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HOW IT WORKS
Approach
My approach is direct, candid, intuitive, and dynamic. I conceptualize my work from a theoretical foundation commonly known as relational psychodynamic psychotherapy. This simply means that I attune to what you say and do not say, and offer you insight about the way our interactions feel to me. I place this information in the context of the way your past and present relationships and experiences have shaped you. In doing this, we get a sense of the story your mind tells you about yourself and the world around you. In this way, I see myself as a conduit for growth and will often navigate toward what I find most compelling rather than toward what I can clearly understand. I will challenge your views and question your actions when it seems they no longer work in your favor. I hope to help you discover pieces of you that you may not know exist. I utilize my experience with you to help you understand your experience in the world. I prefer this approach because it enables dynamics that are outside your day to day awareness to surface, which is how we'll learn more about you and the way you relate with others. For those of you looking for a more technical explanation of my approach: I have been heavily influenced by attachment theory and neuroscience, as well as thinkers such as Winnicott, Yalom, Siegel, Benjamin, Brown, Schnarch, McWilliams, Tatkin, and Mitchell. I am happy to talk more about this by phone if this is important to you. |
Why?
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Working in this way has the potential to enhance your relationships, deepen them, strengthen them, and to inspire you to continually reflect on your own behavior.
It can be incredibly frustrating to repeat the same behaviors, dynamics and/or relationship patterns over and over without any understanding of how or why. Thus, an important step in the healing process is identifying emotions and behaviors that are strongly rooted in the past. Acknowledging and understanding the true source of feelings can help navigate relationships more honestly and effectively. Week to week, I will remain open and flexible in your sessions, and keep a meta-sense of our journey together in mind. Even so, the path you're on is rarely clear when we're in the thick of it, which can make therapy feel disorienting at times and quite exciting at others. By being present with yourself in this way, you will gain greater emotional awareness and psychological development, which can strengthen your sense of confidence, self-acceptance, and responsibility in daily life. This will extend into a greater capacity for intimacy, allowing you to experience more meaning and pleasure in your life with an improved ability to navigate relationships. There's the potential to increase your ability to manage strong emotions, maintain a sense of courage when feeling vulnerable, understand the nuances of paradox, overcome black and white thinking, and communicate complex emotional states to the people that matter to you most. |
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