Sindhu Shivaji, PsyD

Bio: 

Before arriving in North Carolina to work at the TAP Clinic, I grew up in Mississippi and spent a few years moving around the U.S. (New York, Texas). In my free time, I like to play tennis, paint, read (usually fantasy or sci-fi), and go to trivia nights. I am a lifelong dog person who currently shares a very chaotic cat with my partner. With regards to interpersonal style, you can expect sessions with me to include a lot of warmth, some humor, a little irreverence, and a lot of transparency- I try to make therapy as un-mysterious as possible!

Expertise:

Broadly, I enjoy seeing clients who feel like outsiders in their family of origin, in their relationships, or in their communities. My passion for helping others find a sense of belonging has led to my seeking out extensive training in symptoms or concerns that produce feelings of isolation, shame, or invalidation.

• Dialectical Behavior Therapy
  • My clinical career has been characterized by opportunities in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). 
  • I provide CBT techniques for clients who need help understanding how patterns of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors may be impacting their day-to-day lives and their progress toward long-term goals. 
  • DBT is a particular passion for me, as I value transparent, effective, skills-based treatment that not only addresses ongoing difficulties, but also empowers patients to build a sense of self as they pursue their long-term goals and values. 
• Trauma & Anxiety Treatments
  • I provide Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) for clients struggling with panic, OCD, or other anxiety symptoms that prevent them from engaging with their lives fully. I also deliver Trauma Therapies in the form of both Prolonged Exposure (PE) and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) to help clients who have experienced distressing events that continue to impact their day-to-day functioning. 
  • My approach to exposure-based treatments is to give clients a full understanding of what maintains their avoidance and how their brains are wired. I hope to not only foster self-compassion and decrease shame, but also to build a sense of competency that allows clients to generalize skills learned in session across contexts.
• Couples Treatments
  • With regard to couples work, my training has primarily been within the Gottman Method, Emotion-Focused Therapy, and Cognitive Behavioral Couples Therapy. 
  • Currently, I deliver couples treatment utilizing primarily Cognitive-Behavioral Couples Therapy (CBCT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy techniques, with special attention to concerns regarding communication, conflict, intimacy, or ineffective emotional responses within relationships. 
• Emotional Resiliency/Shame Treatments
  • Here at TAP, I provide Emotional Resiliency (ER) treatment at both an individual and a group level. ER treatments can help clients calibrate their emotional experiencing of the world to better suit their long-term goals, values, and relationship needs. ER treatments work by using a combination of treatment approaches to improve our relationship with thoughts and emotions and by teaching skills to recognize and communicate our emotions more effectively. 
  • Typical resiliency-related goals include things like tolerating distressing emotions (such as shame, disappointment, or anger), labeling and understanding emotional states, communicating clearly even in the presence of strong emotion, setting appropriate boundaries,  increasing values-consistent vulnerability, or intentionally modulating emotional intensity. 
• Therapy for Race-Based and Identity-Based Stress
  • I provide support for identity-related distress, both as a primary treatment concern or as an ongoing factor alongside other therapy targets. I may be a good fit for clients seeking to increase acceptance, self-compassion, and understanding of their identities. I utilize both acceptance and problem-solving strategies to help clients explore their emotional learning histories, values match/mismatch with their environments, and ways in which certain thinking styles can be protective in some contexts/systems and harmful in others. 
  • For each client, I hope to foster a greater understanding of not only their own personal identity, but also the juncture of these identities within systemic, political, and global structures.
    

    Training:

    I completed my undergraduate degree in Psychology at Columbia University. After finishing my B.A., I remained in New York for several years as a research and clinical assistant, contributing to studies on the creation of novel, body-focused emotion regulation techniques and working directly with Dr. Robert Leahy, an expert in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy approaches. I received my PsyD in Clinical Psychology from Baylor University, where I received extensive training in evidence-based treatments for anxious-, depressive-, substance-, personality-, couples-, and trauma-related disorders in adults. My graduate work was focused on improving understanding and treatment of transdiagnostic experiences, such as shame and guilt. After graduate school, I went on to receive training at Houston’s Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center (MEDVAMC), where I specialized in providing empowering, thoughtful care to historically underserved and underrepresented populations, including trauma-informed work, LGBTQ+ affirming therapy, and management of race-based stress. I completed my postdoctoral fellowship here at the TAP Clinic, where I have been able to specialize in the conceptualization and treatment of shame while also continuing to provide care to clients seeking DBT, emotional resiliency, anxiety/trauma, and couples’ treatments. I am currently working to continue to disseminate DBT across communities, locally and on a larger scale, by serving on the Triangle Area DBT leadership team and as a Trainer-in-Training for the Behavioral Tech Institute.

    Evidence-based Therapies Offered:

    DBT, ERP, CBT, Trauma Therapies, Couples Therapy