Work Practice and Philosophy 

 

While my education and ongoing professional training shape my practice as a psychotherapist, I am also greatly appreciative for all that I’ve learned from working with my clients over the past 30 plus years.  My personal and professional philosophies certainly influence my view of life, of human beings and their experiences, and of my work.  I truly believe that a quality therapeutic relationship and experience can be a very important vehicle for change.  It is ultimately a relationship to which no other can compare, if effectively developed and maintained by therapist and client.   As a therapist, I facilitate; I don’t advise. Also, I don’t work harder than the client, as that would not be productive for the client.  And, my work is always influenced by the following beliefs I hold:  

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• The formation of a trusting therapeutic alliance is essential to an effective experience and potential change

• The client is ultimately the expert on his or her life;

• The client is to be fully participative in the therapeutic process, with choices and decisions being ultimately his or hers to make;

• The client is to be engaged around his or her agenda; not mine.

• Therapy is NEVER about “parent/caretaker bashing” but can be about meaning making, acceptance, and growth

 

Theoretical Orientations informing my work include: 

• Cognitive Behavioral Theory (How does my thinking and attitude impact on my experience?)

• Psychodynamic Theory (What experiences from my past might be emotionally and psychologically unresolved and continuing to impact on my experience?) 

• Reality Oriented Theory (What is my personal responsibility for my experience and how can I most effectively exercise that?). 

 

Other areas of interest and study include:  
Marsha Linehan’s Dialectical Behavior Therapy

John Gottman's Methodologies for Couples
Harville Hendricks’s Imago Relationship Theory, and most recently and significantly Mindfulness practice and its relevance to the experience of psychotherapy

 

Areas of experience:
Anxiety and Depression
Bipolar Disorder
Stress Management
Anger Management
Trauma
Sexual Abuse and Compulsion/Addiction
Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual issues
Relationship issues 
Marital issues
Personal growth needs and wants

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