Olushola A. Lawal

Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)

CBT is a behavioral therapy approach that facilitates behavioral change by helping clients identify and modify dysfunctional thought patterns. By understanding the connection between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, clients can learn to reframe their thinking to cope with stressors more effectively. This shift in thinking positively impacts emotions, which in turn leads to changes in problematic behaviors.

Psychodynamic

Change occurs through insight and understanding of early, unresolved issues. My approach emphasizes the belief that psychopathology often develops from early childhood experiences and focuses on understanding how the past influences current behavior. I explore client transference within sessions and identify defense mechanisms. Sessions are generally non-directive and open-ended, often utilizing free association. This method is well-suited for high-functioning individuals capable of insight, and it can be effective for addressing relationship problems in high-functioning, introspective individuals.

Solution Focused Brief Treatment

Brief, goal-directed therapy that focuses on a client’s strengths and resources. It emphasizes what the client wants to achieve rather than focusing on problems. We focus on a client’s strengths and resources to create a more effective future. Beginning: We join with the client, envision their preferred future, begin to identify their strengths, use solution-oriented language, and come up with achievable goals. Middle: We continue to identify strengths, resources, and traits the client has already used to deal with problems in the past. We utilize solution-talk, identify exceptions to problems, use scaling questions to reflect on the nature of change the client has experienced, provide feedback that includes highlighting small changes, and assign tasks. We also provide encouragement and celebrate change along the way. End: We assist the client in identifying actions they can take to continue their progress and identify potential hurdles or barriers that could hinder maintaining their changes.

Structural Family Therapy

Change occurs through remodeling the family’s organization (structure). Joining is the first task of a structural family therapist, involving blending in with the family and adapting to their affect, style, and language. Many family problems arise from maladaptive boundaries and subsystems. The therapist helps the family understand how the family structure (relationships, alliances, and hierarchies) can be changed, the impact of rituals and rules, and how to integrate new interaction patterns. Enmeshed boundaries involve family members who are overly dependent and closely involved, which can lead to higher incidences of incest. Disengaged boundaries involve disconnected and isolated family members, which can lead to a greater prevalence of substance abuse. Structural Family Therapy can be beneficial for families experiencing conflict between in-laws, parents, spouses, and/or siblings. The Family Map is a tool used by the therapist to depict relationship dynamics, including subsystems, alliances, coalitions, and boundaries, to conceptualize the case outside of therapy sessions; it is not shared with the family.