I am an experienced therapist who finds real joy in helping one person at a time regain control of their life, improve their situation, find a better path, or understand who they really are at the deepest levels.
I bring extensive training and experience to the broad range of psychotherapy approaches that I can offer adult, children and adolescents, couples and families. I specialize in helping people who have unresolved traumatic experiences from childhood. I also work well with adolescents who have proven to be challenging and possibly difficult to engage in therapy. My earliest training was as a play therapist at a Child Guidance Clinic. Having received training to work with this full developmental range of ages has proven enormously useful in sophisticating my skills as a therapist: my child work informs my psychotherapy with adolescents and adults; my adult and adolescent work has an impact on how I work with children.
The areas of clinical practice which I choose to work in are limited to those in which I have received the highest levels of training and certification available in that particular area. That includes my own personal psychotherapy which I consider to be one of the most important training experiences of any psychotherapist since it is widely known that the therapist's use of self is central to any psychotherapy process. The important relationship a person forms with their psychotherapist permits an honest and open, ongoing conversation, and an opportunity for self-reflection which, in my experience, can add a great deal of value to a person's life. Most people come to therapy with specific problems and it is my job to facilitate a therapeutic conversation (or interaction may be a better word in the case of younger persons) in which we together come to understand some of the underlying causes and contributing factors to the problem. We will identify and resolve roadblocks to having the life you want.
Many people think psychotherapy is just talking. It is that and so much more.I am trained in many different techniques and theoretical approaches that I bring to the core part of therapy - the therapeutic alliance. I believe there is an innate capacity in the human psyche for self-healing. I see my role as assisting those I work with to figure out what has interrupted this self-healing process, unblock those channels, and move the individual's energies and focus back in the direction of self-healing. While some people come to work with me because of my expertise in adult problems related to childhood trauma, I also work with individuals who have come to points in their lives or found themselves in situations where their usual capacities are challenged. Life is pretty complicated these days and the stresses and pressures of the day-to-day can add up and take a toll on one's quality of life and peace of mind.