I have significant experience working with youth (6+) through adults, in multiple forms of therapy, whether it be individual, couples, group, and/or family therapy sessions. Through my career, I have worked at several long-term addiction treatment facilities, multiple schools (K-12), group homes, as well as in private practice. I have experience using a variety of treatment modalities, including art therapy, play therapy (children), mindfulness/meditation, and cognitive behavioral therapy (especially Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy).
A first session typically will involve getting to know one another and gathering necessary information to ensure the ability to create an individualized treatment plan (so as not to miss any significant contributing factors to symptoms and intake goals). For clients experiencing distressing symptoms, I always teach a few coping and/or self-soothing techniques during the first session, as well as try to balance my intake goals with any of my client's goals for a first session.
I have been told my greatest strengths include being an excellent listener with a great memory, as well as being good at intuiting problems and putting words to complex and challenging internal experience. I am wildly non-judgemental and often connect with clients through a combination of empathy, compassion, and understanding. I deeply respect different cultures, values, and worldviews and always work to honor these with each person I seek to help.
For mood disorders, REBT is among the most researched and empirically validated forms of psychotherapy. The founder, Albert Ellis, honed the process over decades in response to research about its effectiveness, changing it from RET to REBT. It focuses on learning a brief process to help gain awareness and insight, as well as identify and replacing any self-defeating beliefs and behaviors with more adaptive and constructive ones.
I have a Masters degree in Counseling Psychology with a concentration in Marriage and Family Therapy. I am familiar with several approaches to couples therapy, (including systems theory, Gottman method, and others), which I blend and tailor to each couples' unique goals.
I have found that, for many clients, providing education about human biology (brain anatomy, nervous system response), as well as sharing relevant, peer-reviewed research, often helps to increase awareness, self-compassion, and finding healthier perspectives to understand why certain symptoms continue to occur, as well as how to work with one's body rather than against it.