People seek therapy for a wide variety of reasons, from coping with major life challenges or childhood trauma, to dealing with depression or anxiety, to simply desiring personal growth and greater self-knowledge. A client and therapist may work together for as few brief sessions or as long as several years, depending on the client’s unique needs and personal goals for therapy.
Therapy for individuals and families struggling with…
- Anxiety
- Adoption Issues
- Blended Family Issues
- Anger Management
- Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity
- Autism
- Career issues
- Child and Adolescent Issues
- Depression
- Eating Disorders
- Family and Relationship Challenges
- Financial Stresses
- Insomnia
- Parenting Support
- Sexual Orientation and Identity Issues
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorders(OCD)
- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Sexual Abuse
- Substance Abuse(second stage)
- Stress Management
- Grief and Loss
- Trauma
- Work and Career Issues
- Elder Care and caretaking issues
- Issues of aging
- Coping with illness
- Life transitions
- Family of origin
- Educational Consulting and school issues
- Spiritual crisis
Individual Therapy: (sometimes called “psychotherapy” or “counseling”) is a process through which clients work one-on-one with a trained therapist—in a safe, caring, and confidential environment—to explore their feelings, beliefs, or behaviors, work through challenging or influential memories, identify aspects of their lives that they would like to change, better understand themselves and others, set personal goals, and work toward desired change.
Couples Counseling: is a process through which a couple (who may be engaged, dating, married, partnered—or sometimes even parent and child or other pairings) works with a trained therapist to identify specific areas of conflict and/or aspects of their relationship they would like to change, and then develop a plan of action to improve each individual’s satisfaction and contentment.
Working with a therapist in a safe and confidential setting, couples are able to explore how their individual backgrounds, beliefs, thoughts, and behaviors may be impacting their relationship in both positive and negative ways. The therapist may assist the couple with addressing any immediate and pressing problems, as well as developing strategies for protecting and enhancing the long-term health and happiness of their relationship.
Family Therapy: works with families to nurture change and development. It tends to view change in terms of the systems of interaction between family members. It emphasizes family relationships as an important factor in psychological health.
Group Therapy is a process through which a small group of people (generally six to ten) meet face-to-face with a trained group therapist to talk about a particular issue with which all of them is struggling—such as grief/bereavement, anger management, eating disorders, living with chronic depression or anxiety, recovering from childhood sexual abuse, living with a handicapped person in your family, womens groups, mens group, divorce, caregiving, etc.
Under the direction of the group therapist, members share and explore their feelings and behaviors, hear different points of view and coping strategies, and receive encouragement from others facing similar issues. Group therapy provides participants a powerful opportunity to share and learn from others in a safe and supportive environment while working toward healing and change.
Educational Consulting: collaboration with clients and schools to resolve conflicts, identify needs, and provide mediation so that each child’s plan can be tailored to their individualism, culture and processes. The use of a hands on positive approach to ensure a child’s needs will be met. Years of experience in school setting practice will be capitalized on.
THERAPEUTIC APPROACHES
The use of a wide array of therapeutic techniques in practice. The approach that works best is dictated by the individual needs and goals of the client. Therapy is a collaborative process, and your input and suggestions are welcomed.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): is a problem-focused form of behavioral treatment that helps people see the relationship between beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and subsequent behavior patterns and actions. CBT is grounded in the belief that it is a person’s perception of events—rather than the events themselves—that determines how he or she will feel and act. Through CBT, people learn that their perceptions directly influence their responses to specific situations. In other words, the theory is based upon the belief that a person’s thought process informs his or her behaviors and actions. National certification in Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT).
Mindfulness Based Approaches: are designed to deliberately focus one’s attention on the present experience in a way that is non-judgmental. Mindfulness has its roots in Eastern techniques, in particular Buddhist meditation. The practice requires that one intentionally directs focus away from states of mind that would otherwise occupy them (such as frightening or worrisome thoughts)and instead observe and accept the present situation and all it has to offer, regardless of whether that is good or bad. Mindfulness approaches include mindfulness based cognitive therapy, (MBCT), mindfulness-based stress reductions (MBSR), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). Mindfulness based methods can relieve symptoms related to many psychological issues and can be applied across many different population segments. Mindfulness is practiced individually or in group settings.
