David Sachs

Many young boys and even men today struggle with masculinity and often grow into adulthood anxious, confused, depressed, and lonely. Divorce and the absence of fathers and healthy male role models is a real traumatic loss. Men can also avoid developmental changes in their life having great difficulty in adjusting and integrating new experiences. To cope, many battle with anxiety, depression, and addictions of various types.

Traumatic loss can occur due to violence, suicide, illness, premature death, various accidents, and is often unexpected. This unexpected nature can leave us feeling shocked, powerless, and betrayed; getting “stuck” in ruminating about the trauma and loss. We often blame ourselves and are burdened with heavy guilt. Grief must be expressed and processed to heal and move towards acceptance and a new life.

Trauma happens within the human experience, and is part of our collective suffering. Both physical and emotional, trauma is uniquely personal and contextual for each person. Post-traumatic reactions in the body and mind are normal reactions in the face of abnormal experiences, as we fight for safety, protection, and survival. This ongoing need for protection has many negative consequences and can rob us of joy, creativity, and connection with self, others, and the world around us.

The goal is to understand the way the client sees the world and help them make choices based on this new insight. People often have a limited awareness of themselves. Main concepts for therapy are having the capacity for self-awareness, experiencing tension between freedom and responsibility; creating an identity and establishing meaningful relationships; searching for the meaning, purpose and values of life; accepting anxiety as a condition of living; and being aware of death and non-being.

Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) is a therapeutic approach based on the premise that emotions are key to one's identity. According to EFT, emotions are also a guide for individual choice and decision making. Emotions are our "first language" and the main reasons for many of our behaviors. This type of therapy assumes that lacking emotional awareness or avoiding unpleasant emotions can cause harm.

Depth psychotherapy refers to the process of bringing to light those parts of the self that have been hidden in the unconscious, parts which are often difficult to surface alone. As a therapeutic orientation, it is generally less solution-focused, linear, or prescriptive, and takes into account the subjective meaning that human beings give to their experiences. There is a strong emphasis on the therapy relationship and relational experiences when meeting.