Approach to Therapy

Starting therapy takes courage.  In addition to the anxiety and ambivalence that is often present at the start, finding a good therapist can be hard.  Like any relationship, the chemistry between you and your therapist matters.  Still, it is my belief that a good therapist can help you to feel connected from the start.  

My first priority upon meeting you is to help you feel cared about and understood.  I am punctual, consistent, and attuned.  Patients often remark on my engaged presence, my warmth, my ability to listen and to highlight the essence of what is being communicated, and my memory for events both big and small.  Often, there is a lot you need to be able to say out loud and to think through for yourself.  I pay attention to your cues for when you need to be heard and listened to, and when you need me to respond.  In responding to you, I work to validate, to organize what you've said, and to bring us to new and deeper levels in our thinking.  I listen carefully, as the narratives you share may communicate both obvious and complex meanings.  I look for patterns in your life and offer insights I encourage you to refine.  I attend to dynamics in your relationships to help you stop recreating problems from your past in the present.  I focus on helping you to make sense of your thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and experiences so that you can make sense to yourself.  This meaning-making is critical, because it is my experience that change is born from understanding.  

I believe good therapy is both supportive and challenging, as you work to face difficult truths and to make changes in the context of a caring relationship.  You need to feel safe enough to take risks in treatment, so I endeavor to create a secure and trustworthy environment.  I tailor my approach to foster both symptom relief and substantive change.  Through our work together, my patients voice experiencing relief, clarity, and hope.  My aim is to enable you to access your innate capacities for self-healing, and to help you become more fully who you are.

General Problem Areas Treated

~ Anxiety and Depression          
~ Psychological Trauma              
~ Identity Development             
~ Managing Emotions                 
~ Relationship Difficulties         
~ Problems with Intimacy      
~ Fears of Abandonment
~ Family Conflict
~ Parenting Difficulties
~ Creative Blocks
~ Career Transitions
~ Existential Concerns