My work is present moment focused. This means that the focus is on what’s happening in the room right now between the two or three of us. We might be talking about something hard or something amazing that happened many many years ago or something that was troubling last week or last month but our focus is about what’s happening right now in the room together as we talk about it
My work is relational. Psychotherapy research consistently shows us that the relationship between the therapist and the client or clients is the single biggest predictor of success and satisfaction in therapy. I place tremendous value on the theraputic relationship. I want our work together to feel driven by connection, safety, collaboration, curiosity and explicit awareness of both smaller and bigger changes together.
My work is body focused. I closely track the body while we’re talking and telling the story. We now know that change happens not through insight or sharing a story. Change happens experientially in one’s body and emotionally. Research tells us that emotions originate in our bodies. We feel anger, fear, sadness, joy and excitement in our bodies first and then our brains make sense of these feelings and name them. Because of this, a focus on the body and noticing what’s happening is important and really aids in shifting our feelings and beliefs.
My style is warm, interactive and engaged. I believe humor, like music is an essential part of life. The human condition is painful at times and it’s also odd, ironic, funny, delightful and awe inspiring among other things.
I’m a bit of a neuroscience geek. Both of the psychological approaches I most employ (Emotion Focused Therapy and Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy) are attachment based. Essentially, the way you were brought up by your primary caregiver affects the way you act in the world and in relationships. These approaches are healing centered rather than deficit focused. In case you’d like to learn more, below are some links to get more information about these and some other approaches I most often use in my practice.
Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) https://aedpinstitute.org/about-aedp/
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) https://iceeft.com/what-is-eft/
Eye Movement DeSensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) https://www.emdria.org/page/what_is_emdr_therapy
Motivational Interviewing/Harm Reduction https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapy-types/motivational-interviewing
https://harmreduction.org/about-us/principles-of-harm-reduction/