Services for individuals:

The services that you receive relate directly to your needs, comfort level, and desired outcomes. We will start with an assessment to ascertain your goals and aspirations and find out how you have previously attempted to address the issues. Through deep listening and targeted questions, I will assist you in identifying what is most important and meaningful to you, how your goals line up with your core values and desires, and what aspects of you are keeping you stuck in unwanted patterns of thinking, feeling or behaving. We get stuck due to ambivalence or inner conflict about ourselves, others or both. We use the therapy space to flesh out the various parts of ourselves that may be holding on to trauma, beliefs and protective behaviors that we took on to cope with hard situations that may no longer serve us. Those parts might need some attention, nurturing, healing, updating and unburdening in a safe and understanding environment. My primary modality for this work is Internal Family Systems (IFS).

Other approaches may include EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), Sensori-motor psychotherapy, guided imagery, mindfulness, and body awareness exercises. These somatic methods are seamlessly incorporated into the cognitive aspects of therapy, as they help the body to accept, or “register” the cognitive changes within, which helps to solidify those desired changes and outcomes. Client feedback is a necessary component to a collaborative process.

For Couples:

We all have a deep desire to be known and accepted for who we are.
In committed partnerships and families, however, communication can become laden with  issues having to do with past relational wounds, breaches in trust or hurtful actions or words which bring up intense emotions and behaviors which harm the relationship. Difficult topics for couples often involve their sexual or intimate relationship(s), affairs or other types of betrayals, issues regarding parenting, blended families, addictions, cultural issues, or finances, to name just a few. Safety and trust must be established or repaired for the relationship to thrive and for further work to proceed. Identifying and speaking from one’s vulnerability which lies beneath the conflict or loneliness is necessary for the repair and to keep discussions about conflict calm, productive, and conducive to increasing empathy for each other and for moving past gridlock. My job is to hold that safe space where vulnerability can be seen, respected and honored by the partner.

Partners are also encouraged to think about the reasons they exist as a couple, their couple “mission statement,” and the ways that they adhere to their values and goals as a couple. Interventions are designed to foster respect, compassion, sensitivity and intimacy. Looking within at one’s unmet needs from the past and working to hold a healing space for oneself (a.k.a. a U-turn), is often a necessary part of the work. My primary tools for couples’ work come out of the PACT model (the Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy), in which I am level 2 trained, and Internal Family Systems From the Inside Out (IFIO). In our work together, I help couples build new pathways for safer, courageous, and more open-hearted connection.