Psychologist
THERAPY
"Therapy offers a safe space to relinquish unproductive patterns, modify rigid expectations of others, and consider new, more balanced and flexible ways of relating."
HOW I WORK
MY APPROACH
My approach to psychotherapy is grounded in a philosophy that relationships are vital for survival and necessary for growth. Often, however, people experience disconnections from others. The resulting isolation can be a major source of suffering.
Although we deeply desire and need emotional connections, many are reasonably apprehensive about the risks involved in moving into vulnerable spaces, which is often necessary for intimacy. As a result, one may keep parts of themselves hidden or silenced. This serves an important protective function, which must be honored and understood with compassionate curiosity.
In response to past hurts, misunderstandings, invalidations, unresponsiveness, losses, and traumas, among other painful experiences, individuals resourcefully develop strategies to avoid further pain and disconnection. One might quiet a need, distance from others, or engage with life inauthentically. Paradoxically, though, these ways of existing contribute to separation, and a sense of being unseen and unrecognized. Sometimes, expectations of others anchor people in the past and limit possibilities for satisfying relationships in the present.
If this resonates with you, I invite you to reach out.
"Together, we can help make the unbearable bearable and the unspeakable speakable."
Diagnosis
My Philosophy
“Symptoms” are not simply outward expressions of inner illness or dysfunction, but powerful representations of a person’s courageous efforts to survive.
Symptoms as Survival
What the mental health profession refers to as “symptoms” is evidence of one’s creativity and resourcefulness to bear painful life circumstances when no other options are visible or accessible. Developing these survival strategies, though perhaps ineffective and a source of suffering, signals an already-present and active capacity in a struggling person to acquire alternative, more effective approaches to living.
Transforming these capacities into more adaptive skills to coping with life’s inevitable difficulties is core to the therapy process. Problems are not signs of pathology, but evidence that current survival strategies might have outlived their usefulness in your current life, or may need to be applied judiciously, rather than as the default option.
Beyond Labels
Holding in mind that language around "diagnosis" is used to validate experience, facilitate communication, and inform therapy processes is critical.
People are not defined by diagnoses. Rather, they are whole human beings who respond to pain with the human reserves available in that moment.
As we understand the complex experiences contributing to distress, change becomes possible.
Moving toward Change
I invite my clients to consider other means of surviving, and even thriving.
Therapy offers opportunities to uncover the stories that “symptoms” hold.