Who I Treat

Types of Treament

My practice serves many types of people with many different needs. My services include (but are not limited to) the following:

Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy and Counseling

Parents are usually the first to recognize that their child or adolescent has a problem with emotions or behavior. In other cases, a teacher or family friend may raise concerns. It is often difficult for parents to know what types of behavior are considered “normal” in terms of the child’s age and developmental level as opposed to behaviors that may require intervention.

Mental health professionals often evaluate behaviors and emotional symptoms in terms of how often they occur, how intense they are, how long they last, how many different settings they occur in, and whether or not they are interfering with child or adolescent’s daily functioning.

Symptoms and Signs of Many Childhood Behavioral and Emotional Problems

Marked decline in school performance and/or poor grades in school despite trying very hard.
Excessive worry, fear, or anxiety that begins to interfere with their day-to-day functioning.
Depression shown by sustained, prolonged negative mood and attitude, irritability, or loss of interest or pleasure in previously enjoyed activities. These symptoms can be accompanied by change in appetite, difficulty sleeping, poor concentration, or thoughts of death.
Behavior problems: persistent disobedience, anger, or aggression; provocative opposition to authority figures; harming or threatening themselves, other people, or pets; damaging or destroying property; lying or stealing; threats to run away; frequent tantrums and arguments.
Hyperactivity; fidgeting; constant movement beyond regular playing. Difficulty focusing attention; impulsive, and/or easily distracted.
Experiencing grief for a long time after a loss or death.
Feelings of worthlessness or that no one likes or cares about them.
Inability to cope with problems and daily activities.
Sexual acting out.
Abuse of alcohol and/or drugs.
Intense fear of becoming obese with no relationship to actual body weight. Purging food or restricting eating. Excessive exercising.

To children and teens: I will help you to…

Discover how talented and powerful you really are
Develop the courage to walk away from dangerous situations
Become happier at home with your parents and siblings
Change negative thinking into confidence
Feel good about how you look and who you are
Learn to make new friends
Practice ways to cope better and feel less stressed

I am available to go into the child’s classroom to do a school observation or to meet with your child’s teacher.

I also provide:

Parenting guidance-Parenting can be a very hard job. I often do consultation with parents. I assist parents in developing nurturing environments as well as interpersonal skills that promote respect, compassion and dialogue with their children. Brief counseling can assist parents in dealing with normal developmental problems as well as helping with situations that are particularly challenging.
Assistance with Mental Health in the Child bearing years-I work with families dealing with fertility challenges, decision making on whether to have children, post-natal adjustments, including postpartum depression.

College Students

I enjoy working with college age students in helping them make the difficult transition from childhood to adulthood. I work with a variety of topics including: time management and homesickness, school-related anxiety, and full-blown depression. The college-aged student is learning to deal with adult issues in a pressured, often overwhelming environment. I work with international students, exchange students and older college students, as well.

Adult Psychotherapy and Counseling

You will find me to be warm, curious, non-judgmental, and focused on understanding you as an individual. And as we understand a bit more about your struggles, I will offer feedback and will sometimes challenge you in an understanding way to help you to reach your goals.

No one approach works for everyone or every issue. Some issues, such as career dissatisfaction or academic stress, may be addressed with a short-term, solution-focused approach. Others, such as difficult relationships or depression and anxiety, may more effectively be addressed using a combination of solution-focused, cognitive-behavioral, and psychodynamic approaches. In this way we still focus on developing solutions, but may need a longer period of time to acquire a deeper understanding of your past and patterns in order to do so.

I also do contemplative/ psychospiritual counseling, which is the blending of Western psychotherapy with Eastern awareness practices. From this perspective, our ability to be present with whatever arises in the moment is the foundation for meaningful psychotherapy. Our actual experience is the doorway to self-acceptance and authentic change.

We can work together to resolve conflicts, communicate more effectively, develop mindfulness strategies, take a deeper look at self-care needs, process stuck feelings and emotions and decrease anxiety and depression.

Personal Counseling Services Can Include But Are Not Limited To:

Anger and impulse management
Development of effective coping skills
Stress management, relaxation and mindfulness techniques
Deep evaluation of self care practices
Recovery and resilience: dealing with grief, loss, and life-limiting illness.
Assessing and treating anxiety and fears
Diagnosing and treating the various forms of depression
Reduction of obsessive and compulsive behavior

These services can help you:

Develop and sustain happier and more loving relationships
Transform low self-esteem and increase self-awareness and understanding
Approach life transitions and changes with increased awareness and confidence
Acknowledge and work with spiritual and religious issues that are relevant to your life
Recognize and control self-destructive behaviors
Accept and appreciate your body and its strengths
Overcome guilt and shame regarding sexuality
Cope with traumatic memories and fears

LGBQT Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgender, Queer/Questioning

I work with the LGBQT population. I help clients confront stressors such as homophobia, societal discrimination nd prejudice, coming out issues, negotiating family relationships and transition issues. I work with sexual orientation and gender identity issues. I am knowledgable about issues that LGBQT individuals face.

