Depression affects nearly everyone at some point throughout life. It can include feelings of pervasive sadness, hopelessness, or simply a lack of joy or motivation.
My treatment approach is designed to foster a basic understanding of the underlying causes of depression, and subsequent exploration of proven methods of coping with this debilitating problem.
Treatment is based on coping with the stressful demands of living in a modern world, while providing immediate relief and long term resolution.
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Although forms may vary, anxiety is a natural human reaction to a perceived "danger" and an adaptive evolutionary function to promote survival. Anxiety can often become disabling when not fully adapted to the unique demands of the modern world.
Irritability, compulsive or obsessive thoughts or behaviors, and physiological sensations (such as a racing heart and sweaty palms), and an extreme need for control are all hallmarks of anxiety.
My approach is based on exploring the origins of anxiety while confronting the negative thoughts and emotions associated with the physiological bodily response. This is accomplished through systematic hypothesis testing and identifying more effective long-term coping strategies through utilization of untapped internal resources.
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Couples counseling involves working with both individuals from the perspective of fostering confidence in supporting and strengthening the relationship, while assessing whether working through an impasse is possible and agreeable to both parties.
Together, we collaboratively address areas such as deepening intimacy and trust, while changing and improving communication so that each partner begins to feel heard and understood. Therapy also involves resolving past events or betrayals, improving compatibility, and bringing joy and vitality back into the relationship.
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Mindfulness
Living in the moment—also called mindfulness—is a state of active, open, intentional
attention on the present. When you become mindful, you realize that you are not your thoughts; you become an observer of your
thoughts from moment to moment without judging them. Mindfulness involves being with your thoughts as they are, neither
grasping at them nor pushing them away. Instead of letting your life go by without living it, you awaken to experience.
Cultivating a nonjudgmental awareness of the present bestows a host of benefits. Mindfulness reduces stress, boosts immune
functioning, reduces chronic pain, lowers blood pressure, and helps patients cope with cancer. By alleviating stress, spending a
few minutes a day actively focusing on living in the moment reduces the risk of heart disease. Mindfulness may even slow the
progression of HIV.
Mindful people are happier, more exuberant, more empathetic, and more secure. They have higher self-esteem and are more
accepting of their own weaknesses. Anchoring awareness in the here and now reduces the kinds of impulsivity and reactivity that
underlie depression, binge eating, and attention problems. Mindful people can hear negative feedback without feeling threatened.
They fight less with their romantic partners and are more accommodating and less defensive. As a result, mindful couples have
more satisfying relationships. Throughout our work together we will learn to cultivate the art of mindfulness.
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Schema Therapy
Schema Therapy explores the origins of deeper thought and
emotional patterns established in childhood as a means of understanding and treating problem mood and behavioral patterns as they persist into
adulthood. Schema Therapy helps map the mind and illuminate how, according to recent advances in cognitive therapy, most of what troubles us falls into basic emotional patterns (called “schemas” or “lifetraps”). Fundamentally, schemas are important beliefs and feelings we maintain about ourselves and the environment that we often accept about without
question. Schemas are often formed when needs are not met during childhood and then perpetuated as the schema prevents similar needs from being fulfilled in adulthood (for instance, a child whose need for secure attachments is not fulfilled by his parents may go for many years in later life without secure relationships).
Even though schemas persist once they are formed, and are very resistant to change, they not always in our consciousness. Usually they operate in subtle ways, outside of our
awareness. However, when a schema erupts or is triggered by life events, we experience the extreme negative emotions and dysfunctional
thoughts dominated by these schemas that become extremely difficult to regulate, and often feel as though it is outside of our control. Research scientists have discovered fifteen specific schemas and have developed comprehensive treatment approaches for each of them, each
having a very high success rate. Most clients have at least two or three of these schemas, and often more.
Schema therapy involves the very latest research in neuroscience – including learning how to utilize mindfulness (non-judgemental awareness) to “mind the gap” between impulse and action, before becoming caught by habitual emotional triggers. Through our work together you will learn to the tools necessary to free yourself of these destructive patterns.
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Family Therapy
My approach is to work with the family as a while system, identifying and improving strengths, while addressing areas of difficulty (such as ineffective communication and parent-child power struggles).
I work collaboratively with family members to improve understanding through deepening communication and increasing trust, practicing effective problem-solving skills, and fostering an overall improvement in basic family functioning.
My background includes work with blended and nuclear families, as well as parents learning to co-parent after separation or divorce.
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Childhood experiences often carry over into broad, negative behavioral themes or problems in our adult lives regarding oneself or our relationships with others. For some, childhood trauma can have the impact of keeping us from leading a full, satisfying life, or having truly fulfilling relationships.
I offer multiple avenues for uncovering and addressing childhood trauma, including psychotherapy, imagery work, narrative therapy, and relaxation/meditation practices.
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Anger is a natural, usually healthy, human emotion. When it gets out of control and turns destructive, it can lead to problems at work, in personal relationships, and in the overall quality of life.
Anger is an emotional state accompanied by physiological changes and can be caused by worrying about personal problems, as well as triggered by memories of traumatic or enraging events.
Together we will learn to utilize relaxation strategies, and methods for challenging thinking that leads to initiation of more flexible and effective problem solving, as well as increasing assertiveness around communicating needs more appropriately to others, while learning to view inevitable disappointments from a more adaptive perspective.
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A transition is a life change characterized by a sharp discontinuity with the past (including job changes, marriages, births, divorces, death, vacations, and relocation), which often promote us to question what we truly find meaningful in our lives.
Accompanying most major transitions can often be a deep sense of loss or suffering, as one tries to find balance within a new reality.
My approach to treatment involves viewing transitions as a process of fairly predictable stages that overlap one another, offering an opportunity for significant personal growth, while allowing more meaning and depth to be brought into your life.
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