LMFT, 13 years of experience
I'm a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist practicing in California for 13 years. I think our earliest patterns of relating can be repeated until we become aware and utilize choice. It’s important to include the social setting in which we’re raised, including race, class, and social justice issues. It’s also important to learn how to help our nervous systems cope with stress in the present day. I love to work on dreams and other ways to access our internal landscape beyond intellect. I think building skills around Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Emotion Regulation and Interpersonal Effectiveness is so helpful in our anxiety-provoking times.
In our initial session, I provide a comprehensive introduction to our therapeutic process, establishing session logistics, and collaboratively identifying areas of focus such as mood, career, relationships, and related goals. We will also complete a history and assessment.
Half-jokingly, I refer to therapy as "applied litereature." I think deep, embodied understanding of ourselves and connection to others can lead us out of the mazes our minds can build. I see myself as being warm and approachable, creating a secure space for clients to deepen their self-understanding. My aim is for every client to leave a session feeling more equipped to tackle life's challenges than when they arrived. Open communication and ensuring my clients feel heard and understood are fundamental to my approach.
I love working with clients who are grappling with complex questions about relationships, personal identity, and life's purpose.
IFS makes space for dialogue between the "parts" we have inside. We can think of those "parts" as an internal family. Our core selves can find compassion and understanding for each of those parts (even the self-critical voice). I don't think that mental health is just about coping skills and better habits, more about loving the parts of ourselves that we formerly found unacceptable. I think this approach is helpful for people who have suffered emotional neglect in childhood.
DBT is helpful for those times when coping skills can help us navigate tumultuous emotional states and challenging relationships. We will work on mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation and interpersonal effectiveness.
I think our early relationships create a template for our current perception. If we examine our conditioning, we have greater choice over our actions.