Couples Therapy

The following are symptoms of relationship problems:

Feeling Distant
Increase in Arguing or Negativity
Lack of Affection
Increase in Anger, Hostility and/or Sarcasm
Avoidance of Each Other

If you are having one or more of these symptoms, be sure to take some action to improve your situation. It may be the right time to get into therapy.

Because people change as they move through their lives, intimate relationships need to change and grow as well. When partners remain open and accepting, intimate relationships can be a source of great pleasure, comfort, and vitality.

But just as intimate relationships stir our greatest longings, they can also awaken our greatest fears and spark intense feelings of disappointment and hurt or resentment and betrayal. Sometimes avoidance, defensiveness, or even destructiveness take hold as each partner struggles to protect their vulnerabilities and maintain their balance. Couples therapy can help intimate relationships get back on track and transform the confusion and pain of relationship gridlock into opportunities for growth and intimate connectedness.

I continually strive to establish a climate of emotional safety in which openness to and curiosity in one’s own and one’s partner’s experience can flourish. I practice a relationship-based approach to couples therapy which is exploratory and insight-oriented. This approach is designed to:

Help each partner articulate their view and experience of the relationship
Help each partner understand, relate to, and more fully appreciate the other’s experience
Identify patterns of behavior, thinking, and feeling which contribute to difficulties
Enhance fun and friendship in your primary relationship
Improve sensual and sexual interaction
Improve listening and communication skills
dentify how specific patterns in the relationship create conflict, misunderstandings, and blocs to greater intimacy
Increase trust and lessen defensiveness
Increase the couple’s ability to resolve conflicts on their own through increased awareness of self and other

Don’t wait until it’s too late!

The main problem for most couples is a lack of skills, often in the areas of communication, anger management, commitment, conflict resolution and/or intimacy skills. You may not know how to successfully resolve ongoing iIssues. The good news? These skills can be taught to motivated couples.

Some tips for success:

Ask for, and do your homework. Bring a spiral notebook to sessions and jot down what feels important. If you make commitments during a session, eg., to do a weekly date night, then live up to those commitments.
Most change happens at home in the week between therapy sessions. While sessions may be powerful, it is the couple’s willingness to work, try new behaviors, and trust that determine how successful your therapy will be.
Come to therapy on good weeks and bad weeks. You can learn a ton from both. You will know when to quit.
Hang in there. You are worth it! And so is your relationship!!

I also specialize in interfaith connections and will explore similarities and differences in your cultural and religious backgrounds, with relationships with your families of origin, decisions about parenting your children, questions about how to celebrate holidays, and exploring spiritual concerns. We will work on how to talk about differences without escalating into arguments.

Co-Parent Psychotherapy and Counseling

I also find that parents who are separated or divorced, or who are in the process of splitting up, benefit from co-parent counseling. The goals of this work vary according to individual needs, but generally it will assist in establishing agreements regarding a schedule for when children are to be with each parent, areas for joint decision-making, means and frequency of communication between parents, and any other issues that require attention.

Co-parent counseling may help one or both parents resolve some of their anger or grief related to the ending of the relationship so that both can focus more fully on parenting issues without the intrusion of “unfinished business” from the past.

Co-parent counseling is not for every separated or divorced parent who cannot resolve issues with their child’s other parent. Individuals who cannot tolerate sitting together in a room or who cannot constructively contribute to a dialogue in which issues are identified and resolved may find co-parent counseling frustrating and ineffective.

Many people enter co-parent counseling reluctantly and skeptically, and a good number of these folks are surprised to find that they are able to resolve their troubling issues and work out parenting arrangements that support their children’s ability to flourish in the family after parental separation or divorce.

I work closely with the collaborative lawyers in town where the team approach allows people to resolve difficult issues in a safe environment and encourages the preservation of relationships and financial resources. We do our best to help you avoid having to go to court.

Other Services Include:

I provide clinical consultation and supervision to all mental health professionals. I provide guidance with any struggles with challenging cases. I focus on discussion of cases from an integrative relational perspective. This provides the opportunity for clinicians to grow professionally by being given time to discuss and question their work with clients.

Good supervision is a crucial part of establishing and maintaining high standards of clinical practice. It allows you to make sense of your work with clients and to stand back and reflect your work. We can also identify the need for additional areas of professional development and competence.

I am enthusiastic about helping therapists build successful private practices. You can learn the skills to have a rewarding and profitable practice. You can think like a business person in addition to being a skilled clinician. I can help the new therapist focus on what is needed in professional development and in marketing a new practice. I also can help the seasoned therapist look in new and fresh ways of how to upgrade your practice.

Clinical Consultation and Supervision-
Helping Therapists Develop Their Private Practice Business

“Human beings have an innate capacity to experience wholeness and well being, even in the face of stress, pain, and illness.”
~ Jon Kabat-Zinn