Evelyn Bass, M.Ed, LPC, SEP

Contact Evelyn for a brief consultation or to set up a session:

Evelyn (she/her) is strongly influenced by the latest research on attachment therapy and polyvagal theory. Human beings are meant to be strongly and pleasantly connected with one other to feel safe, satisfied, and capable of reaching for greater accomplishments and goals.

Evelyn is a Master's-level Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC). During the seventeen years between 2003-2020, she accrued experience as a bachelor's-level counselor, as a somatic coach/Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, and as a massage therapist.

Evelyn's current focus is on working with couples/relationships through theoretical approaches that includes humanistic therapy, emotion and attachment theory, experiential therapy, and polyvagal theory.

In particular, Evelyn is passionate about using Emotion Focused Couples Therapy (EFT), though she also integrates other research, as well as her training as a somatic therapist, into her work.

Evelyn is only accepting couples/relationships on her waitlist at this time. She is not currently working with youth or families.

More About Evelyn's Work with Couples and Relationships

Please note that Evelyn currently has a waitlist. At this time, she is prioritizing couples and romantic relationships on this list. Please see the bottom of this section for more resources for couples and relationships.

Couples and Romantic Partnerships:

Evelyn is passionate about working with couples and other adult attachment relationships to help each person to rediscover (or to discover for the first time) safety and security with one another. Evelyn's focus with relationships is on helping partners to see and overcome painful patterns of interaction; improving the attachment bond with one another; and helping partners to sustain their new ways of being with one another. Evelyn is also skilled at seeing when early-life relationship patterns and/or past traumatic experiences are influencing the underlying sense of security and comfort in a relationship. Evelyn is adept at helping each person to work through their guardedness and to achieve dependable closeness with one another.

Evelyn is trained in Emotionally-Focused Couples Therapy (EFT). EFT for couples is the most evidence-based form of

couples therapy and has been shown to be effective in many types of relationships.

Per many research studies and reviews over the past couple of decades (most of which focus specifically on couples as of yet), 90% of couples who complete stages 1-3 of EFT report relationship improvement and 70-73% report complete resolution of their relationship distress. Follow-up two years after the end of therapy shows that couples who complete a course of EFT continue to make gains in their relationship satisfaction and security even after the end of this type of therapy. For more about EFT with couples: https://iceeft.com/what-is-eft/

And check out this video that shows that a secure relationship bond can actually relieve pain and distress as measured by an fMRI (even when the pain and distress are unrelated to the relationship itself!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2J6B00d-8lw&t=118s

Evelyn has also studied the relationship work of Stan Tatkin, Marion Solomon, Michele Weiner-Davis, and others.

Please email Evelyn to learn more about her waitlist for couples. In the meantime, many couples find these resources helpful:

Other Resources for couples:

I've just discovered the author, Julie Mennano. She's awesome!! She has an Instagram account called: thesecurerelationship. She also has a book called, Secure Love, which is the best book on attachment for lay people that I've ever read.
An important article on how individual therapists can accidentally harm relationships
The Emotionally Focused Workbook for Couples is lovely. It's an easy but deep read and offers couples a way to move through the process together (though it can also be helpful with just one person reading through it).
You might check out the work of Jayson Gaddis. He has a podcast and blog, and he trains relationship coaches (they often have low-cost sessions if you'll work with a coach-in-training): https://www.jaysongaddis.com/meet-jayson-2/
There's an online EFT workshop for couples called Hold Me Tight: https://holdmetightonline.com/. There's also a book, Hold Me Tight, which can be helpful when read by even one partner.
PACT is a different approach than EFT that is also based on physiology and attachment theory. PACT is more prescriptive than EFT, but still has a lot to offer: https://www.thepactinstitute.com/what-is-pact

EFT therapists in AK who are experienced and might have openings:

