Psychotherapy

Unless we have decided to do brief, targeted therapy together, I will spend the first few sessions with you getting a solid background on your personal history, your development, your relationships, what you feel are obstacles in your life, what is working well and what you want to achieve. Together we will identify some areas to focus on in therapy that are a good place to start.

A lot of therapy is about changing patterns to get unstuck, which allows for more depth oriented work that can be deeply meaningful. Examples of stuck patterns can be in the form of addiction, fight/flight patterns of the nervous system, anger cycles, depression or anxiety, destructive relationship patterns, negative self talk, or anything in between. Understanding that external circumstances can increase hardship, we work together to find a path forward. This may likely include improving self regulation skills, stress management and capacity to work with difficult emotions which are a part of healing. We will work together to develop insight, nurture your strengths and confidence, and look at areas that are resistant or afraid of change. In this way, therapy is not about something we are doing to you, but about something different you are doing with yourself, and our assistance with empowering you in that process.

Not only will we look at stuck patterns, but we will develop insight about where those patterns come from and how to heal those places. This may include working with internalized parts of self that are wounded, walled off, or resistant, with the understanding that these parts hold tremendous power that can be transformational to the healing journey.

An important part of my job is to create a space of safety, trust and an invitation toward healing to help you say “yes” to the work that will probably be some of the most rewarding work of your life. Therapy is not easy, but I promise we’ll use humor along the way, gentleness and cultivation of self-love, as well as radical ownership of what needs to change and how.

The psychotherapeutic attunement I provide will often involve many different approaches that involve mindfulness, cognitive restructuring, and somatic awareness, and sometimes more radical approaches, as we begin to understand that the nervous system too has its addictive patterns that need to change. The tools we draw from will have to do with your motivation for change, what you respond positively to and what gets more movement in the right direction.