DARe (Dynamic Attachment Re-Patterning Experience)

DARe (Dynamic Attachment Re-Patterning Experience) therapy bridges attachment theory and somatic psychotherapy, helping individuals repair attachment wounds while supporting post-traumatic growth. With simple, attuned skills, we’ll meet your core relational needs as they arise, offering corrective experiences to practice and build secure, nurturing, and resilient relationships.

DARe is an attachment-based, experiential approach that helps us slow down and explore how early relationships shape present-day patterns. Rather than talking about relationships from a distance, this work invites emotional presence, curiosity, and repair in real time. Together, we will work to shift your deeply rooted cycles and foster secure, meaningful connections in your life.

Dr. Dianne Poole Heller taught Dr. Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing® for over 25 years before adapting core SE principles to support more nurturing adult relationships through DARe (Dynamic Attachment Repatterning experience). This work is incredibly gentle and often includes moments of warmth, relief, and genuine connection. Together, we look for the just-right amount of pain to attune to and process, while also offering the just-right kinds and levels of support so long-held relational wounds can begin to soften and heal.

These levels of support may include posture, movement, pillows or blankets, words and tone, imagery, pacing and distancing, or eye contact. These small, intentional moments of attunement can create a powerful sense of being seen, understood, and cared for, helping to repair deeply stored relational stories about who you are and how you experience love.

DARe Training and Professional Development:

In 2019, I began my DARe training with founder, Dr. Diane Poole Heller in-person in Chicago with a group of therapists and somatic practitioners. I completed the certificate requirements in 2024, and became an Assistant in online trainings in 2025. I have now studied and practiced the skills with three DARe trainers and two DARe Assistant Leads.

What to Expect in DARe Sessions

DARe sessions are active, collaborative, and deeply relational. We’ll slow things down together so patterns can be noticed as they happen: both in your inner experience and in your relationships. I’ll support you in tuning into emotions, body sensations, and relational responses with curiosity rather than judgment.

When moments of disconnection, feelings of vulnerability, or activations of triggers arise, we’ll work through them in real time, practicing repair and new ways of relating that feel more supportive and secure. This approach allows therapeutic insight to be paired with your lived experiences, helping changes take root in every area of your life.

Throughout our work, I’ll help you develop greater clarity, emotional safety, and intention in how you show up with yourself and others, fostering connections that feel more grounded, responsive, and meaningful.

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Specialties DARe Is Great For:

My work is guided by the belief that therapy should meet you where you are. Rather than relying on a single approach, I adapt and blend different methods to support your goals and what you are navigating in the moment. These are the types of sessions we may use this approach in:

At Upward Roots, I work with individuals experiencing depression, bipolar disorder, persistent low mood, or mood swings to understand what’s behind their emotional patterns and find ways to feel steadier and more grounded. Together, we will explore how life experiences, attachment, and stress shape your emotions while building practical tools to help you manage mood swings and respond to emotional stressors with internal ease and peace.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Starting therapy often begins with a massive sigh, an exhaustion of looking for help, for relief, for change. I welcome your curiosities and hope that you will begin to find answers to your unsettled questions on the pages of my website.

Here are answers to the most common questions I am asked about working with Upward Roots. For any additional questions, please reach out so I can support your next step of growth.

Upward Roots offers trauma-informed therapy, EMDR, attachment-based individual and couples therapy, and EMDR intensives.
- Individual Trauma Therapy (C-PTSD & PTSD)
  Sessions are oriented toward helping the nervous system process and release stored trauma that continues to show up as anxiety, chronic stress, emotional reactivity, or shutdown. EMDR is integrated with parts work and somatic psychotherapy to address developmental, relational, and situational trauma, as well as body-based trauma responses.
- Individual Attachment Therapy
  Early and ongoing relationships shape how we protect ourselves, connect with others, and navigate closeness. This work begins by identifying your unique attachment style and reflecting on relational patterns such as people-pleasing or hyperindependence. Mind-body approaches, including imagery, inner child healing, parts work, boundary setting, and nervous system regulation, support greater security and flexibility in adult relationships.
- Couples Therapy
  Relational distress often emerges from repeated patterns rather than isolated conflicts. Using evidence-based, attachment-focused frameworks such as PACT, the Gottman Method, Attachment Core Pattern Therapy and EMDR for couples, therapy focuses on slowing these cycles, strengthening communication, understanding each partner’s internal worlds, and repairing relational injuries while remaining mindful of the impact of past trauma.
- EMDR Intensives
  For some individuals, extended in-person sessions allow for deeper focus and momentum than traditional weekly therapy. EMDR Intensives range from half-day to multi-day sessions in Carlsbad, California, and are designed for accelerated, immersive trauma processing, integration, and nervous system regulation.
- Support for Therapists and Clinicians
  Holding space for others can make it easy to neglect your own internal landscape. Individual and group settings offer room to explore personal patterns, countertransference, and burnout within a supportive, trauma-informed, relational context.
1. By scheduling a free 20-minute phone consultation. I want to make sure both of us feel confident in our ability to meet your therapy goals together before we start unpacking your history in sessions. We can decide together if weekly sessions, twice a week sessions, or an intensive is the right therapy container for you at this time.
2. We will choose the day and time that works best for your emotional availability for this deeper therapeutic work. Consistency is a key ingredient in felt-safety and trust. We will build safety within predictability, knowing that each week we will meet and attune to your inner world together, on the same day, at the same time, whenever possible.
3. In our first sessions, we’ll explore together the influences on who you are today–the significant people and places that leave you feeling your most confident, secure, and calm self. We will begin with resourcing through imagery, resource tapping, and somatic movement to encourage felt-safety in your attachment and nervous systems.
4. Together, we will set your goals and direction for your healing. We will discuss which formal diagnosis makes the most sense if you are seeking reimbursement on a PPO insurance plan.
5. Healing takes time and trust. We’ll unpack the stories and, with time, find the freedom to move your body and find the flexibility to think more kindly of yourself–past, present and future.
- Individual therapy: 50 minutes – $200 | 80 minutes – $320
- Couples therapy: 50 minutes – $200 | 80 minutes – $320 | 110 minutes – $440
- Extended or deep work sessions: 3 hours – $720 | 4 hours – $960
- EMDR intensives: Half day – $900 | Full day – $1,700
Extended sessions and intensives are prorated. Sliding fee options may be available. Upward Roots is out-of-network for insurance, but Superbills are provided for PPO reimbursement for standard sessions.
At this time, Upward Roots is out-of-network with all insurance providers. If you plan to seek reimbursement, you can contact your insurance company to ask about your out-of-network benefits. Sharing the billing codes used in sessions will help them provide clear and accurate information about your coverage:
- 90791 - All first sessions
- 90834 - 50-minute individual sessions
- 90837 - Individual sessions, 53-60 minute sessions
- 90847 - 50-minute couples session

DARe (Dynamic Attachment Re-Patterning Experience)

DARe Training and Professional Development:

What to Expect in DARe Sessions

Specialties DARe Is Great For:

Frequently Asked Questions

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