Individual Psychotherapy
My practice is designed to help people who are dissatisfied with the circumstances of their lives and believe that things can be different. I guide my clients through an exploration of their unique life context as well as the current behavior patterns that are impediments to a healthy productive life. I encourage my clients to accept themselves and others, while offering strategies for altering behavior and challenging old assumptions that are no longer adaptive. By embracing acceptance and change, clients can find more meaningful and satisfying ways to experience themselves and their interpersonal relationships.
My approach to helping clients reach their therapeutic goals is firmly grounded in the principals of cognitive-behavior therapy, a hear-and-now, action orient framework that focuses on changing current thought and behavior patterns in service of positive growth. This work is infused with mindfulness concepts and interventions from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) designed to improve emotion regulation and reduce unproductive automatic responses to external and internal experience.
Couple and Family Therapy
I am very active and directive in my work with couples and families to promote improved communication and, through this better communication, a deeper understanding and appreciation for one another. My couples work is informed by my extensive experience observing couple interactions in the laboratory. Through hundreds of hours of watching couples talk to each other, observing the subtle changes in their words and emotions from moment to moment, I have become acutely aware of how quickly and easily conversations can become unproductive and what is needed to correct and repair these interactions. I offer couples the specific skills they need to understand and change their problematic communication patterns, resolve conflict, and rebuild trust, friendship, and intimacy.
I have experience working with:
- Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADD or ADHD)
- Anxiety and panic
- Depression and other mood disorders
- Divorce and other family conflicts
- Executive functioning deficits
- Life transitions
- Loss and grief
- Low self-esteem
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Social anxiety
- Stress management
- Parenting issues
- Relationship issues