Services Available

• Individual Therapy
• Couples Therapy
• Family Therapy

Specializations

• Relationship Issues
• EMDR
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Grief & Loss
• Women's Issues
• Stress Management
• Trauma Recovery

Benefits

• Improved Communication
• Healthier Relationships
• Increased Self-Esteem
• Better Self-Control
• Stress Reduction
• Parenting Skills
• Problem-Solving Skills
• Coping Strategies

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The New Pathways approach to therapy:

It is common for people to seek counseling with feelings of depression and/or anxiety, relationship problems, parent-child conflicts, marital conflicts, childhood physical and sexual abuse and neglect issues. Many people seek counseling for a variety of other typical life problems and struggles, such as life transitions or problems that arise in various settings such as work or school.

My approach in working with clients is from a relational perspective. Adult clients can explore the dynamics in their current relationships by increasing their awareness of their past relationships in childhood as well as adulthood. Parents can examine their family structure and relationship patterns and learn new communication and relationship skills in order to create a healthier family system. Children and adolescents can identify and build on inner resources, develop coping strategies, and self-esteem through accomplishments that help them thrive individually and in relationships with family, peers, and others.

My goal as a therapist is to help clients to explore "new pathways" that may lead to new solutions and independent problem-solving. The first session is typically used to gather information in order to gain insight into the primary challenges at hand, the degree of distress the challenges are causing, and what has already been tried in the past to improve the situation. Existing strengths and resources are identified, and goals for therapy as well as a commitment to therapy are established.

Because every person's situation is different, there is no predetermined number of sessions required. However, a weekly commitment is needed in the beginning for consistent progress and success. The problems for which people come to counseling have usually developed over a long period of time, so counseling may take several weeks or months to thoroughly resolve the problems and make significant and long-term progress. Couples in Imago Relationship Therapy are asked to make a 12- week commitment. Imago sessions are usually longer in length than the typical 50-minute session, ranging from an hour and a half to two hours.

Therapeutic Orientations:

Imago Relationship Therapy

"The unconscience purpose of a committed relationship is personal development and self-completion." - Harville Hendrix. The methods of Image Relationship Therapy are use to gain greater understanding and compassion for one another and to learn new skills to break destructive cycles. Therapy creates a sacred place for healing and growth than can lead to deeply satisfying and loving relationships.

Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR)

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a method of psychotherapy that has been extensively researched and proven effective for the treatment of trauma. EMDR is a set of standardized protocols that incorporates elements from many different treatment approaches to help relieve many types of psychological stress.

When a person is traumatized, their brain cannot process information as it normally does. The trauma may become “frozen in time” and may feel as bad as going through it the first time because the images, sounds, smells, and feelings haven’t changed. EMDR seems to affect the way that the brain processes information, similar to what occurs naturally during dreaming or REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Normal information processing is resumed, so a person no longer relives the trauma when the event is brought to mind. The memory of the event remains intact, but it is less upsetting. Therefore, EMDR is a physiologically-based therapy that helps a person see disturbing material in a new and less distressing way.

Family Systems Therapy

A systemic therapist views the client and his or her symptoms in the context of his or her family system, rather than in isolation. The therapist prefers to work with the entire family and not just the individual who is defined as "the problem." The therapist helps the family examine multigenerational patterns of relationships and behavior, the rules and structure of the family, and the functions or roles of the various family members within the system. The goal is to help family members develop as healthy individuals and resolve family conflicts in order to have a healthy family unit.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

In Cognitive-Behavioral therapy, the therapist helps clients in identifying their distorted thinking patterns, which are seen as being the cause of depression, anxiety or other emotional problems. The therapist then helps clients see the connection between thinking distortions, beliefs, feelings, and behavior. By learning to challenge their thinking distortions and irrational beliefs, clients can change their feelings and behavior in order to improve their situations. The therapist also helps clients in developing healthy coping skills and alternative strategies for solving problems.

Social Skills Training

The goal of social skills training is to teach clients new ways of solving a variety of life's problems. Social skills training can be done in individual or group therapy and is commonly focused on a topic such as anger management, parenting, and assertiveness. The focus is in raising awareness and developing practical tools and strategies to improve their lives.