An Open Mind

Much of my professional experience and training has focused on helping people with difficult problems: relationship problems, attention deficit disorder, chronic depression and anxiety, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, complex trauma, Bipolar Disorder, and dissociative disorders. Over the years, I’ve observed that many people have to reach a pretty dark place in their lives before they feel sufficiently compelled to seek help. ​If you are near that place and in need of help, contact me today to meet and see if my treatment style and experience can be a positive part of your life.

Together We Can...

Build trust and collaboration

I always work to build a strong relationship with each person who comes to me for help. I prioritize an open mind with no assumptions, lack of judgment, direct communication, and a sense of humor.

Accept events from the past

We all struggle with having done or experienced things we wish we had avoided or somehow had done differently. "What if" or "should've/could've" are thoughts that tie us to past events we cannot change. We feel stuck, sometimes hopeless. Learning to accept what life has dealt us doesn't mean we have to like it. Acceptance is about acknowledging, non-judgmentally, that certain events have occurred, and with this all the emotions and beliefs that come with it.

Discover new sources of support

Emotional and psychological nourishment can come from relationships with other people, or in connection with oneself and the larger world. It's important to find people who provide the support and caring that fits your needs. You may decide to change existing relationships, or find and develop new ones.  Support also comes from how you spend time with yourself, finding meaning and fulfillment whether at work or at play.

Generate new insights

In order to make meaningful change in your life, it's important to have a clear understanding of your circumstances – your emotions, perceptions, needs, expectations –and how you got to where you are now. The most effective choices and actions come from a place of clarity. Understanding yourself builds a sense of confidence and self-empowerment, which naturally evolves into action and change.

Change ineffective coping patterns

Past methods of coping can become today’s problem. New circumstances require new coping strategies when the old methods are no longer effective or create more problems than they solve. Finding new ways to cope with stress and challenging situations teaches us to be more flexible and resilient, and helps us to live life more fully in the present.

How We Can Do it...

Mindfulness

​Mindfulness and validation are core components in my work with people. Mindfulness is about learning to be present in the current moment, non-judgmentally and on purpose. As people learn to be more present, their thoughts and emotions focus less on the past or the future, which is less under our control, and more on what’s happening now, where we are best able to influence what we think and feel. Self-awareness also increases, and with it, more opportunities arise to make different, perhaps new choices about work, school, relationships, family, hobbies, etc. 

Validation

Validation is the practice of acknowledging and accepting our own experience, as well as the experiences of people around us. Intense suffering often comes from not accepting ourselves—believing we should think, feel, act differently than we do, and then feeling shame, guilt, or helplessness because we fall short of our own expectations. The same can be true in our relationships—people don’t do what we think they should, or do what we don’t like, and so we don’t want to acknowledge their behavior, much less accept it. When we don’t accept reality, we suffer. We get stuck. We fight reality and exhaust ourselves. Validation starts with differentiating acceptance from approval; we don’t have to like or agree with any of the things that cause us pain or overwhelm in order to accept them. Learning to validate ourselves, and the world around us, lessens the pain that comes with feeling stuck and helpless. Intense emotions become less intense, overwhelm happens less frequently, self-acceptance and compassion increase. Living becomes less of a struggle.

Body Based Therapy

Working with the body is the third essential component of my approach to therapy. More and more research in the areas of emotion dysregulation, mood and anxiety, and trauma, point to the importance of including the body in the therapeutic process. The reason for this is that our life experiences don’t just happen in our heads; our minds and bodies are intricately connected, and trying to change one without involving the other is like trying to move furniture with one hand tied behind our back.  Emotions, memories, beliefs, all live in our bodies as well as our heads, and change is often more effective when we work first with body sensation, posture, energy, or movement, than when we logically think through how to do things differently. For example, if someone is struggling with anxiety and panic attacks, telling oneself that there is no need to panic is not going to stop the anxiety. But if the person identifies where the panic is happening in the body, perhaps the chest, and focuses on lengthening the spine, opening the lungs, and slowing and deepening the breath, they can bring anxiety down and feel more in control. With a lot of practice, this can become a new habit, the person is less prone to panic attacks, and mood and self-confidence improve.