Individuals seek psychotherapy because they are choosing to actively address their concerns with an experienced professional they can trust. As a therapist, I have specific training and skills, but these are secondary to the commitment and encouragement I bring to the relationship I’ve established with the individual or couple I am working with. I believe therapy should provide individuals with help, clear suggestions and useful feedback, not bog them down with jargon or abstract concepts.
I offer individuals examples from my clinical practice as well as my own life. That isn’t to say I burden or share the hour, but I acknowledge the shared commonalities. The fact that I share some of these commonalities, reminds us that we are both humans sitting in this office, striving for similar things, and that we are not alone.
I work with individuals, couples and adolescents. My areas of specialty include, men’s issues, relationships, divorce and separation, defining identity and self, addiction and recovery, teen marijuana use and substance abuse. I primarily use Relational, Existential/Humanistic, Psychodynamic, Family Systems models, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Control Mastery, Attachment and Developmental theories.
Background:
I have been practicing counseling in a variety of settings since 1998, and have been practicing psychotherapy with adults, couples, children and families, in both supervised, and sole private practice since 2001.
I am a graduate of San Francisco State University, and hold graduate degrees in English/Creative Writing and Counseling with a specialty in Marriage and Family Therapy. Prior to my training as a psychotherapist, I taught a variety of English composition and Creative Writing course at the college and Adult Education level. I have clinical experience counseling in elementary and middle schools; residential treatment with adults with severe mental disabilities, as well as non-profit community mental health in addition to private practice. I currently supervise pre-licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Interns in clinical practice. In my practice, I have covered a range of issues including, depression, anxiety, sexual abuse and trauma, relationship and dating skills, infidelity and couples communication, life transitions, creativity and creative blocks, daily living skills and socialization, addictions, and men’s issues.
Schools Of Thought I Draw From:
I like to think the intent or phenomenon of psychotherapy and its seeming plethora of theories, or approaches, is much like the old adage, “All roads lead to Rome.” The process of psychotherapy can also be likened to a sort of collectively archetypical story in which each theory is but one point of view within the over-reaching narrative. Believe it or not, seen in this way, a therapist is allowed more freedom, as well as playfulness, in practicing. For me it means my tool box is always open, my tools to be shared.
To follow are brief outlines of the schools of psychotherapy I draw from in my practice. At the end of each, I have included a brief explanation of how I particularly use or view each in my own practice of psychotherapy.
A Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a psychotherapy based on modifying cognitions, assumptions, beliefs and behaviors, with the aim of influencing disturbed emotions. The general approach developed out of behavior modification, Cognitive Therapy and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, have become widely used to treat various kinds of neurosis and psychopathology, including mood disorders and anxiety disorders. The particular therapeutic techniques vary according to the particular kind of client or issue, but commonly include keeping a diary of significant events and associated feelings, thoughts and behaviors; questioning and testing cognitions, assumptions, evaluations and beliefs that might be unhelpful and unrealistic; gradually facing activities which may have been avoided; and trying out new ways of behaving and reacting. Relaxation and distraction techniques are also commonly included. CBT is widely accepted as an evidence and empirically based, cost-effective psychotherapy for many disorders and psychological problems. It is sometimes used with groups of people as well as individuals, and the techniques are also commonly adapted for self-help manuals and, increasingly, for self-help software packages.
An example will illustrate the process: Having made a mistake, a person believes, “I’m useless and can’t do anything right.” This, in turn, worsens the mood, leading to feelings of depression; the problem may be worsened if the individual reacts by avoiding activities and then behaviorally confirming his negative belief to himself. As a result, a successful experience becomes more unlikely, which reinforces the original thought of being “useless.” In therapy, the latter example could be identified as a self-fulfilling prophecy or “problem cycle,” and the efforts of the therapist and client would be directed at working together to change this. This is done by addressing the way the client thinks and behaves in response to similar situations and by developing more flexible ways to think and respond, including reducing the avoidance of activities. If, as a result, the client escapes the negative thought patterns and destructive behaviors, the feelings of depression may, over time, be relieved. The client may then become more active, succeed more often, and further reduce feelings of depression.
The objectives of CBT typically are to identify irrational or maladaptive thoughts, assumptions and beliefs that are related to debilitating negative emotions and to identify how they are dysfunctional, inaccurate, or simply not helpful. This is done in an effort to reject the distorted cognitions and to replace them with more realistic and self-helping alternatives.
One of the criticisms of CBT is that it doesn’t rely on, focus, or base itself in a deeper, perhaps dynamic relationship, and, in some cases can feel more psycho-educational: skill building; which although helpful, can feel removed. In my own practice of CBT, I rely more on the relationship I establish with the individual I am working with in order to gage the meaning their cognitions—thoughts, verbalized or otherwise, have for them and the circumstances which brought them into psychotherapy, and help the individual see their effect within interpersonal feeling states. By facilitating trust and a certain degree of intimacy, we are better able to make deeper, and more significant inroads.
