Generally Speaking about Therapy

Therapy can be for people experiencing a personal crisis or it may be for those who seek a richer and more embodied life.

Therapy at a crisis point

Some individuals or couples seek therapy when they've reached the point where they can’t avoid their problems any longer. They’re suffering and realize they must do something. Initially, the focus of our work will be to navigate through the current challenges by exploring new coping skills and other ways of self-empowerment.

 

Therapy for a richer life and better relationships

Others seek therapy to work on some specific problems because they know their life and/or relationships possess the potential to be better. Therapy can create a more meaningful and awakened experience of being alive, as well as provide the freedom to generate change. From here, we work toward experiencing a more soulful path, one open to authentic and creative expression in all areas of life including love, work and play.

 

For both Individul and couples seeking therapy

I assist people in exploring their self-limiting beliefs and behaviors in service of discovering a more healthy way of being. I help them become aware of their triggers and unexamined assumptions about themselves and those around them. We discover missing experiences and then find ways to fill them. By developing this insight and understanding, people empower themselves to make new choices that are more in harmony with who they are. In therapy we work towards the potential of what is possible. With clarity and authenticity, we create a new way of being in the world that attracts mind, body, relational, and spiritual harmony.

 

My therapeutic approach for the technically interested

My approach integrates psychodynamic, Jungian, phenomenological, and existential schools. I tend to employ strength-based narrative therapy and solution-focused approaches to create space for change between people and their problems. Working collaboratively through a rich process of curiosity and questions (ala Beck), I promote personal discovery and agency (cognitive-behavioral). My work has been deeply influenced by Transpersonal psychology, spiral dynamics, Hakomi, mindfulness, and psychodrama.

In relationship work, I’m influenced by Hendrix’s imago therapy and Bader and Pearson’s developmental model of relating. But I would say my largest influence would be the work done in attachment (Bowlby/Ainsworth ) in romantic relationships (Shaver, Hazen, and more recently Johnson). In both individual and couples work, I have found that the examination of family of origin issues gains an understanding of the dynamics of current issues and problems in current relationships. This understanding lays the foundation from which lasting change can occur.

In work with addictions I work with both the 12-step model of abstinence as well as the harm reduction model, depending on the circumstances. I employ the best practices methods of motivational interviewing, and hold the Transtheoretical theory as the model for change.