Negotiating life’s twists and turns can be daunting; occasionally everyone gets stuck along the way. I work collaboratively with my clients to: identify roadblocks; try out alternative routes; and identify and shore-up individual strengths which can be used as a springboard for making positive and productive changes.
Therapy might entail: short-term, solution-focused work; fine-tuning coping skills, resiliency strategies, and problem-solving abilities which translate to issues of daily living. Therapy might also take the form of gaining insight into patterns of thoughts, behaviors and emotions that interfere with relationships, functioning and a positive sense of self. These patterns may be a reflection of unconscious conflict which creates barriers to intimacy and self-actualization. I help foster these changes by bringing a sense of humor, respect for the client, and an inherent belief in people’s resiliency to the therapeutic alliance.
I believe you are the expert on your own life and you teach me how you view the world; how you view yourself; how you view yourself in the world; and how you view others. I am always honored to be a witness to these stories. Narratives are created, unraveled and recreated in this process. Working together, we can explore if this narrative is set in stone or if it continues to serve you as it once did. Therapy provides a place to safely tell your story; unpack some bags and leave them behind; create and dream about a new story; sometimes only tweaking the prose while other times dismantling the structure of the narrative or creating a new genre entirely.
Below you can find more information about the specific services I provide:
Whether therapy is structured around short-term, problem-focused work or is an ongoing, work-in-progress, the process is dynamic and client-centered. People commonly enter therapy because of disconcerting symptoms of depression or anxiety; these symptoms can morph into behaviors that effect functioning and well-being on a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual level.
These are two of the main reasons people enter therapy. Trying to manage and cope with the symptoms of anxiety and depression can become a full-time job. Oftentimes, the feelings of anxiety or depression are the top layer of a dense undergrowth of feelings. While looking at ways to reduce the distress caused by these symptoms, the client begins to detect patterns or circumstances that influence these symptoms.
Given the right opportunity, children will show you what they need to grow and change. Flexibility, creativity and a sense of curiosity and wonder guide my work with children. This work is fluid and child-directed and can encompass: play therapy, art work, expressive or dramatic enactment, bibliotherapy, or simply talking about the intricacies of their day.
Play therapy affords the child some distance from their feelings and gives them the chance to structure, create and reveal their own world and how they see themselves in that world. It is often said ‘play is the language of children’ and provides a vehicle for: role-playing; enhancing communicate skills; problem-solving and prioritizing; managing stress and conflict; and developing new ways of relating to others.
The teenage years can be tumultuous, even in the best of circumstances. These years are rife with possibility and a time to learn about oneself and the world. A big part of therapy is helping a teenager to understand and explore their developmental tasks of: autonomy, individuation and separation, identity development and formulation, the importance of peer groups, and the concurrent need for parental support, help, and feeling of belonging and being accepted.
When Opposites Attract: The Pitfalls and Potential
Have you ever had friends or family wonder how you and your partner got together? “They seem like polar opposites” is a common refrain. What initially attracts people to each other, their ‘complementary’ pieces, can often be the bane of their day-to-day existence. In couple’s therapy, we explore what individual strengths and challenges each partner brings to the relationship; learning to respect and support both individual needs and desires and how these are tailored to fit the needs of the relationship.
Universal Issues with Unique Twists and Turns:
Families can provide a sense of love, safety, security and belonging. Family relationships can also be entangled and prickly. When a family works together in therapy, each person has a chance to convey their unique perspective of the family and contribute to a greater understanding of how the family functions. Families learn to communicate more effectively; understand how their behavior impacts others; learn about family roles; and work toward creating a more positive family environment.
A Unique Job Requiring Multiple Skill-Sets
More than any other job, the job of parenting encompasses a vast array of intense, conflicting and confusing emotions about yourself, your child and your relationship. Often, parental guilt or a sense of inadequacy is the glue that holds these feelings together. What other job changes not only day-to-day but constantly over time? Parents struggle to meet their children’s needs, their partner’s needs, their own needs as well as the needs of their family. A parent’s expectation that they should be able to manage it all is often reinforced by others in their life. After beginning therapy, parents often feel a sense of relief when their feelings are ‘normalized’ and they review their unrealistic expectations of themselves. Within this framework, parents discover how they can be more comfortable in this role.
When someone comes to seek help for an alcohol or drug problem, the mental and emotional tug-of-war has generally become exhausting. People start consciously questioning their relationship to substances after varying lengths of time or consequences.
Family & Friends of Substance Abusers & Addicts
When an alcoholic or addict stops drinking or using the sense of relief for friends and loved ones can be palpable. Family and loved ones, who have been intimately involved with the progression of the addiction and functioning double-time to compensate for the addict’s behavior, can feel that they have been ‘left behind’ and that the focus is, once again, on the addict.
This term originated from work with chemically dependent individuals and their families. In working with the addicted individual people began to notice that the family members were also suffering. This pain was often internalized and to the outside world the most effected member often looked like they were gracefully and efficiently going about their lives. The term has become generalized and is now used in reference to someone having difficulty forming and maintaining mutually satisfactory relationships.
