About | Kristinajohnsonpsyd

A Little About Me

I hold a doctorate in clinical psychology from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California, and completed my post-doctoral training in Whitefish, Montana. I have a B.A. in Religious Studies from Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, where I primarily focused on contemplative and mystical traditions. I have great respect for good research, thoughtful science and for the transcendent, non-material aspects of reality that can't be fully held in a book.

I've dedicated much of my training to helping clients find authenticity in their romantic relationships. I've worked with couples and individuals touched by severe trauma, addiction, infidelity, the stresses of parenthood, illness and religious oppression.

Before I became a psychologist, I spent nearly ten years advocating for sustainable agriculture and writing as an environmental reporter. I believe we must be in connection with the earth and the other-than-human to be our most well.

I live in Missoula, Montana with my husband and our two pups, Traveler the Whippet and Gus the Border Collie.

My Approach to Therapy

Underlying all my work with clients is the belief that we are relational beings. We become who we are in relationship, and we heal in relationship — whether that's our relationship to parts of ourselves, our partners and closest others, to a river, a mountain, or with the larger field of the Sacred.

My approach is informed by the wisdom of Internal Family Systems (IFS), Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) for couples, Relational Life Therapy (RLT), and Transpersonal Psychology. All of these frameworks recognize the power of relationships to transform our understanding of the world and our potential in it.

I prioritize building trust with my clients. My goal is to be a safe harbor and a collaborative guide, so that you can have the confidence to travel to realms inside of yourself that maybe haven't always felt so welcoming, or you didn't even know existed. I think of therapy as a way to remember that we're already complete and profoundly interwoven with all beings. There isn't any "fixing" involved, because there isn't anything broken. I hope our time together will support you in living a life of intention and love.

Models That Shape My Work

Internal Family System Therapy: IFS is an evidence-based approach for addressing a vast range of distress, including severe complex trauma, PTSD, depression, anxiety, chronic pain and insomnia. IFS holds that we are made up of parts. Sometimes in couples work, for instance, one part of you respects your partner, and another part feels contempt. Much of the time, our parts are running the show, and while parts are full of gifts and talents, they can also carry significant burdens, inherited from older generations, imposed on us by culture, and as a result of the suffering we experience throughout our lives. Burdened parts try to protect us in ways that often backfire: by numbing out, controlling, critiquing, yelling or isolating. IFS therapy, like many wisdom traditions, focuses on helping you to reconnect to true Self and unburden your parts.

Emotionally Focused Therapy: EFT is an evidence-based model steeped in the science of human bonds — what psychology calls Attachment Theory. EFT is often considered the gold-standard in couples therapy, in part because of it's compassionate approach. EFT helps couples to share more vulnerably with each other, and to recognize the deeper meaning and emotional triggers behind their reactions. It's a warm, down-to-earth model that, especially when combined with the depth of IFS and the skills-focus of Relational Life Therapy, can help couples know themselves and each other with new depth.

Relational Life Therapy: Developed by psychotherapist and author Terry Real, RLT is a straight-shooting approach that encourages partners to take accountability for their own healing and for showing up as more mature adults in their relationship. In couples' work, share many of Real's strategies for cultivating "fierce intimacy" — how to get more of what you want, stand up for yourself with love, and have effective boundaries, so that your relationship can be be both empowered and loving.

Transpersonal Psychology: Western psychology has had a long habit of reducing people to diagnoses and disorders, and not giving much credit to the spiritual, transcendent aspects of our existence. Transpersonal Psychology, though, sees the spiritual as integral to who we are. TP is less a set of techniques, and more a framework that makes room for the big questions like why we're alive, what it means to have a soul/a spirit and a body, and how to experience deeper connection to the Greater Whole. As a transpersonal psychologist, I don't adhere to any one religious tradition, but welcome clients from across spiritualities and faiths.