Dr. Jennifer Franklin

SERVICES OFFERED

Dr. Jennifer Franklin is a mind-body and gastro-psychologist dually licensed in North Carolina and California offering the following services for people with DGBI and PPD:

Consultation
Psychotherapy
Mindfulness Training

For:

• Adult Individuals diagnosed with DGBI or PPD symptoms.
• Couples when one or both individuals have been diagnosed with DGBI or PPD symptoms.
• Adult Individuals and Couples seeking help for other reasons, not DGBI or PPD symptoms. To learn about Dr. Franklin’s general practice and other areas of clinical interest, please visit opendoortherapy.com.
• Families when a child has been diagnosed with a DGBI or PPD

Note: It is not part of my practice to provide individual therapy to children, but I encourage parents to set up consultations with me. I will provide you with helpful information, individualized feedback, and appropriate referrals to better support and facilitate healing for your child.

Please scroll down for more information about the above mentioned services.

For psychotherapists and other health-care professionals, Dr. Franklin offers general consultation, case consultation, and supervision. Please contact Dr. Franklin to inquire.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

After making a full recovery from irritable bowel syndrome myself, I began to work with others and quickly started receiving referrals from physicians for all kinds of DGBI and PPD symptoms. By the time I was licensed and in private practice, I had developed a specialty area in helping people with mind-body symptoms, especially gut problems. Thus, I am one of the original gastro-psychologists in the US. With decades of clinical experience, I bring a unique blend of skills, knowledge, expertise, training, and insight to people seeking to heal their guts and bodies. I have had the opportunity to work in collaboration with some of the most renowned physicians in the world when it comes to DGBI and PPD symptoms.

OTHER AREAS OF CLINICAL EXPERIENCE

To learn about my other clinical areas of specialty, please visit opendoortherapy.com. Over the years, in addition to working as a clinical psychologist, I have taught mindfulness meditation, co-led groups, given presentations on healing from disorders of gut-brain interaction, written several short articles on a wide range of topics, and served in an editorial role for professional psychological journals such as the Journal of Humanistic Psychology.

MY PERSONAL STORY OF RECOVERY FROM IBS

I was personally diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) as a teenager and suffered greatly for several years. My healing process began when I was referred by my gastroenterologist to a psychologist for weekly therapy. Though I resisted, I became so desperate for relief that I finally yielded to the idea that perhaps it would help. And it did. After just one year of weekly therapy with a psychologist, my symptoms ameliorated significantly. 

Later, while training to become a psychologist, my exposure to a variety of approaches, modalities, and experiences led me to the realization that though I was better, I still hadn’t fully healed. I was still tolerating IBS symptoms and living in constant fear. By addressing these residual symptoms, I transitioned into a life free of symptoms, free of fear, and free of avoidance behaviors. My life did not just go back to the way things were before I developed IBS; it became even better than it had ever been!

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT SERVICES OFFERED FOR PEOPLE WITH DGBI AND PPD

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is for working with Dr. Franklin in an in-depth, ongoing way usually on a weekly or biweekly basis. Psychotherapy may be short-term or longer-term depending on your needs, objectives, and interests. Please contact Dr. Franklin to find out if she has openings in her schedule for new ongoing psychotherapy patients. If not, Dr. Franklin keeps openings in her schedule for consultation appointments; you are welcome to schedule a consultation appointment and have your name added to Dr. Franklin’s wait list for ongoing psychotherapy.

If you are currently working with a psychotherapist or have been referred by your psychotherapist, please set up a consultation appointment with Dr. Franklin. As Dr. Franklin has availability and with your psychotherapist’s knowledge and consent, Dr. Franklin will provide adjunctive psychotherapy.

The first psychotherapy appointment is a 60-minute appointment. Subsequent appointments are either 45 or 60 minutes.

Consultation

Consultations are 60-minute appointments intended to provide you with individualized information, treatment plan, recommendations, referrals, and other resources to support and guide you in healing your gut and body. Consultation appointments are a good way to get started with Dr. Franklin if you have a psychotherapist or have been referred by a psychotherapist. Sometimes it is appropriate to meet for a few consultation appointments; consultation appointments can be spread out over time and may need to be given Dr. Franklin’s availability.

Mindfulness Training

Dr. Franklin has been teaching mindfulness meditation, mindfulness practices, and mindfulness skills for decades. Whether you are a first-time meditator or a practiced meditator, Dr. Franklin enjoys helping people to apply mindfulness to their everyday lives so they get the most out of their mindfulness practice. Dr. Franklin is qualified to help you to learn how to meditate, cultivate a consistent mindfulness meditation practice, address difficulty surfacing during meditation, and take your mindfulness meditation practice “off the cushion”. For more information on mindfulness, visit Dr. Franklin’s general practice website opendoortherapy.com

If any of the above services interests you, and you are thinking about setting up a first appointment or have questions, please contact Dr. Franklin.

BACKGROUND & TRAINING

Dr. Franklin is an experiential, somatically-oriented, mindfulness-based psychologist extensively trained in each of the following modalities. Click the any of the modalities to read more about them. 

Dr. Franklin weaves in the above modalities as it suits your therapeutic objectives and interests. If you are interested in working exclusively using one or a few of the specific modalities listed above, please let Dr. Franklin know.

Dr. Franklin has also had limited training in many other modalities including but not limited to Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP), Internal Family Systems (IFS), Gestalt, Authentic movement, dream work, creative expression, group process, and Imago. If it is important to you to work with a therapist with an understanding of a particular framework or modality not mentioned above, please let Dr. Franklin know.

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

Undergraduate Studies

Dr. Franklin has a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California, and a minor in Italian.

Graduate Studies

Dr. Franklin has a PhD in Psychology and a Master’s in Counseling Psychology, both from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, California, where she received a mindfulness-based, holistic, and experiential education in psychology and was exposed to a wide range of psychotherapeutic, mind-body, and healing modalities.

Dr. Franklin was involved in years of research on creativity, the psychology of acting, multiple intelligences, creativity, fame, consciousness, and the range of spiritual experiences common among actors and other creative artists. Her doctoral dissertation, entitled Breaking a Leg Without Breaking the Spirit, was a quantitative and qualitative study examining the psychology, spirituality, and self-actualizing tendencies of 116 professional working actors. Over the course of working on her dissertation in her hometown of Los Angeles, Dr. Franklin was given the rare opportunity to go behind the scenes in the life of the average working Screen Actors Guild (SAG) actor. Dr. Franklin continues to enjoy working with creative individuals, artists, and performers of all types.