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MY SPECIALTIES

PSYCHOTHERAPY WITH ADULTS

Most adults come to psychotherapy wanting to change some aspect of their lives, and feeling unable to create the change despite previous efforts. Change, no matter how needed or desired, is often a difficult and complex process. Without the ability to change, however, a person’s sense of freedom can become inhibited – and life can generate high levels of anxiety, frustration, and regret.

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In psychotherapy, the goal is to understand deeply the factors involved in each person's areas of struggle, and to address those factors so change can occur. The work in psychotherapy includes cognitive understanding, but goes beyond formulaic behavioral techniques.  As the process of psychotherapy unfolds, insights and new experiences that are utterly personal, and borne of the talking, self-reflection, focused attention, and shared moments that occur in sessions become integrated.  This allows for shifts on a deep internal level, and promotes the possibility for the changes desired, and a new internal freedom.

PSYCHOTHERAPY FOR ADOLESCENTS

Many adolescents come to psychotherapy for the same reason as adults – wanting to create change in their lives. Developmentally, adolescents are mired in the complex process of separation and identity, and this makes the process of therapy with teens somewhat different than that with adults.  

 

For many adolescents, the multitude of changes - personal, social, physical, and sexual - can leave a young person feeling confused, overwhelmed, and vulnerable to any number of unhealthy intrusions and adaptations.

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Shifts within family dynamics, sexuality and sexual identity, academics, and peer relationships can be particularly challenging. Therapy with teens includes helping teens navigate the pervasive and compelling world of social media, and remaining thoughtful, realistic, and balanced about the various pressures and multiple dimensions in the modern adolescent experience.

 

Therapy offers a consistent, structured environment to help negotiate each of these areas with greater health and success.
 
As a psychotherapist for adolescents, I offer containment, empathy, warmth and humor.  I appreciate the need for limit-setting, as well as providing opportunities for developing self confidence and a sense of personal responsibility.  In my former position as Training Director at the McAuley Institute (Inpatient and Outpatient Psychiatric Units, St. Mary's Medical Center) I have worked with teens with a wide array of issues, therapeutic needs, cultural, academic, and economic situations, and I continue a commitment to serving the diverse teens who are an established part of my practice. 

 

I have worked successfully with teens who are experiencing:

  • Social problems and isolation

  • Screen addiction and preoccupation

  • Emotional problems due to a learning disorder

  • Depression and anxiety

  • Drug and alcohol abuse

  • Self-mutilation

  • Eating disorders

  • Sexually unsafe behavior

  • Violent expressions of anger

  • School refusal


I believe that the process of working with most adolescents includes involvement with their families. This may involve periodic family therapy sessions, regular weekly family sessions, or meetings with additional people in the young person’s life. 

DEPRESSION

People experiencing depressive episodes can feel significantly less pleasure in life, a lack of energy, and a pervasive sense of hopelessness. Many times depression extends to changes in eating, sleeping, difficulty concentrating, and increased irritability, which can more firmly entrench the underlying depression.

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Treatment of depression in psychotherapy involves sharing one's situation, but also an understanding of the way one interprets experiences through a depressive lens. How this lens is connected to one's anger (turned inward), and the personal reasons that depression has taken hold and collapsed vitality is key in regaining functioning and experiencing a more full range of emotions and experiences. 

ANXIETY

Many people experience persistent worry, a sense of uneasiness, fear, and discomfort that restricts personal freedom and the ability to relax. For some, anxiety may include phobias, panic attacks, or intrusive thoughts. For many, getting to the root causes of anxiety can be a potent instrument for positive change.

CAREER TRANSITIONS

Many people feel fearful and anxious when considering new career options. Changing course professionally can be provocative - bringing pressure to achieve goals and meet financial responsibilities while confronting one's vulnerability and areas of uncertainty.  

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Actively considering the personal psychological issues that can emerge at times of career transition can be empowering and helpful in navigating this change thoughtfully, deliberately, and with both hope and stability.  

PARENTING SUPPORT

We all live in a world populated by others. Whether in partnership romantically, in a professional organization, among friends, or in a family, how we relate to the other people in our lives can be among the most complex and important parts of our human experience.

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Not surprisingly, these relationships can often hold some of the most intense aspects of turmoil and challenge. Psychotherapy is an ideal place to understand how to navigate relationships more successfully, gain more fulfillment in connection with others, and feel able to be involved with others and one's self at the same time.  

