My approach to treatment
What is your approach to treatment?
My approach to therapy is collegial, supportive, gentle and practical, and I often use sympathetic humor to help mitigate the stress of talking about painful things. I am good at providing a fresh, unbiased perspective on problems, and am happy to focus on here-and-now problem solving if that's what you need. For deeper work, my therapy is based on increasing the awareness of thoughts and feelings that are often learned in childhood, and which influence emotions and behavior today. I support people in making the changes they decide to make and teach people strategies for change. I am good at identifying resources such as books, websites, and local groups or services that may supplement our work.
In clinical terms, my approach to therapy can be described as a mix of cognitive behavioral, psychodynamic, and systems approaches. My work has been particularly influenced by Dialectical Behavior Therapy, which incorporates mindfulness concepts with learning whatever skills might be missing for self-management, and also by positive psychology, which focuses not only on how to fix pain, but how to increase happiness in life. I believe that misery is made up of thoughts, feelings, and/or behaviors that cause pain, as well as painful life circumstances. Sometimes it is current or past relationships that cause pain, or ways of coping that once worked but now are not working as well. People are complicated, and problems that you have tried for a long time to work out are likely to be very complicated. I am curious, experienced and patient.
Sometimes people want to take a long, careful look at their past, and others are less interested in that. My main interest in past experiences and history is in understanding where ways of thinking and coping might have come from, so we can figure out what needs to be changed in the present. Helping you get unstuck, functioning better, and being happier and more fulfilled are important treatment goals for me.
I believe in the strength of people who want things in their lives to be different, that people are generally trying to do the best that they can, and that they always want to get better, regardless of what their choices may look like to other people. Therapy can help people figure out what is going on and either accept it or change it. I also think it’s important to identify patterns of strength, effectiveness and success and see whether they may be applicable to the current problems. Finally, I believe that it’s not enough just to untangle problems, but to identify ways in which to live a truly happier, more satisfying life.
Counseling vs. Therapy
One way I think about treatment is to consider the differences between “counseling” and “therapy”. Counseling usually involves us working together to help figure out how to get you “unstuck” in your particular life situation, taking into account your personal resources and abilities. That might involve learning new skills, identifying fears and thoughts that keep you from acting, or talking through difficult decisions. Counseling tends to be shorter-term and does not necessarily involve an extended exploration of your past. “Therapy” is usually more comprehensive and in-depth, and involves looking at dysfunctional, long-standing patterns of thoughts, feelings, beliefs and behaviors that persist in making your life less rewarding than it can be. Sometimes the line between the two is clear; someone will come for counseling, resolve the issue and stop. Other times we may move back and forth, addressing current issues, working on resolving them and also looking at how they reflect the longer-term problems that we can work on in therapy.
My approach to therapy is collegial, supportive, gentle and practical, and I often use sympathetic humor to help mitigate the stress of talking about painful things. I am good at providing a fresh, unbiased perspective on problems, and am happy to focus on here-and-now problem solving if that's what you need. For deeper work, my therapy is based on increasing the awareness of thoughts and feelings that are often learned in childhood, and which influence emotions and behavior today. I support people in making the changes they decide to make and teach people strategies for change. I am good at identifying resources such as books, websites, and local groups or services that may supplement our work.
In clinical terms, my approach to therapy can be described as a mix of cognitive behavioral, psychodynamic, and systems approaches. My work has been particularly influenced by Dialectical Behavior Therapy, which incorporates mindfulness concepts with learning whatever skills might be missing for self-management, and also by positive psychology, which focuses not only on how to fix pain, but how to increase happiness in life. I believe that misery is made up of thoughts, feelings, and/or behaviors that cause pain, as well as painful life circumstances. Sometimes it is current or past relationships that cause pain, or ways of coping that once worked but now are not working as well. People are complicated, and problems that you have tried for a long time to work out are likely to be very complicated. I am curious, experienced and patient.
Sometimes people want to take a long, careful look at their past, and others are less interested in that. My main interest in past experiences and history is in understanding where ways of thinking and coping might have come from, so we can figure out what needs to be changed in the present. Helping you get unstuck, functioning better, and being happier and more fulfilled are important treatment goals for me.
I believe in the strength of people who want things in their lives to be different, that people are generally trying to do the best that they can, and that they always want to get better, regardless of what their choices may look like to other people. Therapy can help people figure out what is going on and either accept it or change it. I also think it’s important to identify patterns of strength, effectiveness and success and see whether they may be applicable to the current problems. Finally, I believe that it’s not enough just to untangle problems, but to identify ways in which to live a truly happier, more satisfying life.
Counseling vs. Therapy
One way I think about treatment is to consider the differences between “counseling” and “therapy”. Counseling usually involves us working together to help figure out how to get you “unstuck” in your particular life situation, taking into account your personal resources and abilities. That might involve learning new skills, identifying fears and thoughts that keep you from acting, or talking through difficult decisions. Counseling tends to be shorter-term and does not necessarily involve an extended exploration of your past. “Therapy” is usually more comprehensive and in-depth, and involves looking at dysfunctional, long-standing patterns of thoughts, feelings, beliefs and behaviors that persist in making your life less rewarding than it can be. Sometimes the line between the two is clear; someone will come for counseling, resolve the issue and stop. Other times we may move back and forth, addressing current issues, working on resolving them and also looking at how they reflect the longer-term problems that we can work on in therapy.