I am a licensed clinical social worker with 25 years of experience. I have worked in a variety of clinical settings including an outpatient practice, a community health setting, an inpatient psychiatric setting, and a practice that has focused on working with court mandated individuals. I have experience providing therapy to individuals, families and groups. I have specialized training and experience in providing trauma focused therapy and attachment focused therapy.
For decades it has been my life mission to help people return to resiliency after setbacks, losses, pain, stress, and suffering. Often people come to therapy feeling stuck and feeling unable to change a situation or the suffering in their lives. Many times for life problems that just emerge, all you need to return to resiliency is more options to consider. Most successful outcomes involve finding the right combination of attacking certain aspects, embracing and loving certain aspects, simply letting go of some aspects, and avoiding some aspects of an issue. I bring a comprehensive set of tools and provide coaching on how you can put the right tools for you and your situation into action. In all cases, it is best to build on our strengths. However, in many cases - especially if your ‘weaknesses’ are connected to intractable and chronic pain or long-term damage, like in addictions, it is best not to ignore or push those problems and feelings down or to the back. I can help you navigate through the inner judges, critics, and defender parts back to a centered, reliable starting place. I help you find and connect a ‘good self to come from’. Sometimes emergent life challenges reveal the deep fault lines of old unresolved traumas. Often struggles with competency, completion, relationships, dependence, or other aspects of being consistently functional and resilient are rooted in unresolved events or relational traumas. I can help you make a journey map to get started in coping with and ultimately resolving those traumas. I can assist you in learning how to connect to and relate to those parts that are impediments to healthy relationships, body flow, and resiliency. The task is to reorganize clusters of feelings and find a starting place for change and balance.
I believe therapist should avoid any singular theory that attempts to explain everything and avoid getting caught in a web of speculation rather than action. To generate hope, the task is to find a balance between self-awareness and action. The focus of the first session will be on exploring and clarifying your own goals that bring you to therapy and to obtain an understanding of your history, strengths, and challenges. Treatment will be tailored to your specific goals. During therapy, sometimes the goals or treatment needs may evolve or change and adjustments to therapy can be made. Therapy is a process and flexibility is built into the therapeutic relationship. Successful therapy is one that helps you build skills for coping, improve awareness and capacity to manage reactive distress, improve your capacity to organize complex thoughts and feelings, and use this balance to take action to move toward health and balance.
