Services
- Individual
- Couples
- Adolescent/Teen
- Group
About My Clients
Clients that like me are those who want a down-to-earth person who will challenge them. Therapy is best when it is an authentic relationship where you are safe enough to cry your heart out and yet is "real" enough that you trust your therapist will tell you what you need to hear rather than what you want to hear. In good therapy, you are supported AND challenged so that you get out of your comfort zone and face your fears, head on. We often need help getting past our own defenses to do this.
My Background and Approach
People come to therapy because they have problems and if we are going to make things better it means we're going to have to break a sweat. Good therapy is a mixture of tears of pain and tears of joy, laughing and cursing, hard work and relief. I view my clients' problems through the lens of trauma, i.e., the painful things we have experienced that stick with us. Sometimes, these are big things--like rape or combat or childhood abuse--and sometimes they are subtler things--like feeling unloved or invisible. Regardless, when these problems go unaddressed and remain unresolved, they fester and alter the course of our lives. We experience symptoms, like depression, anxiety, excessive worrying, or low self-esteem, to name a few. But, when we can connect your past experiences to your present problems and shed light on them, you will begin to heal and forge a new path into your future.
My Personal Beliefs and Interests
I've never met a crazy person and everyone can get better. These two statements sum me up. They are rooted in my early experiences and why I became a therapist, in the first place: I once was a deeply unhappy young man with a drug problem. I hated myself and didn't even know it. I couldn't sleep, daydreamed of suicide, and thought I was losing my mind. I finally broke down and told my mom what was going on, and she scheduled me to see a therapist. His name was Mike. I went in defensive and pissed-off. But rather than give me coping skills or push pills, he listened and got to know me and helped me see how unhappy and hurt I was. As I began to understand myself better, I began to feel better. If I wasn't crazy (like I thought I was), maybe others who are treated like that aren't crazy, either. Maybe they're just hurting, like I was. And, if Mike could get through to me, maybe I can get through to some of them. Call me to see if maybe I can get through to you.