East Hero 2 MF.jpg

INDUCED AFTER-DEATH COMMUNICATION

THERAPY FOr GRIEF & LOSS

in seattle, Bellevue, and all of washington state

SOOTHE THE GRIEF OF LOSING A LOVED ONE

WITHOUT LOSING THE PRECIOUS CONNECTION

YOU SHARED WITH THEM

I offer a free, virtual 30-minute consultation so you can find out if this is the right next step for you.

Begin with a conversation here

“I am in the darkest hole of grief and it isn’t getting any better. My heart is shattered.”

“I am not sure if I can or want to get over it. How could I? I loved them so much. I don’t want to move on as if i didn’t care.”“

“I wish more than anything that I could have had one more conversation with them.”

“I can’t get over the circumstances of their passing. It’s too horrible to comprehend. Did they suffer? It’s tearing me apart.”

LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO A RELATIVELY NEW EMDR-BASED TREATMENT FOR GRIEF: INDUCED AFTER-DEATH COMMUNICATION.

I know it sounds crazy. But when it was my turn, when I lost my aunt and both of my parents within a year, “getting over it” wasn’t an option. I was determined to find out where we can go when we grieve.

You don’t need to believe in an afterlife. This is not about changing your religious or spiritual beliefs… even though it can be.

The objective in grief treatment is to ease suffering. We want to think of our loved ones with love, not cry every time we are reminded of them. We want the joyful memories to stand out, not fixate on their passing.

IADC offers a unique opportunity to process traumatic grief and come to a resolution.

YOU WISH YOU WOULD HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY.

You don’t want to say goodbye.

WHAT IF YOU DON’T HAVE TO?

Schedule your free consultation

  • You will never get over it.

  • Life will never be the same. The joy has drained out of you. You function because you have to, but you feel like an empty shell that moves through life like a robot.

  • Where your heart used to be is now an achy hole. How would you ever be able to laugh again or go on living with joy? It almost seems like a betrayal, to have fun when they ar gone.

  • It’s difficult to talk to people who haven’t experienced heart-wrenching loss. It’s raining advice that doesn’t apply. You should, you should, you should… It isn’t helpful.

  • Perhaps the circumstances of their passing were traumatic. You may be wrestling guilt or simply be in a state of shock that doesn’t lose its sting.

  • You replay their passing in your head, torturing yourself if you could have intervened, stopped it from happening, protected them, or taken better care of them. Your mind runs endless loops. It’s like a self-inflicted prison you can’t escape even if you are trying.

  • You have good days and bad days. When you thought the grief was becoming less, it returns with a vengeance. You know they wouldn’t have wanted you to spend your life in suffering, but you can’t help it.

  • Perhaps you lost a child. Perhaps it was a beloved family member, or the spouse that was the love of your life. Perhaps there was a suicide, an accident, disease, or even murder. It’s almost too hard to think about it. You fear falling apart if you talk about it.

  • Your emotions are a messy, exhausting rollercoaster. You can’t keep going like this.

YOU’VE TRIED EVERYTHING TO FEEL BETTER BUT IT HASN’T WORKED.

SOMETIMES, YOU FEEL AS THOUGH…

Schedule your free consultation

INDUCED AFTER-DEATH COMMUNICATION THERAPY

In 1995, Dr. Allen Botkin, Psy.D., had an interesting experience while treating Vietnam veterans for post-traumatic stress disorder at the VCA in Chicago. A war veteran was engaging in EMDR therapy and reported ‘seeing” a Vietnamese girl he meant to save but couldn’t. He reported seeing and hearing her. She thanked him for his care and told him she was fine now.

Mind me, Vietnam veterans are not the Topanga Canyon - Hippy types who burn sage and meditate on crystal-studded beds while working on manifesting abundance.

It put him into an odd situation. He was employed at the hospital. He couldn’t go around saying: “Hey, my clients started communicating with the dead!” He had a lot to lose, especially after he adjusted the EMDR standard protocol a bit and more and more clients reported these experiences.

Eventually, he told a trusted coworker, and she told him in confidence that it had happened to her as well. She tried Dr. Botkin’s altered EMDR protocol, and now both of them were seeing clients who reported the unthinkable.

Dr. Botkin called the EMDR-based process “Induced After-Death Communication therapy”.

IF YOU ARE INTRIGUED, PLEASE TAKE A LOOK AT THESE RESOURCES:

. Stephen Berkley, producer of the documentary Life with Ghosts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o1j19baNg8

Schedule your free consultation

Never say goodbye.

