Individual Therapy for Children and Adults

Trauma - Whether from a specific incident or the cumulative effect of many experiences, all of us carry some trauma wounds. The wounds may have happened recently, or may be the result of not getting our needs met as children: Even loving parents sometimes can't meet their children's needs due to the personal challenges they face. Sometimes the bad habits we've developed to cope with our trauma wounds work pretty well for us; Often however, our coping mechanisms either don't work well, or begin to cause more problems than they solve. When this happens we develop more of the following symptoms:

•  Anxiety.
•  Depression.
•  Sleep Problems (too much, too little, night terrors, etc.)
•  Emotional Dysregulation (emotional responses out of proportion to the circumstances.)
•  Panic Attacks.
•  Flashbacks.
•  Phobias (eg. fear of dentists or tight spaces, etc.)
•  Difficulty focusing attention.
•  A sense of being overwhelmed by life; unable to make decisions or move forward.
•  A sense that what is going on around us isn't real, or is very distant.
•  Difficulty forming or maintaining healthy and satisfying relationships.

Lifespan Integration is a gentle and very effective approach to healing trauma wounds and is one of the approaches we can use to relieve these debilitating symptoms.

READ MORE  about trauma, and about Lifespan Integration.

Grief and Loss - If you are facing the loss of a loved one, or a life-threatining diagnosis (either your own or that of a loved one) and would like professional support, READ MORE.

Addiction Recovery Support - If you are in recovery for an addiction, and want supplemental support in healing the underlying wounds that you were attempting to sooth with your addictive behavior, READ MORE.

Couples PACT Therapy  (Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy)

I am honored to work with couples in various stages of their relationships using a PACT approach.

•  Some couples decide early in their relationships to get support in creating a relationship that is a safe haven    where they can each learn and heal, and where they can grow in intimacy together (eg. premarital    counseling).
•  Some seek help when their relationship has been shaken by trauma or betrayal.
•  Others have found that they didn't manage to stay bonded over time and through the transitions of life. They    feel distant and don't seem to be able to reach each other across the growing emotional gap that separates    them.
•  And some pairs, while no longer "a couple", seek co-parenting counseling to form a strong, responsible, and    respectful alliance as a loving investment in their children's wellbeing.

READ MORE  about my approach to pact counseling.
READ MORE  about my philosophy of why it's helpful to work as a couple rather than separately.

Family Counseling

Both my training and approach are based in recognizing the importance of Family Systems. This means acknowledging that the family unit and all family members have impact on, and are impacted by each other. For this reason it is challenging for individual members of a family to grow and change behaviors without addressing the functioning of the whole family system. Family counseling can provide a safe haven to begin creating a more open and honest dialogue between family members and a more cohesive family unit, and can assist individual members in making changes they need to make in their own lives and behavior. This process is useful anytime, but often families come in for support when one or more major life transitions has left them unable to create or maintain the support they all need, or to deal healthfully with the resulting emotional wounds.

Examples of these transitions include:

•  A family member begins an addiction recovery process.
•  The serious illness or death of a family member.
•  Divorce or separation.
•  Gender identity questions.
•  Adoption.
•  Forming a blended family.

READ MORE  about my philosophy of counseling families.