Catherine Lidov, MSW, LCSW
Healing = restoring wholeness
My work as a psychotherapist emerged from a first career in education when, as a high school language arts teacher, I discovered a love of working with adolescents. I graduated from Smith College School for Social Work with a Master of Social Work in clinical social work in 1995, trained in psychodynamic psychotherapy with children, adolescents, and adults, and family therapy. In the following years, I worked as a therapist in a community mental health center, as a middle school counselor, as a high school counselor, and as a therapist in a university counseling center. In 1997, I started an independent psychotherapy practice, which grew to a full-time practice in 2001.
Having trained in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) in 1997 and completed the DBT Intensive Training in 2000, I developed the Triangle area’s first DBT program for adolescents. I provided multiple workshops and trainings – both in-state and nationally – on using DBT with teens. I also consulted with out-patient programs, school systems, and residential treatment programs regarding their DBT programs. The Triangle area now has an abundance of DBT providers, and my attention has moved to providing Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy and developing a community of EMDR therapists.
I first trained in EMDR in 1998 and have since completed the training to become an EMDR International Association (EMDRIA) Certified Therapist and EMDRIA Approved Consultant in EMDR. The longer I work with EMDR, the more I am amazed at its versatility in activating and supporting our natural healing processes. It has transformed my work as a therapist and my experience as a human being, moving my focus from therapies that help people understand, skillfully manage, and adapt to their experiences, to therapies that alleviate pain and transform suffering into useful learning and an expanded capacity for wholeness and joy.
I have advanced specialization training in using EMDR to treat children, attachment disorders, performance anxiety, creative blocks, pre-verbal trauma, complex grief, body trauma (such as illness, accidents, and surgeries), and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). I have given many presentations on EMDR, and I provide extensive consultation to area therapists. I wrote a chapter on the use of EMDR in the treatment of eating disorders for the book EMDR Solutions II, published in 2008. In recent years I developed a two-day Advanced Training for EMDR Therapists called "Working with the Body in EMDR: Essential Skills" which I have presented in multiple location across the United States.
My interest in working with the body has included training in Somatic Experiencing® and Integral Somatic Psychology and extensive study of Dr. Stephen Porges's work on the Polyvagal Theory of the Autonomic Nervous System. My interest in Dr. Porges's work led to working with Integrated Listening Systems (iLs), participating on a panel with Dr. Porges on applications of the iLs listening systems in the treatment of trauma and mental health disorders, and being invited to speak at the SSP Gathering with Dr. Porges in 2019. I am a provider for the iLs listening programs, including Dr. Porges's extensively-researched listening program "Safe and Sound Protocol."
My work is also shaped by a life-long involvement in the creative arts. Dance, which I studied for 20 years, found expression in my work in dance/movement therapy. My undergraduate major was in creative writing, which launched my exploration of creative process. And I have been deeply involved in pottery and the ceramic arts. I see creativity as a process that is at the root of most of our endeavors, not only in the arts, but also in science, business, and education. Almost any work can tap into our creativity – including parenting. Attending to creative process is a way of being in the world. It is fundamental to our sense of ourselves as active participants in the world and our experience of wholeness. Therapy, too, is a creative process.
