Welcome!
I’m a seasoned therapist providing psychotherapy, counseling, and support for adults of all ages, stages, and lifestyles.
Breadth of experience -- life experience and clinical experience -- has given me understanding of and empathy for the wide range of issues clients bring into my office.
Whether your goal is to heal from past experiences, to cope with present challenges, to recover from losses, to adjust to life transitions, to make some positive changes in your life, or to experience greater self-acceptance and contentment with things as they are, I can help you find the inner resources and develop the skills you need.
Treatment Philosophy
There's a saying that goes, “We can’t stop the waves, but we can learn to surf.” I put this at the top of my website because it expresses what is for me the fundamental task of good psychotherapy: to help us learn to ride the inevitable “waves” of life successfully -- not letting the waves throw us so badly off balance that we lose our footing and go under, not staying fixated on the wave that just passed, or becoming overly anxious about the next wave . . . and not avoiding them entirely by staying on the beach! “Learning to surf” is about experiencing those waves, not hiding from them; it’s about learning how to maintain equilibrium most of the time and how to restore balance when we need to; it’s about learning to see clearly where we want to go in the face of forces and events that pull us off course; and it’s about developing the strong core sense of self that we need in order to move through life in a "grounded" way.
My therapy practice is based on the premise that we all have the potential to lead happier, more satisfying lives, whatever our circumstances. I work with clients to identify the internal and external factors that are getting in the way, and to help them change what can be changed and to come to terms with what cannot.
(See What I Offer for more detail.)
Treatment Approach
Therapy provides a safe place to express feelings and thoughts that are difficult to feel and express elsewhere. Therapy is a time set aside and a space apart from the rest of your life to explore what is causing difficulties for you, what changes you’d like to bring about, and what it will take to get there. A therapist is a skilled listener, a guide, and a companion; therapy should be a supportive relationship, so that you don’t have to go it alone.
We now know that, just as good physical therapy produces changes in the body, good psychotherapy produces changes in the brain. It can repair what was damaged by life experiences and grow new neural networks that were never there in the first place. But to do this, it has to challenge our “hard-wired” patterns.
Knowing this, I am committed to a holistic approach. “Holistic” means working with the whole person; I help clients focus on their thinking, emotions, sensations, behavior, and intuition as sources of information about the difficulties they are experiencing and as resources for their healing and growth. “Holistic”means that I talk with clients about their intake, exercise, sleep, daily routines, work and leisure time, social relationships, and intimate relationships, because I see these as the foundations for psychological and emotional well-being. I teach my clients breathwork, relaxation strategies, mindful awareness and other skills for managing stress and increasing their mental health.
As I help clients address the issues that bring them into therapy, I draw from a variety of therapeutic methods, including EMDR, Lifespan Integration, Imaginal Nurturing, ego state, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and somatic, relational, and mindfulness practices. While the particular methods depend upon the client, the issues, and the stage of the therapy, the one consistent feature of my treatment approach is that it is not just talk therapy. I do not just "sit there and listen" while you talk -- my style is highly interactive; nor should you expect that all you will do in our sessions is talk, for I believe that healing and change require more than talk.