LMFT, 21 years of experience
Hello! I'm Amber, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. I have been in the field of psychotherapy for 20 years and have the honor of working with many indivudals experiencing many different situations. My theories of choice are Psychodynamic and CBT, however, I use a whatever-it-takes approach with clients to help them think, feel and do their best. Depression, anxiety and substance abuse/misuse are the areas I have concentrated on for the past 10 years. My skills include empathy, compassion and I also find, a good dose of humor goes a long way toward healing. Together we will find a way to help that will work best for you.
Your first session would be us getting to know one another and exploring what brought you to seek out therapy. Exploratory questions are asked to help gain a picture of what is currently going on with your thoughts and moods. We would discuss goals that you would like to address to help you learn to live a healthier and happier life as our sessions progress.
I believe that I am compassionate and empathetic. I have experience in working with many indivudals that are experiencing life difficulties, bumps in the roads, etc. We address these at your pace and I meet you where you are at; it is not my agenda that propels treatment, it is yours. I also find that a little bit of humor goes a long way to help people feel more comfortable in session and see that there is a lighter side to their life and what is contributing to depression, anxiety, grief/loss, trauma and the like.
I work with adults experiencing difficulties in their lives with interpersonal relationships and intrapersonal relationships. I have the capacity to understand what drives certain behaviors, thoughts and feelings within people and how to change what does not work for them into something they can manage in a better and healthier way.
My treatment approach is to usually look at how our past, generally childhood, impacts our present life experiences, thoughts and moods
CBT works in conjunction with psychodynamic to help change the thoughts about our past, present and future.