website. 

Working experientially and with tools such as mindfulness and other mind/body interventions, Aida utilizes the healing power of relationship to help transform past wounds and limiting life patterns to more life affirming, expansive and creative ways of living.