This therapy is for you if:

 * The loss of your loved one happened at least 12 months ago. I have done IADC sessions with the more recently deceased, but your experience may not be as vivid and intense. You will still experience decreased grief, but you may not have a full IADC. Your brain is extremely busy for the first 6-12 months. It’s our brain that gets in the way.

 * You understand that I can’t guarantee that you will have a full IADC. Approximately 75% of clients have IADCs. It is not within my control whether or not it happens for you. You will feel less grief after the treatment regardless.

* You have to approach this experience with a sense of detachment. The more you want it, or try to force it, the busier your mind will be. An IADC requires a calm, quiet mind. I heard that therapists are the most difficult clients for IADC because we are so used to analyzing everything. It’s not something we can MAKE happen, but something we LET happen.

* You are open, curious, and flexible. You are not fixated on an idea of what the experience should look like.

* You agree contractually to pay my fee regardless of the outcome. You are paying for my skills and my time.

 * If you find it difficult to quiet your mind, you are willing to practice meditation before we start.

 * You must be able and willing to focus directly on the sadness and stay in the place that hurts the most for approximately 90 minutes. It’s somewhat grueling but so rewarding.

 * You have to be in touch with your inner life. You must be able to recognize and vocalize your thoughts and feelings.

* You can stay present in your body and maintain present awareness.

* Some antidepressants interfere with IADC. A good fit for IADC is Celexa or Lexapro. A bad fit is Wellbutrin; Zoloft and Prozac are also more activating of the mind, which can interfere with IADC. Cymbalta and Effexor can be activating at higher doses. Please check with your doctor what effect your antidepressant has; calming or activating. Some activating medications, such as Adderall or Ritalin can work well if they quiet the mind. Please check with your doctor if you can safely taper off your antidepressant for a while if necessary. DO NOT stop taking medication without your doctor’s supervision!

This therapy is not for you if:

  * You are unable to maintain sobriety for 62 hours. 1 day before treatment, then 2 days for treatment.

* You are suicidal.

* You are unable to stay with the sadness and grieve your loss. Your mind won’t let you go there and change the subject.

 * Your mental health isn’t ready for this process. As a basic guideline, you must be able to tell a coherent narrative of what happened. If you’re not, please seek therapy first.

* Your trauma can’t be contained yet so it doesn’t intrude and distract from focusing on the sadness. Please seek therapy first.

* You are unable to connect with me - a stranger- to open up and go to your most vulnerable place. I will hold a loving, safe, supportive space for you. Only you know if you can do this. If not, please seek therapy first.

* Severe trauma with dissociative symptoms or structural dissociation is not a good fit. Seek therapy first. This experience will still be there for you when you’re ready.

* Some antidepressants interfere with IADC. A good fit for IADC is Celexa or Lexapro. A bad fit is Wellbutrin; Zoloft and Prozac are also more activating of the mind, which can interfere with IADC. Cymbalta and Effexor can be activating at higher doses. Please check with your doctor what effect your antidepressant has; calming or activating. Some activating medications, such as Adderall or Ritalin can work well if they quiet the mind. Please check with your doctor if you can safely taper off your antidepressant for a while if necessary. DO NOT stop taking medication without your doctor’s supervision!

* You can’t quiet your mind and you are not willing or able to learn meditation. You will still experience decreased grief, but you are less likely to have a full IADC. You decide if you want to try it regardless.

* You have a certain experience you have in mind, and you are going to be upset if you don’t get what you expected. We tend to get what we need more often than what we think we want.

* You are clinically depressed. There is a difference between grief and depression. If you’re not sure, we will figure it out together, and I will help you get a referral to tend to your depression first. You can always get back to me when you’re ready.

Schedule your free consultation

Welcome to Phoenix Rises Counseling LLC.

Hi, I am Veronika Stutz, LMHC.

I immigrated to the United States from Germany in my early twenties. Growing up, I was surrounded by adults whose lives had been deeply shaped by the aftermath of World War II. My parents were children during the war, and the effects of trauma were woven quietly into everyday life.

I remember how easily adults became overwhelmed — how something as small as a fork falling off a table could trigger a sudden, intense reaction that was hard to settle. As a child, I assumed this was simply how adults were. It wasn’t until I came to the U.S. that I realized I had grown up inside a culture where many nervous systems were still carrying unprocessed fear.

That early experience gave me a lived understanding of something I now see clearly in my work: trauma doesn’t always announce itself. It often shows up as heightened reactivity, anxiety, or a body that can’t settle — long after the original danger has passed.

This is part of why I approach therapy the way I do. I don’t rush people. I don’t assume pathology. I understand that intense reactions are often the legacy of something real — something that once required survival.

I discovered EMDR-based Induced After-Death Communication Therapy (IADC) after my parents passed, and it has been instrumental and life-changing in my own healing.

