Philosophy

I believe that therapy begins with creating a safe and trusting relationship. More than any techniques, the relationship we experience together with each other is the most important factor in determining success in therapy. Because emotional wounds of the past happened within unsupportive or harmful relationships, it is through building a supportive and collaborative relationship between therapist and patient that healing can take place. I bring an open attitude to our work together, creating a safe space in understanding the ways in which your experience in the world regarding family of origin, gender, race, class, culture, sexual orientation, medical or mental illness have impacted and shaped your internal and external sense of yourself. Together I will help you to get in touch with those parts of yourself that are disconnected, and to strengthen your sense of self.

Through dialogue, our sessions will focus on clarifying your understanding of your own experiences. You will have a place where you can explore thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are distressing and overwhelming. By providing understanding and support, I can help you discover underlying patterns that are keeping symptoms in place and help you to make the changes you desire to begin feeling better.

I use a range of approaches which depends on the needs and desires of the patient. These include depth approaches to understanding the unconscious and insight into our relational patterns, and briefer approaches which can reduce symptoms, solve problems, provide skills or cope with a crisis.

• Psychodynamic - This is a depth approach that focuses on the emotional effects of our earliest relationships on the development of our personality, our capacity to form and sustain healthy relationships, and our general orientation to life. It aims to identify and repair traumatic relational experiences that often generate the repetition of painful emotional and behavioral patterns of relating throughout life and undermine our efforts to achieve our goals and live fulfilling lives.
  
  
• Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy- This approach can help you to develop skills for living in the present rather than worrying excessively about past and future. By nonjudgmentally observing your thoughts and feelings, you can develop the capacity to slow down and make choices about how to respond to your inner experience rather than reacting habitually or continuing to feed negative thoughts that lead to stress, anxiety and depression.
  
  
• Clinical Hypnosis - Please go to the page on Hypnosis Services for a better understanding of this approach.