Individual Counseling (therapy)
With so many modalities, counseling can look and feel different for each individual. It is a process which requires time and commitment.
Individual counseling offers a safe place where clients can safely explore their lives and their inner dreams, demons, and desires. It offers a place to express the unexpressed and sheds light onto what is needed in order to change and get the most out of life.
Because of my diverse educational and professional background, I am able to tailor psychotherapy to my clients’ specific needs. For the most part, I use Somatic Psychotherapy, Expressive Arts therapy, Gestalt, EMDR, Psychodynamics, career counseling tools, Solution-Focused and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
Feel free to look at my online scheduler to see if our schedules are compatible. If they are, send me an email and I’ll book the appointment. I usually recommend 2-3 sessions to start; this allows me to determine if I can be of service.
If you have more questions, please look at my FAQs page and/or send me an email.
Couples Therapy
I see a healthy relationship as one in which partners can safely discuss and acknowledge their differences and disagreements as well as their love and passion for each other.
Each relationships is unique and goes through various stages. Depending on the issues, maturity of the partners and length of the relationship, challenges need to be addressed appropriately. In most cases, I do not take sides, and I give each partner time to respectfully voice needs and concerns.
Couples therapy essentially offers a safe place for partners to talk, share and voice frustration, and celebrate successes. It also offers a sacred time and place in which everything can be discussed. It can be a relief to actually address issues instead of sweeping them under the carpet.
Couples therapy is often beneficial for:
- Increasing intimacy and connection.
- Being heard in the relationship.
- Exploring where the relationship is heading.
- Dealing with an abusive partner with anger issues.
- Exploring ways to help a partner suffering from addiction.
- Increasing sexuality.
- Navigating issues around monogamy/polyamory.
- Separating or divorcing in a loving and respectful way.
- Creating a new vision.
In therapy, I do not keep secrets, and my goal is not for the partners to stay together or to part ways. My objective, rather, is to help couples to communicate with care and respect as well as work collaboratively.
Supervision
As a supervisor, my goal is to make sure that supervisees become unique therapists.
I’ve often encountered trainees and interns who tend to focus on therapeutic techniques (for example, empathic mirroring or motivational interviewing) and exercises learned in different modalities in their efforts to offer their clients different experiences. These therapeutic tools are indeed important in the work, but interns and trainees often forget to trust their own essence in their practice.
In my experience, I’ve noticed that most clients want a therapist who has the knowledge and maturity to understand them as well as the capacity to connect intimately with them. They desire an honest therapist who isn’t detached from their own humanity simply because they are seated in the therapist’s chair.
I enjoy working with supervisees who are are interested in developing their own voices and willing to let go of the security blanket of total anonymity. When a therapist uses their feelings, intuition, creativity and intellect to enter the intimate realm of a client’s psyche, they will often create meaningful relationships which will impact their clients and themselves.
EMDR
What is EMDR?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an integrative psychotherapy approach that has been extensively researched and proven effective for the treatment of trauma.
How does EMDR work?
We do know that when a person is very upset, their brain cannot process information as it usually does. A single moment can become "frozen in time," and remembering a trauma can feel as bad as going through it the first time because the images, sounds, smells, and feelings haven't changed. Such memories have a lasting negative effect that can interfere with the way a person sees the world and the way they relate to other people.
EMDR seems to have a direct effect on the way that the brain processes information. Following a successful EMDR session, a person no longer relives the distressing images, sounds, and feelings when the event is brought to mind. They still remember what happened, but the event is less upsetting; normal information processing is resumed.
EMDR appears to be similar to what occurs naturally during dreaming or REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Therefore, EMDR can be thought of as a physiologically-based therapy that helps a person see disturbing material in a new and less distressing way.
How long does EMDR take?
One or more sessions are required for the therapist to understand the nature of the problem and to decide whether EMDR is an appropriate treatment.
A typical EMDR session lasts from 60 to 90 minutes. The type of problem, life circumstances, and the amount of previous trauma will determine how many treatment sessions are necessary. EMDR can also be used in different formats: within standard "talking" therapy, as an adjunctive therapy with a separate therapist, or as a treatment all by itself.
What kinds of problems can EMDR treat?
Scientific research has determined EMDR to be effective for post- traumatic stress. Clinicians also have reported success in the treatment of the following conditions: panic attacks, complicated grief, dissociative disorders, disturbing memories, phobias, pain disorders, eating disorders, performance anxiety, stress reduction, addictions, sexual and/or physical abuse, body dysmorphic disorders and personality disorders.
I’ve come to believe that each of us has a personal calling that’s as unique as a fingerprint – and that the best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, working hard, and also allowing the energy of the universe to lead you.”
Oprah Winfrey
We all deserve to have a voice