Services
About My Clients
Many of my clients struggle with intense emotional pain stemming from feelings of unlovability and fear of rejection. Their pain acts like an emotional dictator that commands them to withdraw from the things that matter to them and make life worth living and sharing. Increasingly distant from their values (who they want to be deep inside their hearts) and goals (what they want to accomplish), they feel directionless because they're so focused on protecting themselves from emotional pain.
My Background and Approach
I utilize a modern form of the tried-and-true Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Although ACT involves a radically new approach to happiness, over 1,000 clinical trials have been published in peer-reviewed journals, demonstrating its effectiveness with diverse populations struggling with a wide range of psychological problems. ACT is focused on creating richer, fuller, and more meaningful lives rather than solely symptom reduction. When your life is bigger, the pain is smaller by comparison. ACT is a very active form of therapy. It's not just talking about your problems and feelings (although there is always space for that). You will learn practical skills to move from struggling to flourishing. We will move through the program step-by-step, learning skills that build on each other. The good news is the skills are easy to learn and effective.
My Personal Beliefs and Interests
I believe there are many causes of emotional struggles—biology, upbringing, patterns of thoughts, social injustice, and so forth. But one thing maintains the struggle—behavior—the way we cope with the pain. When we try to distract from, avoid, suppress, get away from, out work, or get rid of emotional pain, we're running. When we're running, we're in fight-or-flight mode. In other words, running maintains the pain. But what if the emotional lion we're running from isn't really a lion? Maybe it's a smelly kitten - aversive but harmless. What would it be like to stop running, turn around, and embrace the smelly kitten? What would it be like to turn off the flight-or-flight mode thoughts, feelings, memories, sensations, tensions, self-judgment, self-blame, and loneliness?