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AN INTEGRATIVE APPROACH
About My Work • More In-Depth

ABOUT MY WORK

I draw on many sources and therapeutic models in my work. I also place great importance on providing an environment where you feel safe to freely and creatively explore your inner world.

Starting with being genuine and attuned to you, I’ll do my best to help create a good therapeutic relationship—an important factor in successful therapy. I listen carefully, and while I’ll offer my ideas and reflections throughout our work, I do so in the spirit of collaboration, and to see if they resonate with you. My priority is to provide the highest level of trust and safety for you to embark on the rich inner journey that therapy has to offer.

In my integrative approach, I pay attention to how the various systems of the body work together and influence each other. Recent findings in neuroscience have taught us how the brain processes emotional information, and how patterns of response are established. By incorporating this knowledge with more traditional forms of therapy, I can help you release deeply held patterns and create lasting transformation.

Recognizing the complexity of who we are, I don’t impose theories or formulaic ideas in my work. Instead, I use different therapeutic perspectives to help illuminate our process, according to your individual needs. Among the sources I find most helpful are below. These approaches compliment each other extremely well. I also use them in a way that allows an opportunity for deep exploration, without losing sight of tangible goals.

MORE IN-DEPTH

COGNITIVE BEHAVORIAL THERAPY

Cognitive Behavorial Therapy is the most widely practiced form of therapy in this country. It deals with the power of our thoughts—including negative and inaccurate thoughts about oneself—to shape our experience. I think aspects of this model are valuable, but by itself I find this approach to be limited.

PSYCHODYNAMIC

Psychodynamic Therapy, in contrast, addresses the unconscious processes that influence our thinking and motivate our behavior. We can see traces of this in our everyday experience, such as when we get triggered by someone or feel reactive in ways that might seem disproportionate to the event. Much in the way that musical notes have overtones, our reactions are amplified because our brains resonate with earlier—even if unremembered—experiences. Working at this core level directly affects the underlying cause of our problems.

Sometimes our patterns in relationships show up or get played out in therapy. A Relational perspective is one that recognizes this as an important part of the therapeutic process, as it gives us an opportunity to work directly with the patterns that are often causes of ongoing distress.

EXISTENTIAL THERAPY

Existential Therapy reflects an outlook that our search and desire for meaning is an important inquiry and worthy pursuit. This inner exploration can profoundly affect our sense of identity, purpose and belonging, as well as our experience of fulfillment and love.

HAKOMI BODY-CENTERED PSYCHOTHERAPY

Fitting with an existential perspective, Hakomi Body-Centered Psychotherapy is named from a Hopi Indian word meaning, “How do I stand in relation to these many realms,” or “Who am I?” Hakomi is an elegant and powerful method of identifying and processing our unconscious patterns. By utilizing the practice of mindfulness—an easily teachable state of consciousness—we are able to work directly with the part of the brain where our limiting beliefs are stored. Beyond just gaining insight into these patterns, I’ll help you access the “real time” felt experience of relating to yourself more fully, and provide tangible support in integrating this into a new way of being.

Additionally, in resolving traumatic experiences, I rely on a combination of methods used in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Somatic Experiencing (SE), and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). These neurologically based modalities are at the forefront of our current understanding of how to safely and effectively work with trauma.

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