Specializations
Stress and Anxiety
Depression
Grief
Trauma
Insomnia
Relationships
Positive Psychology
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Please scroll down for details regarding each specialization.
Stress and Anxiety
Most people experience feelings of stress and anxiety regularly. Some stress is very healthy, even motivational. Uncontrollable worry, pain not related to a physical problem, or irritability interfering with your daily life may signal the need for help resolving issues that trigger your stress.
While it may seem counterintuitive, fully acknowledging the experience of anxiety, rather than avoiding it, helps to release identification with negative, fearful thoughts. The experience of anxiety and its effective treatment is as unique as each individual. The goal of treatment usually includes mastering a set of effective responses that allow you move freely from distress back to balance.
Depression
Depression is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and your behaviors. Depression causes feelings of sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities once previously enjoyed. It can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease a person’s ability to function at work and at home.
Fortunately, depression is treatable! Between 60 and 80 percent of people with depression eventually experience not only relief from their symptoms, but renewed enjoyment of life. I use a combination of approaches, customized for your needs and preferences. We may work on identifying and resolving issues that caused depression, or we can focus on the here-and-now to cultivate habits that support an improved mood.
Grief
Grief is part of life experience for everyone, and everyone deals with grief in her or his own way. Accessing support and guidance in therapy can offer an opportunity to fully explore feelings of grief and memories without judgment. Something I hear very often in working with grief is that family and friends, with the best of intentions, try to find ways to make you feel better, and that somehow invalidates your feelings. The reality is that feeling better or “getting over it” is not the goal of grieving. Successful grief is an ongoing process of honoring your relationship with your loved one, incorporating loving memories into life after loss, and compassionately appreciating your strength and resilience in surviving. You do not have to endure your grief alone – and no loss is too big or too small to warrant support.
Trauma
How one experiences and copes with threatening events is extremely personal and unique. Most trauma survivors benefit from working with a therapist who can provide unconditional respect and empathy, the benefit of several years of experience, commitment to the healing process, and an optimistic outlook.
When it suits the stage of healing, it can be fulfilling to observe a fairly common outcome of trauma – Posttraumatic Growth. It is true that survivors of trauma may experience transformation as they learn to deeply appreciate their strength of character and courage.
Insomnia
Insomnia is a common sleep disorder that can make it hard to fall asleep, hard to stay asleep, or cause one to wake up too early and not be able to get back to sleep. Struggling with insomnia can reduce the deep, restorative sleep phase, causing difficulties functioning during the day. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, sometimes called CBT-I, is an effective treatment for insomnia and is usually recommended as the first option of treatment.
CBT-I is a structured program that first screens for other sleep or breathing disorders, and other psychological or seizure conditions that require alternate or concurrent treatment. If appropriate, CBT-I helps you identify and resolve the underlying causes of your insomnia. These are usually reduced sleep drive, improper sleep scheduling and/or poor sleep habits.
Relationships
Being able to connect honestly and deeply with others is fundamental to true wellness. For this reason, relationships almost always become a focus in therapy. Any relationship has the potential to help us feel a sense of belonging, of fitting into the human race, or the potential to make us feel isolated or inadequate. A healthy connection with oneself, via self-awareness and self-compassion, is a wonderful foundation for building safe, satisfying connections with others.
Positive Psychology
Positive Psychology is the area of psychology that studies what is going right in your life. If you have no conditions that impact your functioning, or if you have a treated condition with symptoms in remission, you may enjoy working toward cultivating high-level well-being. Positive psychology is not the same as positive thinking. It is, partially, an exploration of your character strengths and values, identifying them and acting on them to improve your life satisfaction and your contribution to the world around you.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
ACT theorizes that much psychological suffering is caused by rigid thinking, which leads to a failure to take behavioral steps that match up with personal values. Clarifying values and taking committed action brings more vitality and meaning to life and increases psychological flexibility.
The word “acceptance” can be aggravating because in common usage it may mean consenting to or being satisfied with something we really do not want. In ACT, acceptance means being willing to make room for painful feelings and sensations, overriding the urge to avoid emotional discomfort.
Mindfulness is key to effectively developing psychological flexibility. ACT practices ways to stay present in the moment, open to what is observed, and unentangled with self-defeating thoughts.