John Wilkie
People seek therapy for many different reasons. Maybe it’s the result of a specific incident which impairs our ability to cope, heal and progress, or perhaps the culmination of longstanding habits, that render unfulfilling or even detrimental results. I make every effort to empower clients to evolve beyond their instincts if the results have prevented them from reaching their goals. I approach each client with curiosity in an attempt to shed light on their unique decision making process and to enhance their ability to make more healthful choices. While this process is often started through difficult and sometimes traumatic circumstances, the best results take place when the therapist you have chosen respects you enough to challenge you to step out of your comfort zone.
You can expect transparent communication designed to improve your ability to accept and manage the stressors of an unkind world.
Effective therapy is built on safety, partnership, trust, risk-taking and respect. When practiced consistently, the likelihood is increased that these very principles will be applied to your personal relationships in productive and positive ways. I look forward to our work together.
First session
Therapy, like all other aspects of healthcare, always starts with a detailed assessment. While this is really just a conversation, it will center around the specific topics that motivated you to schedule the appointment in the first place. While this conversation will sometimes move in unexpected places, it always includes a review of my role as a mandated reporter, as well as a discussion about safety and goals.
Strengths
Critical Thinking Risk Assessment Safety Planning Relationship Dynamics Internal and External Resource Identification Multi-dimensional Perspective identification: Lots of ways to look at something
Ideal clients
My clients are not expected to be experts in communication, or to be instinctively comfortable with personal disclosures, especially about sensitive topics that have often been hidden from the world for years. That said, my clients have begun to see the consequences of living with secrets and the damage that over-compartmentalization has caused, often accompanied by strong feelings of guilt, embarrassment, remorse and shame. Some of my clients are single and are starting to question whether their coping patterns are preventing them from establishing intimate relationships. Some of my clients are married and are beginning to see the fragility of their relationships. Some of my clients have begun to track the changes of their coping patterns and have begun to reflect on the way that these changes can lead to an elevated sense of fear about possible discovery. Many of my clients have been in therapy before, and many recognize that perhaps, for one reason or another, they weren’t ready to acknowledge a more honest or full recognition of their problems, often inclined to minimize the scale of the problem or by keeping the attention on another area of focus, which never allowed for a full assessment of the impact that a secret or habit is having on them.
Location
Virtual sessions