My Specialities
INDIVIDUAL COUNSELING
Everyone faces a variety of challenges in life. While we have skills for some of those challenges, we sometimes don't know how to manage certain challenges. I believe that everyone has the capacity for growth, wholeness and health. My role, therefore is to facilitate that innate ability for personal growth, insight and autonomy. With commitment and focus, the process of psychotherapy can bring about significant life changes.
STRESS & TRAUMA
The essential feature of PTSD is the development of characteristic symptoms following exposure to an extreme traumatic stressor involving direct personal experience of an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury to oneself, an acquaintance or a close family member. In response to such stressors the individual experiences intense fear, helplessness or horror, a heightened arousal and recurrent intrusive thoughts that cause significant impairment. The lifetime prevalence rate ranges from 1% to 14%. Because individuals who have experienced a severe trauma often have had their sense of trust of the world betrayed a key component of therapy for PTSD is the reestablishment of trust within the context of the therapeutic relationship. Another key component of therapy is to develop relaxation skills and self-care. Within this context, the therapist and the client can begin to resolve the trauma and regain a sense of well being in the world.
COUPLES THERAPY
One of the key aspects to couples therapy is helping them develop skills in communication which includes deep reflective listening. Everyone wants to feel appreciated and understood, and that is one important aspect of couples therapy. Another is to learn how to resolve conflict in a respectful and enduring manner. These are primary skills not only for couples, but for life. We often interact with our mate based on how our parents interacted - and that may, or may not be effective in our current relationship. Being willing to change our old ways of interacting can be life-changing.
RELATIONSHIP COUNSELING
We all face times in our lives when we have difficulty in our interactions with others, whether they are family, friends, or co-workers. Oftentimes these roadblocks can be examined and addressed within therapy. Sometimes it may be as simple as improving communication skills while other times it may require a deeper examination of the underlying conflict involved in those problematic relationships.
PARENTING ISSUES
Parenting is one of the most challenging and important jobs we have. Oftentimes we parent as we were parented, simply because we aren't aware of options. Based on Rudolph Dreikurs book: Children: The Challenge I help parents examine roadblocks they encounter in parenting. One ultimate goal of this work is to help the child and parent understand the idea that there are logical consequences of our actions. Once this concept has been integrated into parenting, the child learns a valuable lesson that should last a lifetime.
LIFE TRANSITIONS
As we move through life we all face periods in our lives where we move out of one role into another (e.g., leaving home, getting married or divorced, children leaving home, job changes, death of a loved one, retirement, etc.) Anytime we encounter transitions we are likely to feel somewhat uncomfortable and it may elicit questions about how we will bring meaning to our new role in life. One goal of therapy in addressing these transitions is to clarify these meanings and learn to cope with the ambiguities that go along with the move from one role to another. Certainly the pandemic has created a plethora of life transitions for our world, and examining the effect this has had on you is important to address.
WOMEN'S ISSUES
There are a number of socio-cultural issues that women must face that are unique to them. It is helpful for women to be able to identify and articulate some obstacles that they face in life. After identifying those issues, I assist women in developing useful strategies for facing those issues.
OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER (OCD)
The essential features of OCD are recurrent obsessions or compulsions that are severe enough to be time consuming (i.e., they take more than 1 hour a day) or also marked distress or significant impairment. At some point during the course of the disorder the person has recognized that the obsessions or compulsions are excessive and unreasonable. Obsessions are persistent ideas, thoughts or impulses that are experienced as intrusive and cause anxiety or distress. Compulsions are repetitive behaviors (e.g., hand washing, ordering and checking) or mental acts (e.g., praying, counting, repeating words) the goal of which is to prevent or reduce anxiety or distress. The lifetime prevalence rate is 2% and usually begins in adolescence or early adulthood. Therapy usually addresses the obsessions and compulsions, and helps the individual find more adaptive ways of coping. Furthermore, if this is a long-standing problem, the relationship between a compassionate and trustworthy therapist and the client can help the client resolve the personal issues associated with the disorder.
HEALTH & MEDICAL PSYCHOLOGY
This is another major area in which I provide services. Those services assist individuals and their families in coping with physical illness associated with such things as heart disease, cancer, AIDS, liver disease, COVID-19, geriatrics and pre- and post surgical support and the psychological issues (e.g., anxiety, depression, and grief) that frequently accompany illness.
ASSERTIVENESS SKILLS
Assertiveness is an essential skill in adult communications, yet many of us have not been taught appropriate ways of asserting ourselves. Instead, we may respond to situations by being passive (i.e., "I don't have any needs"), aggressive (I.e., You must fulfill my needs, or else") or passive aggressive (i.e., I'm not going to tell you what I need, but if you don't fulfill my needs you're going to pay").
Interestingly, after I led a 10 week class in assertiveness skills there was a statistically significant decrease in the levels of depression by the participants. Participants indicated that they felt a sense of increased empowerment because they had developed better communication skills. These skills are developed through practice and receiving feedback in therapy.
DEPRESSION
Although many people become depressed at some point during their life span, there is a distinction between feeling sad for a given period of time and a clinical depression. Those experiencing a severe depression may experience a depressed mood for most of the day, every day, markedly diminished pleasure in activities, sleeping problems, fatigue, diminished ability to think, feelings of worthlessness and recurrent thoughts of death. These symptoms continue for over 2 months and are not better accounted for by bereavement. The lifetime risk for Major Depressive Disorder varies from 10% to 25% for women and 5% to 12% for men. Episodes of Major Depressive Disorder often follow a severe psychological stressor. In therapy we work to understand the origin of the current problems and work to find viable solutions. The ultimate goal of therapy is to help people resolve their concerns and to learn more effective coping skills.
ANXIETY
Everyone experiences anxiety at certain points in their lives, and this, in many cases, is a natural response to the uncertainties in life. However, if an individual experiences anxiety that significantly impairs their ability to function, it is important to try to resolve that impairment. One goal of therapy in treating anxiety is to identify the "triggers" that elicit anxiety. Another goal is to learn and practice relaxation techniques that the individual can implement when faced with triggers for anxiety. For those individuals who have a long-standing history of anxiety, it is also helpful to identify and come to terms with the origins of their fears in order to reduce and effectively manage their responses to stressful situations.