Technique of Therapy

In my work with individuals, couples, and families, I listen very carefully to what people say and to what is not said. 

I believe that the meanings people make of events in their lives and the stories they construct about their experience are important to talk about. 

I believe that the client’s agenda for themselves sits at the heart of our work together, while I also seek to address popular ideas in our culture that may have some bearing on the client’s issues and experience. 

I work to be transparent in my interactions bringing my expertise and responses, as well as additional resources, into the conversation. 

I believe it is important to think and talk about how people use power in our culture, as well as in the therapeutic relationship.

Methods

To achieve their goals for therapy, the client and I together choose from a variety of methods: Talk-therapy, poetry, dreamwork, artwork, journaling, family-of-origin work, the relationship between client and therapist, exploring what is happening in the moment (in the client and in the client-therapist relationship), visualization, homework exercises, mindfulness.

Skill Development

Sometimes therapy involves skill development, and if desired we can work in these or other areas: relationship-building skills, self-esteem enhancement, mindfulness awareness, relaxation training, emotion-regulation skills*, distress-tolerance skills*. 
(*Based on Marsha Linehan’s Dialectical Behavior Therapy)

Couples

I use the Gottman Method of Marital Therapy; this is a compassionate and respectful way of working with couples that often brings about significant changes in their relationship by focusing on building the marital friendship, reducing hurtful conflict, and enhancing partner’s abilities to understand each other.

When we embrace our losses, we become fierce with reality.
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