Individual Therapy
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The areas that I help individuals with include:
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“It is never too late to be who you might have been” ~ George Eliot
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I have been practicing for over thirty years, and have integrated many ways of helping. Individual Therapy modalities include interpersonal, cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic, mindfulness, and skill-building approaches, short or longer term, depending on the unique needs of the individual. I also use my Imago, EFT, and PACT relationship skills with individuals. I provide neurocognitive psychotherapy for Adults with ADHD, and intensive psychotherapy for individuals with personality disorders, or chronic self-defeating patterns. Hypnotherapy is offered for selected problems.
Adult ADHD/ADD Neurocognitive Psychotherapy: The neurocognitive approach to ADHD/ADD helps clients to understand and accept their brain style. I strive to help them understand their strengths and weaknesses as they go through their daily lives, and focus on their strengths. We will work together to help you develop more "ADD-friendly" lives through learning compensatory strategies for the problem areas and overall management/organizational skills. And most importantly, I will help you celebrate your own unique ADD related “gifts”, and your unique essence.
Self Esteem and Self Compassion Issues: I truly believe that when one learns to deeply and completely love and accept oneself, everything in life gets better. Jack Kornfield said “compassion that does not include the self is incomplete.” In this area, I help my clients become aware of the voice(s) in their head, the conversation, and the sort of company they keep with themselves every day. These unkind, critical voices are most often the internalized voices of negative messages from the past. Through reading, journaling, and becoming more aware, my clients learn to develop a kinder supportive voice that helps them reach for new things and improve their feelings about themselves. They develop a strong sense of “being with “themselves. This is such an important focus for many people in individual work, and can transform a life. A positive, affirming voice that lives within affects for the better, one’s mood, sense of hope, aspirations, and beliefs about what can be accomplished. The sky is the limit.
Coping with Anxiety and Depression: With all the latest research on the brain and its effect on mood, we now know so much more than ever before how to help individuals struggling with low mood or anxiety. I help my clients with this issue through teaching mindfulness and meditation techniques, as well as EFT, Emotional Freedom Techniques commonly known as "Tapping", (See Nick Ortner's Book "The Tapping Solution".) Difficulties are also addressed through the cognitive behavioral technique of looking at the impact of one's thoughts on mood and helping clients shift their thoughts to more helpful ones. For anxiety we focus on multiple breathing techniques, and or neurofeedback/biofeedback practices such as Heart Math which affect the brain physiology directly. Exercise, reaching out for social support, medication if necessary, and developing self-compassion are all helpful additions in this area. Finally, learning with self- compassion to face one’s feelings, rather than resist them, creates a space for a transformative shift. It is a common maxim of therapy that “If you can feel it, you can heal it”.
For Singles: Individual Therapy focused on finding and sustaining love, dealing with commitment conflicts, or love addiction: I have a special interest is working with Individuals who have been unsuccessful in love, with multiple disappointments in this area in their lives. Therapy strives to help them understand their covert patterns and barriers to love, and how these disappointments repeat. For some, there is an unconscious deep fear of commitment, for others it is more conscious. By understanding and facing their fears, and how they “show up” in relationships, they are often able to shift these patterns, to find and sustain a rewarding Love Relationship. Using concepts from Object Relations Theory, Imago, EFT, and also Katherine Woodward Thomas's "Calling in the One" program, I assist clients in understanding and releasing their internal barriers to love. Work aims at helping them make cognitive and behavioral shifts to usher in a new and deeply satisfying love experience that can be nurtured and sustained. Along these lines, I am certified to offer an Imago Weekend Workshop for Individuals called "Keeping the Love You find". This Workshop is designed to help individuals understand their problematic patterns with romantic love and make shifts that will allow for a different outcome.
Adult ADHD/ADD Neurocognitive Psychotherapy: The neurocognitive approach to ADHD/ADD helps clients to understand and accept their brain style. I strive to help them understand their strengths and weaknesses as they go through their daily lives, and focus on their strengths. We will work together to help you develop more "ADD-friendly" lives through learning compensatory strategies for the problem areas and overall management/organizational skills. And most importantly, I will help you celebrate your own unique ADD related “gifts”, and your unique essence.
Self Esteem and Self Compassion Issues: I truly believe that when one learns to deeply and completely love and accept oneself, everything in life gets better. Jack Kornfield said “compassion that does not include the self is incomplete.” In this area, I help my clients become aware of the voice(s) in their head, the conversation, and the sort of company they keep with themselves every day. These unkind, critical voices are most often the internalized voices of negative messages from the past. Through reading, journaling, and becoming more aware, my clients learn to develop a kinder supportive voice that helps them reach for new things and improve their feelings about themselves. They develop a strong sense of “being with “themselves. This is such an important focus for many people in individual work, and can transform a life. A positive, affirming voice that lives within affects for the better, one’s mood, sense of hope, aspirations, and beliefs about what can be accomplished. The sky is the limit.
Coping with Anxiety and Depression: With all the latest research on the brain and its effect on mood, we now know so much more than ever before how to help individuals struggling with low mood or anxiety. I help my clients with this issue through teaching mindfulness and meditation techniques, as well as EFT, Emotional Freedom Techniques commonly known as "Tapping", (See Nick Ortner's Book "The Tapping Solution".) Difficulties are also addressed through the cognitive behavioral technique of looking at the impact of one's thoughts on mood and helping clients shift their thoughts to more helpful ones. For anxiety we focus on multiple breathing techniques, and or neurofeedback/biofeedback practices such as Heart Math which affect the brain physiology directly. Exercise, reaching out for social support, medication if necessary, and developing self-compassion are all helpful additions in this area. Finally, learning with self- compassion to face one’s feelings, rather than resist them, creates a space for a transformative shift. It is a common maxim of therapy that “If you can feel it, you can heal it”.
For Singles: Individual Therapy focused on finding and sustaining love, dealing with commitment conflicts, or love addiction: I have a special interest is working with Individuals who have been unsuccessful in love, with multiple disappointments in this area in their lives. Therapy strives to help them understand their covert patterns and barriers to love, and how these disappointments repeat. For some, there is an unconscious deep fear of commitment, for others it is more conscious. By understanding and facing their fears, and how they “show up” in relationships, they are often able to shift these patterns, to find and sustain a rewarding Love Relationship. Using concepts from Object Relations Theory, Imago, EFT, and also Katherine Woodward Thomas's "Calling in the One" program, I assist clients in understanding and releasing their internal barriers to love. Work aims at helping them make cognitive and behavioral shifts to usher in a new and deeply satisfying love experience that can be nurtured and sustained. Along these lines, I am certified to offer an Imago Weekend Workshop for Individuals called "Keeping the Love You find". This Workshop is designed to help individuals understand their problematic patterns with romantic love and make shifts that will allow for a different outcome.