RELATIONSHIP & SOCIAL PROBLEMS

The choices one makes are a parent are among the most personal choices made as an adult. Every parent wants their child to thrive, and in psychotherapy parents can explore the complex feelings and decisions regarding their children. With support to actively think about the parent-child relationship, parents can achieve more confidence, awareness, and understanding of their family and their role as a parent.

Areas of parenting that are addressed in therapy include:

  • Postpartum depression & birth trauma

  • Parent attachment and bonding anxieties in early childhood

  • Understanding, healing and reducing parent-child conflicts

  • Navigating losses & disappointments within the parental experience

  • School choice and academic advocacy

  • Setting & holding clear and reasonable limits for children

  • Navigating separations as development occurs

TRAUMA
PSYCHOTHERAPY FOR COUPLES

When couples start psychotherapy, they are seeking ways to make significant changes within their relationship. This is often linked to a desire to increase each person’s understanding of themselves and each other, and feel more satisfied and fulfilled within their partnership.

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Common couples' challenges can stem from a number of sources, including:

  • An inability to communicate and understand one another 

  • Issues from the past (from early life or past relationships) that resurface in the present

  • Infidelity and fear of commitment

  • Pre-marital concerns

  • Issues of detachment or enmeshment

  • Sexual roles, needs and satisfaction

  • Abuse 

  • Addiction

  • Parenting questions & practices

  • Unresolved conflicts & frequent tensions

  • An inability to end the relationship (help with loss & transition)

 

I work with couples of all sexual orientations and relational stages. 

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Occasionally, couples seek therapy to help navigate a break-up, and to negotiate their separation thoughtfully in a contained & supportive environment. 

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Divorced parents sometimes encounter difficulty working together after their separation.  Utilizing therapy to attend to their child's needs in a collaborative setting can be enormously useful in prioritizing attending to children through couple's work. 

PSYCHOTHERAPY FOR FAMILIES

My practice as a family therapist includes working with families organized in both non-conventional and traditional family structures. I’ve provided psychotherapy for new parents, families in transition, gay and lesbian parents, and families facing important developmental milestones.

I work with families who are struggling with variety of issues, including:

  • Divorce and Loss

  • Transitions within Blended Families

  • Illness (including depression) in Parents or Children
    Acculturation Issues

  • Transitions of Development (i.e. a child leaving for college)

  • Family Trauma (including abuse within the family)

  • Persistent Arguments and Conflicts

  • Alcohol and Drug Abuse

My role as a family therapist is to be an impartial advocate for the health, vitality, and growth of the family unit. I am active in my work to create a space that allows each member of the family to be heard and to listen to others in the family. In most families, communication issues are key to understanding the underlying issues and conflicts that cause tension and restrict family members from developing satisfying relationships with each other.

Trauma, whether it occurs in childhood or adulthood, often gives a person a sense of anxious repetition - going over and over the same thoughts, the same painful dynamics, the same emotions - in an effort to gain understanding and mastery over an event that was profoundly disruptive, disorganizing and overwhelming.  This repetition, and the ongoing anxiety and pain one might feel in its wake, often propels people into therapy to get help, relief, and freedom.  

Trauma addressed in psychotherapy includes:

  • Physical and sexual assault or abuse

  • Childhood witness to domestic abuse

  • Religiously-based psychological abuse

  • Multigenerational transmission of trauma (historical trauma)

  • Unjust treatment and discrimination based on race, gender or sexual orientation

  • Family members with mental illness or substance addiction

  • Profound neglect or intrusion from caregivers in childhood 

  • Oppression in counties, cultures, or societies that persecute individuals and prohibit freedom

  • Job-related trauma for healthcare providers, military personnel, law enforcement, firefighters, crisis and emergency responders

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ACCULTURATION CHALLENGES

There are few things as challenging as becoming immersed in a foreign culture and needing to make sense of one's life under radically changed circumstances. Working through the issues that commonly surface from these circumstances can provide much needed perspective and attend to a sense of loss and anxiety that can accompany such major life changes.

GRIEF, LOSS AND MOURNING

The death of a loved one can be one of the most fundamental losses experienced - and often gives rise to a mixture of feelings of a deeply personal nature. In additional to sadness, many other feelings can come to the fore, leaving a person feeling overwhelmed, confused, and inundated with intense emotions. Psychotherapy can offer support as one grieves, processes, and organizes the loss emotionally and psychologically, and can be key to moving through the mourning experience with sensitivity, fullness, and containment. 

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