I am a licensed marriage and family therapist and licensed professional counselor with 20 years of experience. I am fond of saying that I believe in the healing power of relationships, which is a big reason why I do what I do as a therapist. I have experience working with kids, couples, families, and adult individuals.
As a licensed marriage and family therapist, I am no stranger to helping those in struggling relationships and marriages. I also have an extensive history in working with individuals struggling with many different issues including (but not limited to) anxiety, over-thinking, perfectionism, depression, rejection/abandonment issues, sexual issues, inferiority feelings, panic, and trauma. While my approach is very much evidence based, I often remark that I am more like a tour-guide helping others better understand their own emotional world. You are the one doing the work, I am just making connections and pointing out the interesting tidbits along the way.
In our first session together, following brief introductions, I like to spend my time gathering information from you the client and learning what brings you to therapy. A key question to ask in the initial stages of the therapy process is "why now?" so I seek to understand my clients' motivation for taking the often difficult step into therapy. I will most likely ask clinical questions to gain an overall understanding of your behavioral health history, learn about previous therapy experiences, and gain your perspective on the concept of therapy as a process. For marital/couples counseling I seek to understand the communication dynamic that exists between each partner and start the process of looking for unproductive communication patterns.
