Services
- Individual
- Family
- Child
- Adolescent/Teen
- Group
About My Clients
I’m willing to work with anyone, but I typically work with people who have several issues that make things quite challenging. Often, I can see what the core issues are rather quickly, but getting to the core is slow because a mental understanding is not the same as an emotional understanding. The brain literally needs to grow new understandings and possibilities, and the brain usually does that faster with a good, reliable, trustworthy relationship (therapy, hopefully family & friends).
My Background and Approach
Often relationships are part of the problem though. If you think a little about “growing a new understanding”, it makes sense because if you only understand the problem then you need to constantly think about it to feel and behave differently…. Well, that doesn’t work well in life, it needs to be mostly automatic so you can focus on… well, life. And constantly thinking about the problem is sort of depressing anyways. The people I work with vary. It will be something like autism, trauma, anxiety, and family dynamics, with whatever issues the family brings. Or maybe it is severe ADHD, trauma, anxiety, hopelessness, constant anger and oppositional defiance, and family members may have some similar behaviors, but for different reasons. Pretty much always trauma though, and not the little traumas of life. This is foster care, child abuse, special schools, legal issues, and other challenging life issues.
My Personal Beliefs and Interests
So, I work mostly through emotions and finding little ways to feel better together, while I slowly name issues at the core, or the problems that create more problems. This involves some experimentation; sometimes we just need to do something different and see what happens, and if the cycle is broken, we are usually on a better path. Usually, if people look at the situation they are in, and look at the results they want, the steps to get there are pretty clear. This involves organizing their thoughts on themselves, their relationships, and their lives. Then life, feelings, & relationships start looking more like something you have control over (feels great!)… until you get stuck. Opportunities, energy, time limits start coming in. This is when we need to be strategic, and thinking through all the possibilities and the best strategies alone is difficult. This is where the therapist comes in again. We do much better when we feel supported by a relationship.