Alaskan EFT therapist Kacea Bjork is incredibly gifted and also an EFT supervisor (she helps in the training of new EFT therapists). I highly, highly recommend her! https://kacea-bjork.clientsecure.me/
Alaskan EFT therapists who are experts in this evidence-based model:
- Dr. Ann Stockton
- Maria Poulson
- Mike Worrall
- Kim Eames
- Dennis Eames

I acknowledge that I live and work on the unceded land of the Áakʼw Ḵwáan. I am grateful for the stewardship of this land and its inhabitants by the Lingít people, as well as for the opportunity to reside in this irreplaceable ecosystem alongside the Lingít people. I strive to be of service to all communities and people in Áakʼw Ḵwáan territory, also known as Juneau, Alaska.

As I heard a friend put it, I consider myself an ally to all peoples. I honor and validate that many people and particular communities have lived in fear and experienced oppression for generations. I hope my work can be even a small part of acknowledging and healing intergenerational and community trauma and inequity.

Evelyn is LGBTQ affirming and allied.

Psychotherapy Resources for Clients in Juneau

Individual Adults:

I am not currently accepting new individual clients onto my waitlist as I am prioritizing couples. Please see the button just above this section if you need information about local counselors currently accepting clients. If you still can't find what you're looking for, then feel free to reach out. Maybe I can help to point you in the right direction to find resources that are right for you.

Evelyn's focus as a counselor with individuals is on strengthening resilience; balancing nervous system regulation; resolving trauma and related concerns; helping clients to attain secure attachment; helping clients to establish functional and healthy emotional coping strategies; opening and enlivening the client's stance in life to allow for more possibility; and helping clients to embody their fullest selves.

Evelyn is also influenced by Somatic Experiencing (SE), of which she is a certified practitioner. SE is a technique that addresses shock trauma, relational trauma, and developmental trauma, particularly at the level of the nervous system.

Children, Adolescents, and Families

While Evelyn may open her practice to children, adolescents, and families at some point in the future, she is currently focused on working with couples and adult individuals. Evelyn would like to receive more extensive training regarding play therapy and dyadic therapy before working with young people and their families.

Evelyn's approach with children and youth is informed most by Violet Oaklander's gestalt approach, and by her views of the nervous system and the attachment system. Evelyn worked with youth and children from 2004-2006 as a behavioral counselor and was awarded Counselor of the Year during this time by Seneca Center in California.

Evelyn's approach to working with families is influenced by Hand in Hand Parenting and by the Emotionally Focused Therapy approach to working with families. Families function best when individuals feel safely connected to one another, when they can laugh and be playful together, and when they can support one another's capacity to stay regulated.

Evelyn helps families to understand and shift entrenched patterns of interaction that have become unhelpful. Evelyn seeks to assist families to transform painful dynamics, to understand and support family members with particular needs, and to help all family members to strengthen their bonds with one another.

Excellent parenting resource: https://www.handinhandparenting.org/

More About Evelyn's Training Beyond Graduate School

Extensive Advanced Training:

Somatic Experiencing (172 hours initial training, 25+ hours supervision, and ongoing learning)
Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (80 hours initial training plus ongoing supervision and learning)
Somatics and Trauma (135 hours of training)

Advanced Training of 30 - 75 hours per specialty:

Diane Poole Heller’s Attachment Mastery course
Violet Oaklander’s Model for working with children
Hand-in-Hand Parenting Approach
Somatic touch and somatic coaching (Strozzi Institute)
Somatic leadership (Strozzi Institute)
Understanding Borderline Personality Disorder

Other relevant trainings:

Sex therapy with EFT (Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy)
Somatic Interventions for Chronic Pain and Syndromes
Clinical applications of Polyvagal Theory with Dr. Stephen Porges
Racial Justice from the Heart – Understanding and Overcoming Implicit Bias
Racial Justice from the Heart -- ongoing trainings
Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy
Who’s on the Table – somatic and developmentally-informed approach to touch work
CAMS-Care – suicide prevention
Cognitive Processing Therapy – an approach to trauma resolution often used with veterans

Honors, Awards, and Publications