I understand that when you arrive in my office that you want your life to be different. You may have specific goals or have a vision of how you want your life to be. On the other hand, you may not know what you want; instead, you just know that your life isn't working the way you want and you want help figuring it out. My approach is to form a trusting relationship where we can awaken solutions to having a rewarding life and realizing your life's potential. I am happy to focus on one specific area that you want to change or to take a longer journey of realizing your full potential.

People often ask me what schools of therapy and traditions guide the way I do therapy. Below are some of my biggest therapeutic influences and we will select approaches that resonate with you.

Somatic Experiencing: This approach to the healing of trauma and other stress disorders focuses on the autonomic nervous system, body awareness, and mindful awareness of one's thoughts and images in the present moment. The Somatic Experiencing approach facilitates the completion of habitual self-protective motor responses and the release of thwarted survival energy bound in the body, thus addressing the root cause of trauma symptoms. In Somatic Experiencing I gently guide clients to develop increasing tolerance for difficult bodily sensations (e.g., anxiety, tension, etc.) and suppressed emotions (e.g., fear, anger, etc.).

Solution-Focused Therapy: I focus on helping you find pragmatic solutions for the present and the future. We look at what is already working and what barriers you are facing to having the life you want. We identify ways to achieve your goals using your strengths. Psychotherapeutic Research finds that using client developed goals to guide the therapy helps improve therapeutic outcomes.

 

Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapies: I focus on helping you relate to your thoughts in a more healthy way as well as staying and living in the present moment.   We also identify how some of  your thoughts can distort reality, contribute to depressive or anxious processes, or lead to poor decisions.

Relational: Building a strong therapeutic relationship is the primary factor in achieving therapeutic success. This relationship will foster your being able to discover solutions to your difficulties and awaken to your potential.

Client Directed: I help you to achieve goals using therapeutic tools that you help select. I am transparent in what I am doing in therapy and we use tools from client directed outcome therapy to see if you are achieving improvement and getting the service you want from me.

Integral Psychotherapy: I work with you to integrate all the different aspects of yourself, particularly, the body, mind, spirit, and shadow. I use this more with people wanting to awaken to their full potential and spiritual development.

Wisdom and Mindfulness Traditions: For those who are interested, we can use the wisdom, insight, and tools from contemplative and meditative traditions, indigenous traditions, mystical traditions, body-mind practices and Tai Chi.