I’m a licensed therapist with training in trauma-informed care, and I work primarily with adults in private-pay therapy. I completed my IADC training at the Dr. Botkin Institute. More important to me than credentials is how I show up: steady, attuned, and respectful of your experience. I believe therapy should restore a sense of reality and calm — not take it away.

Learn more about me

WORKING TOGETHER:

THE PROCESS OF IADC TREATMENT

PREPARATION: THE FREE CONSULTATION

1) Click on the “Schedule Your Free Consultation” button. It will take you to my secure client platform Simple Practice, where you can schedule a meeting. You can also email me directly at vivi@phoenixrisescounseling.org, or use the contact form to ask for a meeting time that is not listed. I may be able to see you earlier if someone cancels.

2) I will confirm your consultation through Simple Practice, or email you additional availabilities.

3) You will receive an email from Simple Practice, giving you access to the portal. For a consultation, please fill out the Informed Consent for a Telehealth Consultation form. (Simple Practice is so easy to navigate, even I can do it.) If you run into problems, email me.

4) A few hours before your appointment, Simple Practice will send you an email with a link to access the virtual consultation. Try the link ahead of time. Some cell phones require you to download an app. Desktops or laptops won’t.

5) We’ll meet for 30 minutes, get to know each other to see if we are a good fit, and conduct an IADC screening in service to your safety and welbeing.

SESSION 1

1) We will meet for the first 90-minute IADC session. I will explain the procedure if I haven’t already. I will then ask you a few questions about your loved one, which serves to activate the sadness. We will choose the saddest part and start processing.

2) The saddest part will change. We’ll adjust accordingly and focus on every piece of sdaness that comes up.

3) Thoughts and feelings associated with anger may cover up the sadness. If this happens, we’ll acknowledge whatever else came up and return to the sadness.

4) We close the session at 90 minutes due to the intensity of the work. You commit to writing down any pieces of sadness that may come up.

SESSION 2

1) We’ll meet again the following day, or no later than two days after the initial session. We begin the process again. On the second day, we hope that the sadness turned into a meditative calm, and that you will experience an IADC. If you had an IADC on day one, we’ll continue regardless, or make meaning of what you experienced.

2) We close at 90 minutes unless you are experiencing an IADC and would like to continue. You can also book more time on another day.

PLEASE NOTE:

If you booked 2x90 minutes with me, you agree to pay the full fee even if you had an IADC on the first day. You agree to pay for extra time if desired.

After booking IADC with me, you agree to give me a 48-hour cancellation notice if you need to reschedule to avoid charges.

Schedule your free consultation

What others are saying

about my work

I sometimes hear that this work has ‘changed lives”, “exceeded expectations” and made clients feel “heard and understood like they haven’t before.”

Colleagues who recommend me wrote:

“Veronika is a compassionate and caring EMDR practitioner. She is innately tuned into the needs of her clients. I recommend her to men and women who have experienced abusive childhoods and/or relationships and are yearning for big life changes.“

“Also, X shared how impactful you have been to her over the past year and it was so touching. It made my eyes fill up with tears thinking of how meaningful your work is in this world. You truly are a lovely, kind and compassionate soul.” Ellie Kane, LMHC

“Veronika is a highly skilled, warm, and caring therapist. She has extensive experience treating grief and CPTSD and is an expert in treating poly, kink, and ENM couples and individuals. She excels at helping her clients achieve their goals.“ Milena Gordillo, MSW, LICSW

Schedule a free consultation

FEE SCHEDULE

60-minute therapy/EMDR: $160

90-minute therapy/EMDR: $240

90-minute IADC therapy: $250

60-minute couples counseling: $180

90-minute couples counseling: $270

I offer out-of-network benefits and I will provide superbills for insurance reimbursement.

PLEASE NOTE:

Insurance doesn’t pay or reimburse for IADC.

I accept Aetna, Kaiser PPO, and First Choice Health.

I offer Premera out-of-network benefits. Please feel free to inquire about details.

WELCOME TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL:

THE TRAUMA THERAPY LIFERAFT

CLICK HERE:

Vivi's Youtube channel

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/veronika.vivi.stutz/

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61573968523843

LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronika-vivi-stutz-785a7b59/

CONTACT ME

LET’S TALK ABOUT THE IMPOSSIBLE. Begin with a conversation.

Email me at: vivi@phoenixrisescounseling.org

A Good Faith Estimate is available upon request.

My license number in Washington state is LH 61526615.

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/veronika.vivi.stutz/

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61573968523843

LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronika-vivi-stutz-785a7b59/

YOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/@TheTraumaTherapyLiferaft

Request Appointment