I am a Psychologist licensed in California and have provided psychotherapy to individuals for over 30 years. I am also a lifelong artist and I am interested in how the creative process functions in our lives. I help people connect with their true potential that may have been ignored or forgotten in their search for meaning and purpose in their lives.
What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?
During the first session, we will get to know each other and talk about the issues and challenges that bring you to therapy, including your history with these problems, what you have done to address them, and how you will know you are better or even cured. I work to create a safe place for you to show yourself to me and to see yourself more clearly. I always welcome your feedback and please feel safe talking about the therapy itself and what works best for you.
Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.
My greatest strength as a psychotherapist is my ability to listen carefully to what the client is saying, noticing what their dominant modes of processing their life experiences are and using those observations to craft an approach to solving their challenges that has the greatest chance of helping them make lasting change.
Describe the client(s) you are best positioned to serve.
I like to work with people who are motivated to work on fixing the problems that make life difficult for them and who are open to learning how things can be so much better and how to get there. I help people increase their self-love and confidence to make important changes in their behaviors, patterns of thinking and emotions, and belief systems. Letting go of limiting, negative beliefs is key to having a strong and healthy life.
About Patricia Alsup
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VirtualMy treatment methods
Transpersonal
Issues appropriate to address in Transpersonal Therapy include spiritual concerns, experiences of the paranormal, experiences that require an examination of your basic beliefs about the nature of the universe and of life.
Culturally Sensitive Therapy
I have many years of experience providing psychotherapy to Native Americans. I am aware of the need for sensitivity to cultural differences. I strive to learn from my clients from cultures differing from my own by maintaining an open mind and willingness to learn, rather than imposing my value systems onto them.
Gender-affirming therapy
For several years I have treated a transman in psychotherapy. Early in our psychotherapeutic work together he identified as a woman but felt he was male. I helped him examine and work through many complex aspects of the gender-changing process, including his history of Gender Dysphoria and how it affected his childhood, his school experiences, and parental disapproval. We also spent many sessions on the issues surrounding breast removal surgery and the process of getting the follow-up medical treatment he would need. Issues of isolation, adjusting to life as a male, his thoughts and feelings about his newly acquired "white, male privilege", and strengthening the acceptance and celebration of his growing self-identity were addressed in therapy. Because of over forty years of living as a female and gaining intimate knowledge of the abuses that women often endure, he combines his vast love for and experiences with women with what he has learned through his life as a transman. This has given him a unique perspective that sometimes leads to sadness and loneliness and not being accepted by either gender. All of these issues provide ongoing material with which to examine his life, belief systems, prejudices, and ideals. His overarching goal is to be a "good man."
Humanistic
Humanistic Psychotherapy approaches the client in a positive light and from a person-centered approach. Rather than depending solely on diagnosis (which is a requirement of using one's insurance to pay for therapy) the Humanistic therapist is also interested in issues of the inherent potentials in one's life that may have been ignored or forgotten. I work to help the client "wipe the fog off the mirror of self-reflection" so they can begin the journey to psychological healing, self-acceptance, and beginning to use their unique gifts to become the best that they can be. Many mental illnesses, like depression and anxiety, can be caused by or exacerbated by not working to fulfill a person's potentials for excellence.
Jungian
I have worked for many years in psychotherapy using the concepts of personality put forth by Carl Jung, such as the archetypes, individuation, the role of the inferior function, and the personality types as discovered through taking the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator test (MBTI). Jungian concepts have helped me to approach the client from a depth psychology point of view, which offers abundant sources of self knowledge and creative ways to heal, such as dreamwork and sub-personality work.