Services
My Approach
I work with adults experiencing anxiety, depression, PTSD, and mid-life challenges. I work with all genders and have a strong focus on men's issues. My approach uses ACT, EMDR, and REBT to reduce distress, build emotional flexibility, and support lasting change.
Therapy is tailored to each person and may include ACT, EMDR, CBT, and other evidence-based approaches. Together, we focus on healing from distressing experiences, reducing symptoms, improving emotional regulation, and strengthening relationships and communication. Additional modalities may be used as needed to support your growth and well-being.
Specialties and Expertise
Addiction
ADHD
Alcohol Use
Anger Management
Anxiety
Bipolar Disorder
Coping Skills
Depression
Education and Learning Disabilities
Emotional Disturbance
Family Conflict
Grief
Internet Addiction
Life Transitions
Marital and Premarital
Men's Issues
Obsessive-Compulsive (OCD)
Parenting
Peer Relationships
Relationship Issues
Self Esteem
Spirituality
Substance Use
Suicidal Ideation
Trauma and PTSD
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Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is an action-oriented approach that stems from traditional behavior therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy. Clients learn to stop avoiding, denying, and struggling with their inner emotions and, instead, accept that these deeper feelings are appropriate responses to certain situations that should not prevent them from moving forward in their lives. With this understanding, clients begin to accept their hardships and commit to making necessary changes in their behavior, regardless of what is going on in their lives and how they feel about it.
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Cognitive-behavioral therapy stresses the role of thinking in how we feel and what we do. It is based on the belief that thoughts, rather than people or events, cause our negative feelings. The therapist assists the client in identifying, testing the reality of, and correcting dysfunctional beliefs underlying his or her thinking. The therapist then helps the client modify those thoughts and the behaviors that flow from them. CBT is a structured collaboration between therapist and client and often calls for homework assignments. CBT has been clinically proven to help clients in a relatively short amount of time with a wide range of disorders, including depression and anxiety.
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EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is an information processing therapy that helps clients cope with trauma, addictions, and phobias. During this treatment, the patient focuses on a specific thought, image, emotion, or sensation while simultaneously watching the therapist's finger or baton move in front of his or her eyes. The client is told to recognize what comes up for him/her when thinking of an image; then the client is told to let it go while doing bilateral stimulation. It's like being on a train; an emotion or a thought may come up and the client lets it pass as though they were looking out the window of the moving train.
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Family and Marital therapists work with families or couples both together and individually to help them improve their communication skills, build on the positive aspects of their relationships, and repair the harmful or negative aspects.
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Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a method of therapy that works to engage the motivation of clients to change their behavior. Clients are encouraged to explore and confront their ambivalence. Therapists attempt to influence their clients to consider making changes, rather than non-directively explore themselves. Motivational Interviewing is frequently used in cases of problem drinking or mild addictions.
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Person-centered therapy uses a non-authoritative approach that allows clients to take more of a lead in discussions so that, in the process, they will discover their own solutions. The therapist acts as a compassionate facilitator, listening without judgment and acknowledging the client's experience without moving the conversation in another direction. The therapist is there to encourage and support the client and to guide the therapeutic process without interrupting or interfering with the client's process of self-discovery.
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Unlike traditional psychology that focuses more on the causes and symptoms of mental illnesses and emotional disturbances, positive psychology emphasizes traits, thinking patterns, behaviors, and experiences that are forward-thinking and can help improve the quality of a person's day-to-day life. These may include optimism, spirituality, hopefulness, happiness, creativity, perseverance, justice, and the practice of free will. It is an exploration of one's strengths, rather than one's weaknesses. The goal of positive psychology is not to replace those traditional forms of therapy that center on negative experiences, but instead to expand and give more balance to the therapeutic process.
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Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) offers valuable support in identifying and challenging self-defeating thoughts and actions. REBT focuses on present issues, revealing how unhealthy thoughts hinder personal and professional goal attainment. REBT can be beneficial for addressing various negative emotions such as anxiety, depression, guilt, problems with self-worth, and extreme or inappropriate anger. It also aids in changing self-defeating behaviors like aggression, unhealthy eating, and procrastination. REBT utilizes diverse methods and tools, including positive visualization, reframing thoughts, self-help materials, and assigned homework, to reinforce progress between sessions.
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Strength-based therapy is a type of positive psychotherapy and counseling that focuses more on your internal strengths and resourcefulness, and less on weaknesses, failures, and shortcomings. This focus sets up a positive mindset that helps you build on you best qualities, find your strengths, improve resilience and change worldview to one that is more positive. A positive attitude, in turn, can help your expectations of yourself and others become more reasonable.