(she/her)
When you decide to work with me, my commitment is to bring the skills and passion for your journey of healing, and over 20+ years experience to help you reach your goals. If you are looking for an experienced therapist who is going to treat you with compassion, warmth and non-judgement... then we will be a great fit. Working with me, you can expect an approach that is individualized to you. You can expect to begin to feel relief from suffering and symptoms quickly as we focus on solutions and strategies for your personal growth. You can expect to be an active participant and have a say in your treatment goals. You can expect to learn new coping skills to manage your symptoms of anxiety, stress, depression, loss or trauma. And most of all you can begin to experience more hope to achieve what you want to achieve in your life.
In our first session, we will explore what your goals are for therapy and what you most want to see for yourself when therapy is successful. We will go over some of your history and background that you feel is important to share. We will collaborate on a plan for our work together. We can create a plan for you to utilize at home to cope with specific symptoms that might be bothering you. That way you will know what you can do between sessions. We can go over crisis resources and a crisis plan to use if needed. You will have space to ask questions and to clarify any of your specific needs.
"In therapy we change not into something else, but into more truly ourselves" - Eugene Gendlin. In a world that can be very disconnected, I think that there is value in human connection, responding with empathy, and being present for someone else. People need to feel heard and supported. So what stands out about me - being attentive, empathic, experienced, sometimes bringing in some humor :), being flexible and creative in my style. My clients tell me that I am good at what I do and help them learn new skills, feel validated, and gain insight into how to reach their goals. I'm looking forward to meeting you!
Anywhere you are starting from is okay, but the things I think are most helpful to successful therapy are: you have insight into your problems, you are open, you want to get feedback, you want to learn new things... that's a great place to start. I think the best success comes from being willing to share about your hopes, and what you most want and need in your therapy. If you are curious about different approaches to therapy, we can incorporate experiential practices like mindfulness, hypnotherapy, guided imagery, somatic work, or art. These varied approaches can help people make breakthroughs and feel more empowered quickly. Or you may need a supportive style, need validation, and want to have an open space to process life stressors and explore positive coping strategies, that is also valid and helpful. Imagine all the possibilities.. that's what I love about therapy.
With hypnotherapy and a mind-body approach to therapy, you can suddenly start to make progress in areas where you have previously felt stuck. You may want to make changes in your habits in order to live a healthier lifestyle, manage pain, or manage your inner critic. With experiential practices like guided imagery we can help strengthen your ability to experience more emotions like contentment, peacefulness, and feeling nurtured/protected. Maybe you can imagine the strength of being able to better regulate your nervous system, increase resilience to stress, and reduce distress as it arises - these are all things that can be helped with hypnotherapy, guided imagery or mindulness based strategies. By engaging in these methods, you can feel more empowered to go after your dreams and goals in life.
Maybe you are having challenges related to coping with past traumatic experiences. Whether you have had one singular traumatic experience or multiple, many people find EMDR can help them make sudden breakthroughs that years of talk therapy have not helped with. Imagine if instead of being triggered by reminders of your past, you can now start to find new more helpful responses. To prepare for EMDR, we would start by helping you learn new ways to increase your sense of safety and groundedness. With EMDR, the things that may make you feel anxious or distressed now, can start to feel more neutral. So if you can imagine how the story of your life would read, if instead of reacting or thinking badly about yourself, you could have more positive thoughts about yourself such as "I got through this" or "I am strong and resilient". That's how EMDR can help you start to feel better.
There is no secret to healing from grief except to go through it. And to know that grief is something we all go through it at some point in our lives. Suppressing the emotions of grief, is like building pressure in a pressure cooker. After we lose someone important, we may need extra support that family and friends can't provide. So in providing grief therapy, my aim is to help you have an outlet to release and express emotions, and share your experience of grief. Moving towards acceptance of a loss may be one goal, but to get there, I provide a space for you to share your memories of your loved one, explore your varied emotions, and share concerns you may have about your future. Part of my journey in learning about grief if from working as a hospice social worker. I also work with grief that can come from having changes in your life - like empty nesting, job loss, divorce, and others.
With over 25 years experience in the field of social work and psychotherapy, I utilize an "ecclectic" approach that integrates multiple treatment modalities to meet the needs of individual clients. I believe that it helps to be flexible in my appreach. So, if we think you can benefit from it, I may introduce you to concepts from: CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), ACT (acceptance and commitment therapy), DBT (dialectical behavioral therapy), trauma informed treatment approaches, experiential therapies (art, writing, imagery), mindfulness based approaches, and even hypnotherapy.