Dr. Lassiter has specialized training and experience in using the therapeutic approaches below. The approaches are listed with the types of mental health problems for which he uses each.
All of these approaches have been researched by scientists who have found evidence of their effectiveness. Please note, that often Dr. Lassiter is combining approaches to meet the unique needs of clients. No one approach works for all clients and none work the same across clients. Thus, Dr. Lassiter tailors his approach for each individual client.
All of these approaches are practiced with cultural humility that seeks to understand and honor the client, their culture, and their context.
Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders/Cognitive Behavior Therapy
Dr. Lassiter implements this framework to teach you to identify your emotions, thoughts, and bodily sensations. Once identified, there is an emphasis on exploring how these things influence your behavior. Emotional awareness, mindful emotional experiences, thought restructuring, and emotion exposures are the tools used to help you find relief.
- Ideal for clients who may be experiencing:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Trauma- and stressor-related disorders
- Substance-use and other addiction problems
Compassion-focused Therapy
Dr. Lassiter leverages this approach to help you develop kindness for yourself and your perceived flaws; feel more connected to yourself and others in your humanity; and cultivate a practice of being in the moment on purpose without judgement.
- Ideal for clients who may be experiencing:
- Grief
- Imposter syndrome
- Negative self-talk
- Hypercriticism of self
- Poor boundaries in relationships with others
- Perfectionism
- Pressure to be strong and silent
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Dr. Lassiter uses ACT to assist you in identifying your values, decouple yourself from emotional pain, develop psychological flexibility, and accept your power to change what you can and let go of what you cannot. The goal is to change your relationshipto your emotions and thoughts, not to change or suppress your emotions and thoughts or their expression.
- Ideal for clients who may be experiencing:
- Lack of purpose
- Feeling unsettled in life
- Having to navigate inflexible, toxic family members or other loved ones
- Racism
- Sexism
- Heterosexism
- Transphobia
- Chronic pain or other medical concerns
Belief Systems Analysis
This explicitly African-centered approach is used to help you move away from the stress, anxiety, and despair of living in a world steeped in oppression. Using this approach, Dr. Lassiter joins you on a journey of examining your belief systems and learning new ways of interpreting yourself, others, and the world around you through the lens of pre-colonial African values. The work requires deep reflection and is a long-term process of optimizing your way of being through harnessing culture and spirituality. This therapy is ideal for people from marginalized backgrounds who are not suffering from acute mental health disorders but who wish to use psychotherapy for deep self-exploration, learning how to connect more in their personal and communal relationships, and transcend the confines of societies that were not designed with them in mind.
- Ideal for clients who may be experiencing:
- Racism
- Sexism
- Heterosexism/Homophobia/Biphobia
- Transphobia
- Ableism
- Church hurt
- A desire to dive deeper into their culture and spirituality to become more aligned in their life
Emotionally Focused Therapy - For Couples
Dr. Lassiter draws from the principles of EFT to help you and your partner identify unhealthy patterns of communication and engagement/avoidance with each other. The aim is to help you and your partner understand and express your emotions, cultivate empathy for each other, and build stronger, more empathetic connections in your relationship.
- Ideal for couples who may be experiencing:
- Poor and negative communication
- Infidelity
- Clash of values and beliefs
- Stress from outside sources such as family, society, racism, sexism, homophobia, and work that is negatively impacting your relationship
