Treatment Philosophy

We are born whole and beautiful . . . and then things get tough!

So many times, our experience in this world is painful. As children with limited resources and wisdom, we adapt as best we can and from those uncomfortable life experiences, create beliefs about ourselves and the world around us. It’s also very important to understand that at that time, our adaptive behavior was functional. It was an attempt to dampen the pain. But, and this is a BIG but, when we leave our family of origin, we take those same beliefs with us and those beliefs affect our choices, determine our emotions, and indeed create our very experience of the world. As long as we maintain those beliefs that are not working for us, we will continue to re-create painful situations in our life. When the pain reaches a critical threshold, it is often then that we seek the help of a psychologist/therapist.

When choosing a psychologist, it is important to find someone with the needed skills and experience to adequately address your particular issues. My style of counseling is cognitively oriented and fairly directive. There is typically “homework” between sessions so that gains made in the office can be transferred to your life.

My aim is to help you reach your goals and in doing so, I use a variety of methods. Some of them include:

• Increasing your awareness of the beliefs that you continue to rely on that are no longer functional in your daily life . . . and changing them. Most of these beliefs are rooted in fear. It is the transformation of negative beliefs into healthy ones that brings about healing in our lives.

• Improving your patterns of communication. You cannot “not” communicate. Everything you do involves communication of one type or another.  Learning to communicate clearly and lovingly can help many difficult situations in our lives.

• Helping you to let go of the past so that you can create a positive present experience.Many times we are “bound” by an unforgiven past. We get stuck in a painful memory and are seemingly unable to move past it. Healing can happen and is incredibly beneficial to our emotional self and to our spirit. Forgiveness can be difficult but extremely valuable in letting go of a painful past.

• Releasing the negative effects of trauma. I have been trained to use EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Training) in the treatment of traumas. EMDR is a therapeutic process that targets distressing events, simultaneously seeks to reprocess the negative beliefs and desensitize the negative feelings associated with these events. It is an excellent tool for healing.

• Reframing painful experiences to view things from a different perspective. A shift in perspective can sometimes make a huge difference in how we feel about ourselves, others, or a painful event in our life.

• Looking at what matters most in your life and helping you to make those changes that will bring you into alignment with what you value most.

• Working, when needed, with a physician or psychiatrist who can prescribe appropriate medication that can be a useful adjunct to our work together.