Evelyn Bass, M.Ed, LMT, SEP

Evelyn Bass, M.Ed, SEP, LMT

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 professional counselor. 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 interned as a counselor at AWARE in 2020 and graduated from UAF with her master's degree in Clinical Mental Health and Counseling in 2021.

Evelyn has mostly recently been working with couples/relationships and with adult individuals. She 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 on this list. Please see the bottom of this section for more resources for couples.

Couples:

Evelyn is passionate about working with couples, and about helping couples to rediscover (or to discover for the first time) safety and security with one another. Evelyn's focus with couples is on helping couples to see and overcome painful patterns of interaction; improving the couple's attachment bond with one another; and helping the couple 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 these couples 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. Per many research studies and reviews over the past couple of decades, 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.

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

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 also check out the work of Jayson Gaddis. He has a podcast and blog, trains relationship coaches (they often have low-cost sessions if you'll work with a coach-in-training), and I trust his work: 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.
Alaskan EFT therapist Julissa Chavez Corona can meet with couples online and comes highly recommended: https://chugachcounseling.com/julissa-corona/
Some therapists at AK Marriage and Family Therapy are well-versed in EFT. Others are more based in other types of couples therapy but include some EFT in their approach. They can do online sessions. https://www.akmft.com/
This last book resource isn't EFT, but is authored by the founder of another approach I love (PACT) and is particularly useful for couples that experience a lot of volatility. However, it's not just for those couples with too much heat in their relationship. It also explains the dry, cold distance other types of couples experience. It's intended for clinicians, but it's an awesome book for anyone interested in what the heck is happening in their relationship: Love and War in Intimate Relationships. Here's more about the PACT approach: https://www.thepactinstitute.com/what-is-pact

Individual Adults:

I am not currently accepting new individual clients onto my waitlist as I am prioritizing couples. Please reach out if you need recommendations or information about local counselors currently accepting clients.

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 will 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:

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