Welcome to my practice! It’s not easy to arrive at a place in your life where you need help with something as important as your mental health, relationships, or healing wounds left from childhood, let alone deciding on a therapist that would be a good fit for you or you and your significant other. Because I absolutely believe that finding a therapist that is the right fit for you is essential to positive outcomes in therapy I’ve put together this article and video to help you to get to know me better and understand what I am about. This will help you decide about whether or not we’d be a good fit for each other. Believe me, there are a lot of amazing and talented therapists out there, but if they don’t have the skill set or certain capacities that you need to meet your goals then you’ve just wasted your time, money, and energy on something that could have been spent in a more meaningful way.
My practice has 3 main pillars that set the foundation for healing and growth in sessions.
First, my practice is whole-heartedly client-centered. Carl Rogers, the founder of client-centered therapy once said, “The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.” What that means is that you can count on my office being a place where you feel accepted and appreciated for who you are right when you walk in the door, for who you are today before any personal changes take place. Throughout the course of our time together I will get to know you and the experiences that have impacted your life. I will listen to your goals and collaborate with you on how to meet them, this is the commitment that I make to my clients. I will not prescribe or enforce any agenda that feels authoritarian. Maybe you are someone who has been to therapy and have had the experience of agreeing on a goal with a therapist but then what they suggested you do felt more like an order and misattuned to what you intuitively thought would be an appropriate and achievable next step. Client-centered therapy is not that! That’s not to say that I will always make suggestions that are perfect or that I will always be perfect but I will work hard to be attuned to you and repair the impacts of mis-attunements within the context of our relationship when they arise.
Second, my practice is Trauma-Informed. That means that I enjoy working with clients who have experienced traumatic events in their lives that have been too overwhelming for them to cope with on their own. Healing from trauma means re-establishing or establishing for the first time a sense of safety, security, and confidence in your own ability to learn techniques to help you to return to “the now” when your body, mind, or spirit is forcefully drawn to the past or worrying that what once happened will happen again. By providing you with control, choice, and a place to unravel shame that is often accompanied by surviving traumatic experiences you will be able to step into a reality that is defined by you and on your terms.
Lastly, the third pillar of my practice has to do with attachment. I’m a firm believer that our first relationships with primary caregivers sets the stage for future relationships, how we come to know ourselves, and what we believe about ourselves. In my practice I spend time getting to know this part of your story and how formative experiences impact you today. Maybe you are someone who has noticed that no matter who I’m partnered with, no matter how kind they are to me, or how much they love me, I always end up thinking that I’m just not good enough. By looking at patterns such as these, in a supportive environment that is defined by consistency, predictability, and an assumption of your inherent goodness, you can begin to experience freedom from these beliefs which I believe are at the root of so much suffering.
So that’s it! That’s my practice in a nutshell-I should also add that I have a pretty good sense of humor, so laughing can absolutely be a part of the package. I hope that if you do feel drawn to me or my practice that you reach out and together we can start the journey of healing that you deserve.