Transpersonal Psychology: enhances the study of the mind-body relationship which includes: spirituality, consciousness, and human transformation. Transpersonal psychology uses positive influences (rather than the diseased human psyche and our defenses), as a model for the realization of human potential. The embodyment of the true nature of our human psyche is examined. This technique encourages a person to see their inner capabilities and view themselves as always in the process of reaching their desired goals
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): DBT is a comprehensive cognitive behavioral treatment that focuses on problem solving and acceptance-based strategies within a framework of dialectical methods. The term dialectical refers to processes that synthesize opposite concepts such as change and acceptance. DBT strives to simultaneously support people as they work to accept themselves while facilitating the development of techniques to help them achieve goals with the support of a mental health professional.
Anger Management: refers to the process by which a person learns how to identify stressors, take necessary steps to remain calm, and handle tense situations in a constructive, positive manner.
The purpose of anger management is to help a person decrease the heightened emotional and physiological arousal often associated with anger. It is generally impossible to avoid all the people, things, and settings that incite anger, but a person may learn how to control reactions and respond in a socially appropriate manner.
Art Therapy: utilizes a person’s creative faculties in the area of art to develop their physical and emotional health. Its roots are entrenched in the concept of relying on self-expression to awaken an individual’s own problem solving capacities. This form of therapy focuses on a person’s positive well-being and strives to increase their self-awareness, self-esteem, and productive behavior traits. Art therapy combines traditional techniques found in psychotherapy and counseling with the creative process required in manifesting visual art and human development
Cognitive Affective Training: Cognitive Affective Training is a technique used to improve the communication skills of people with Autism Spectrum Disorders. It teaches individuals to talk about their thoughts and emotions and to identify the connections between thoughts or feelings, and resulting physical/behavioral outcomes.
Parent-Child Interaction Therapy: is an empirically-supported treatment for children and adolescents that places emphasis on improving the quality of the parent-child relationship and changing parent-child interaction patterns.
Play Therapy: is a form of therapy primarily geared toward children. It recognizes that childen often do not have the verbal skills necessary to problem solve. In this form of therapy, a therapist encourages a child to explore life events that may have an effect on current circumstances, in a manner and pace of the child’s choosing, primarily through play but also through language. Play therapy, can help individuals communicate, explore repressed thoughts and emotions, address unresolved trauma, and experience personal growth and can be an important, effective, and developmentally appropriate mental health treatment. Play therapy focuses on helping children express their feelings and thoughts at their own developmental level and at their own pace. It can help children go through difficulties they are experiencing in their lives – loss and grief, trauma, abuse and neglect, etc. As play is the natural world for a child, it is essential for their social, emotional, cognitive, physical, creative and language development.
Sand Tray Therapy: is a form of expressive therapy that is sometimes referred to as sandplay. This type of therapy is often used with children, but can be applied to adults, teens, couples, families, and groups as well. Sand tray therapy allows a person to construct his or her own microcosm using miniature toys and colored sand. The scene created acts as a reflection of the person’s own life and allows him or her the opportunity to resolve conflicts, remove obstacles, and gain acceptance of self.
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT): is goal oriented, targeting the desired outcome of therapy as a solution rather than focusing on the symptoms or issues that brought someone to therapy. This technique emphasizes present and future circumstances and desires over past experiences. The therapist encourages the client to imagine the future that he or she wants and then the therapist and client collaborate on a series of steps to achieve that goal. This form of therapy involves developing a vision of one’s future, and then determining what skills, resources, and abilities a person already possesses that can be enhanced in order to attain the desired outcome.
Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM): is a type of crisis intervention designed to provide support for those who have experienced traumatic events.
Emotional Regulation Techniques: (Emotional Freedom Tapping):is a healing concept that is based upon practice in eastern medicine that has been in use for over 5,000 years. Tapping is a set of techniques which utilize the body’s energy meridian points(like acupuncture and acupressure). You can stimulate these meridian points by tapping on them with your fingertips – literally tapping into your body’s own energy and healing power. It is a very effective technique in helping oneself deal with anxiety, depression, and negative thinking patterns.
Traumatic Incident Reduction: TIR is a rapid method of effectively reducing traumatic stress from emotionally and/or physically painful events in the past(compared to traditional therapy). It involves re-experiencing past traumas in a completely safe environment, free of distractions, judgments, or interpretations to help you heal from them.