Existential psychotherapy is partly based on the existential belief that human beings are alone in the world. This aloneness leads to feelings of meaninglessness which can be overcome only by creating one’s own values and meanings. We have the power to create because we have the freedom to choose. In making our own choices we assume full responsibility for the results and blame no one but ourselves if the result is less than what was desired. The psychotherapist helps his or her patients/clients along this path: to discover why the patient/client is overburdened by the anxieties of aloneness and meaninglessness, to find new and better ways to manage these anxieties, to make new and healthy choices, and to emerge from therapy as a free and sound human being.
Existential therapy focuses on the development of a patient/client’s self-awareness by looking deeply into the issues of our aloneness, meaninglessness, and mortality. The existentially-oriented psychotherapist guides his or her patients/clients to confront life’s anxieties. If the patient/client has not been fully exercising the freedom to choose, the counselor will lead a discovering into how and why he or she is stuck. Perhaps the patient/client has been allowing others to make the important decisions which he or she alone should be making. Possibly the patient/client is afraid to take the risks required to grow and is instead choosing an easy and non-threatening path. The counselor will encourage his or her patient/clients to reflect on the aloneness and meaninglessness of life, and to understand that they must find their own ways to cope with these anxieties. The counselor does not try to eliminate these anxieties, but instead encourages the patient/client to face them head-on. Alternative paths can be explored together. The risks entailed with these paths can be evaluated, and then the patient/client will be able to make new, more authentic choices. The existential counselor is not overly concerned with the patient’s/client’s past. Instead, the emphasis is on the choices to be made in the present. The counselor and the client may reflect upon how the client has answered life’s questions in the past, but then attention shifts to searching for a new and increased awareness in the present and enabling a new freedom and responsibility to act.
My use of the Existential approach focuses on finding the individuals unique meaning for his/her life, it’s purpose and direction. In order to do this, I encourage the individual to assume ownership and responsibility of his life, it’s content and direction. I stress striving for what one truly wants, and exploring the possibilities of attaining these; whether it be career, creativity, relationships, or some sort of philosophy for life and living. For example, when an individual feels they’ve made a mistake, I help them to recognize these as opportunities for learning and exercising a meaningful “permission” in terms of ownership of the individual’s life, it’s meaning, purpose and direction. This isn’t meant to overtly positive or “Polly-Anna” thinking, but rather a sustaining individual responsibility over one’s life and actions. So often we lose contact (ownership of) with our mistakes and with them our original intentions and purposes—the meaning we hoped to derive, and surrender these to shame, or embarrassment, or how these mistakes look through others’ eyes; more than through our own. When, ultimately, it is up to us to determine what is or isn’t a true mistake, how we will view this, grow as a result, and thus feel about it at the end of the day. There is something very empowering and essential in determining the values for your life.
Similar to The Existential School of Psychotherapy, Humanistic psychology is a school of psychology that emerged in reaction to both behaviorism and psychoanalysis. It is explicitly concerned with the human dimension of psychology and the human context for the development of psychological theory. These matters are often summarized by the five postulates of Humanistic Psychology:
Human beings cannot be reduced to components.
Human beings have in them a uniquely human context.
Human consciousness includes an awareness of oneself in the context of other people.
Human beings have choices and non desired responsibilities.
Human beings are intentional, they seek meaning, value and creativity.
Psychodynamics is the study of human behavior from the point of view of motivation and drives, depending largely on the functional significance of emotion, and based on the assumption that an individual’s total personality and reactions at any given time are the product of the interaction between their conscious and/or unconscious mind, genetic constitution, and their environment. The original concept of “psychodynamics” was developed by Sigmund Freud, who suggested that psychological processes are flows of psychological energy in a complex brain, establishing “psychodynamics” on the basis of psychological energy, which he referred to as libido.
Again, while I do not concentrate on one’s past, I do believe, past relationships create the templates for current relationships, and can be useful to explore in order to reveal, or recognize influential experiences from the individual’s past. Family happens to be a huge influence, as is school, peers, and other relationships and experiences. Then again, one mustn’t entirely overlook genetic influence and predisposition.
Interpersonal psychoanalysis is based on the theories of Harry Stack Sullivan, an American psychiatrist who believed that the details of patient’s interpersonal interactions with others provided insight into the causes and cures of mental disorders. Sullivan argued that patients keep many aspects of interpersonal relationships out of their awareness by selective inattention. He felt that it to be important for psychotherapists to conduct a detailed inquiry into patient’s interactions with others so that patients would become optimally aware of their interpersonal patterns. Unlike classical psychoanalysts, interpersonal analysts focus on asking patients detailed questions about their moment-to-moment interactions with others, including the analyst.
It has been my experience that much of the significant work of psychotherapy takes place between the therapist and patient. The relation is essentially much of the therapy; it offers an opportunity for the patient to explore a current and significant relationship with the other participating and effected member.