New to Grow
As an individual, I consider myself to be analytical, intellectual, insightful, creative, and passionate. What drove me to become a psychotherapist was the idea of implementing philosophical concepts and the creative process to help people cope with suffering, which I believe is an unavoidable part of the human condition. I have clinical experience providing services to individuals and families from a diverse population. I am enthusiastic about putting my skills to service and assisting my clients in the process of healing and growth.
In our first session together, here's what you can expect
I will listen to your current struggles and start building a strong alliance working towards your betterment. I want to make sure I understand your current situation, so we can come up with a plan tailored to your current needs and help you meet your therapeutic goals. I wish to instill a sense of hope that will allow us to continue working together in our therapeutic journey.
The biggest strengths that I bring into our sessions
I like to use and teach how to implement creative problem-solving and to enhance cognitive flexibility to improve lives. I use an integrative approach, starting with client-centered therapy to set treatment goals. From there, we apply somatic approaches, behavioral interventions, cognitive strategies, relaxation skills, and mindfulness exercises; all according to your needs. When my clients feel ready to end treatment, generally they report feeling able to handle stress and difficult situations, having processed their difficult emotions, and with better agility to handle new challenges in life.
The clients I'm best positioned to serve
Generally, clients seek out my help because they want to learn how to deal with everyday challenges, anxiety, depression, and traumatic experiences. My clientele usually wants to learn how to handle stress, how to relax, and how to break from their spiraling cycles of anxiety-inducing and self-deprecating thoughts. At times, my clients have very difficult life experiences and moving on represents an enormous challenge to them.
Acceptance and commitment (ACT)
I use Acceptance and commitment (ACT) often, as is an integrative approach that combines many useful techniques and tools, including ways to handle unhelpful thoughts, mindfulness, defining values, and establishing committed actions.
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
I find that CBT is a great approach when people are struggling with patterns of unhelpful thoughts that they struggle with. I use CBT to provide a framework to help people understand the impact of maladaptive thoughts and to facilitate the change. With CBT, I provide people with tools to tackle unhelpful thoughts, to increase awareness of their emotions, and to identify behavioral modification strategies to improve their mood.
Motivational Interviewing
Sometimes, we hesitate to take the next step that we need to meet our personal goals. Even when we know we should change a behavior our, we just struggle taking the steps needed or simply being consistent. Motivational Interviewing (MI) provides strategies that help people resolve ambivalence; therefore, facilitating defining goals, planning for the steps needed to get where my clients want to be, and identifying ways to maintain their improvement.
Somatic
I like to incorporate Somatic interventions to help people find ways to increase their emotional awareness and learn how to handle strong feelings, such as anxiety and anger. I particularly find that somatic interventions are very helpful when dealing with stress and anxiety, and recovering from traumatic experiences. By using breathwork, vagal stimulation, and body movement, I assist my clients how to make sense out of their emotional experiences and how to recalibrate and promote emotional regulation.