Virginia Youngren

It's hard to generalize about effective psychotherapy because "the devil is in the details," by which I mean that the more specific, personal and tailored to the individual the therapy is, the more likely that it will help. Many patients are rightly skeptical about "quick-fix," "one-size-fits-all" treatments, but it is also problematic to be so skeptical that we believe that nothing works. In my 20+ years of experience, I have seen people make changes that reward them over time, and I believe in those changes.

Problems can be approached at different points in the sequence of feeling/thought/behavior and at different chronological levels from present to childhood history. The choice of approach is a matter of individual preference--there is no one and only way for all people.

I wish I could have known at the beginning of my practice years ago what I have since learned from patients with whom I have had the privilege to work.