Relational Therapy

Therapy with anyone in your life who is important to you! Parents, siblings, co-workers, couples looking to open up, couples looking to split up, co-parenting, step-parenting or any other relationship you'd like help improving.

Relationships are rich with opportunities to understand ourselves, to heal through corrective experiences and to create new frameworks to understand how to relate to others. For those who have endured deep pain and trauma in relationships, I undestand how important healthy boundaries and emotional safety are to develop real intimacy that heals. I welcome work on our relationship and will both bring my authenticity and emotions to our work when helpful for your healing and self understanding.

As a relational therapist, what happens between you and me can sometimes replicate other relationships that you have in your life outside of therapy. As we get to know each other, we may look at how we are relating, and if we can find patterns in our relationship that are similar to other important relationships in your life. By looking at those patterns, we can sometimes find parts of you that are looking for some attention or healing.

A relational approach to therapy means that I will operate as an active participant in your therapy. The foundation of this work is the relationship between you and I and the dynamics that manifest during our sessions as they illuminate and relate to your other relationships. I often use the immediacy of the therapeutic relationship with the goal of increasing awareness and discovering previously hidden processes and beliefs that undermine well-being.

Relational therapy focuses on the therapeutic alliance as the point of change. Drawing from different models, relational therapy provides a personalized and experiential therapy in which one is invited to explore their thoughts, feelings, reflections, defenses, and behavior to better understand how they may want to change themselves and their relationships.

The foundational theory that I apply to my work is called Relational Cultural Therapy. This is a model that gives us a lot of language for thinking about how our personal and ascribed identities play roles in our lives-- how we are made to feel connected or disconnected from people around us. Our experiences of connection and disconnection tend to play profound roles in our development and exploring this frequently an important aspect of effective therapy.

The goal of couples counseling isn't to help you avoid or eliminate conflict. All relationships cycle from harmony, disharmony, and repair. The goal of my work is to help you repair more quickly and more effectively. Intimacy can be scary. It is, after all, making one's self vulnerable, allowing the other to see inside you. That's why we will also work to increase your self-awareness in therapy. How can you share of yourself if you don't know yourself?

I am a relational therapist, and I am comfortable working with clients on various issues that arise in their relationships. For nearly the past five years, I have facilitated a "Healthy Relationships" group. Some of the recurring relational therapy topics are social factors, such as culture, race, class, heteronormativity, and intersectionality. Relational therapy is helpful when an individual is experiencing some discomfort from their intimate, professional, family, or social relationships.

My therapeutic style is grounded in Relational-Cultural Theory and focused on building a strong therapeutic connection while exploring relationship patterns, relationship- and self-beliefs, improving self-worth, and modeling relationship effectiveness. I have focused my professional training on becoming an expert in trauma-informed, empowering, and multiculturally sensitive psychological care with a highly developed understanding of how gender issues impact interpersonal relationship.

My therapy is oriented toward thinking about relationships.

Relational psychotherapy is an offshoot of psychoanalysis or psychoanalytic psychotherapy, both of which have a long and varied history going back to Sigmund Freud. As its basic premise, psychoanalysis assumes that people are often unaware of the factors that contribute to their mental and emotional state, and that uncovering these unconscious processes and assumptions leads to wellness. The way it is practiced today, there is a wide variety of approaches and styles in psychoanalysis (i.e. Freudian, Jungian, Object-Relations, Relational) that can look and feel quite different from the stereotype of the silent analyst saying only “Mmm Hmm” as the patient talks. Psychoanalysis is distinguished from psychoanalytic psychotherapy by both the frequency and setup of therapy. In psychoanalysis the patient usually comes in 2 – 5 times per week and often lays on a couch facing away from the therapist, whereas psychoanalytic psychotherapy incorporates the same theories and methodology of analysis without the same level of involvement. Psychoanalysts are required to undergo an additional educational training that often lasts for many years before being able to be called an analyst and perform analysis, whereas many therapists work from psychoanalytically-informed perspective and are well-trained in a psychoanalytic approach.

The therapeutic relationship is the most important factor in the success of therapy. We'll build a rapport and examine the relationship patterns in your life that impact your well-being.

Psychodynamic psychotherapy brings a more rational lens to psychoanalytic therapy. Here, the relationship between therapist and client is key to helping process and heal past and present relational wounds.

We are formed in relationships. Using the therapeutic relationship as a tool is a powerful way to integrate theory into practice. Slowing down and noticing the process of therapy can have a profound impact.

The human connection is the most important part of therapy. This has been demonstrated over and over again, that the therapist we connect with is the best therapist for us, no matter what techniques they use.

I try my best to create a therapeutic space that acknowledges power dynamics and differences. You are the expert on you; my job is to learn about you, reflect your thoughts and feelings, and guide you towards your goals.