Services
Individual and Couples Therapy
Through therapy you can learn to recognize patterns that are healthy and those that are not successful in helping you achieve what you want for your life. By constructing new paths and avoiding obstacles, you can live a happier and healthier life.
I offer compassionate psychological care designed to help clients navigate difficult life transitions. My professional practice focuses on providing evidence-based individual therapy and effective couples therapy.
Beginning therapy is a step toward healing and growth. You can learn to identify healthy behavioral patterns while letting go of those that hold you back. Constructing new pathways allows you to live a genuinely happier and healthier life.
Individual Therapy
Building a Foundation for Wellness
As a licensed psychologist, my fundamental goal for working together is helping clients heal, enhance wellness and build skills for coping with life’s challenges. Therapy can help you identify and overcome obstacles to reaching your goals.
Individual counseling provides a safe place to understand, heal and make changes to become healthier and more satisfied in your life. My approach in working with clients is personalized, using tools such as cognitive behavior therapy techniques, emotion-focused therapy and others that are the best match for each client’s individual goals. Through expert care and effective techniques, I can help you get the most out of counseling.
Establishing Your Counseling Goals
There are several factors to consider in the decision to get professional help. One is setting realistic and achievable counseling goals. Financial resources are certainly another one of those factors. An important factor that people may neglect to consider is the consequence of not seeking the right kind of help. Ignoring mental health needs often results in significant medical, financial, and relational distress. Together we set realistic and achievable wellness goals, collaborate on how “much” therapy fits your needs and how to get the most out of the counseling process, which can also include resources available outside of therapy.
If you are considering counseling, I encourage you to call and speak with me directly. Through a short call, we can determine if working together is a good fit.
Learn more about what to expect from psychotherapy.
Couples Therapy
Specialized Approaches for Strengthening Relationships
In addition to working with individuals, I specialize in couples therapy. I am trained in using a variety of effective approaches when working with partners. These specialized methods include Gottman Method Couples Therapy, Imago Therapy, and other interpersonal approaches.
Navigating Relationship Crises and Betrayal
Many of the couples I work with begin therapy because their relationship is at a crisis point. A breach of trust, intense feelings of hurt, anger, confusion and fear characterize many couples in crisis. For some there have been a breach of trust within the relationship–like an affair–and now they are overwhelmed by intense feelings of hurt, anger, confusion and fear. Withdrawal of affection, secrecy and suspicion of cheating can be difficult for a couple to talk through with each other. Perhaps one or both partners recognize they are locked in the same pattern, arguing over the same issues without being able to move forward. Counseling can help stabilize your relationship and begin the process of healing and change.
Reconnecting after Drifting Apart
Other couples recognize they have drifted apart and now feel like strangers to each other. Their commitment to each other feels vulnerable to conflict, stress, or even another person. Most of these couples tell me they knew for a long time there was something missing—the closeness of the past, feeling respected or important—and they felt disillusioned about their partner meeting their needs, or the relationship attaining the level of intimacy they longed for. Counseling can help your relationship grow to its true potential.
“I find myself saying the same thing over and over, while my partner keeps doing the same insensitive things.”
Building on Inherent Relationship Strengths
Every relationship has strengths to build on in therapy. These strengths and the support and guidance that I provide as a couples counselor create an effective environment for positive change and rebuilding. In therapy, couples work on learning to problem-solve as a team, rather than approaching issues as adversaries. Therapy can address unmet needs couples experience within their relationship and establish the intimacy they long for.
FAQ: Counseling for Couples
We’ve tried counseling before, and it didn’t work.
Some couples I see have been in some form of counseling before without experiencing a benefit. They often feel deeply frustrated by their previous investment of time, effort, and financial resources.
There can be many reasons for this: not all counselors are trained in techniques that work with couples, or have a warm, direct style that is effective. Additionally, sometimes one or both partners weren’t able to make the necessary commitment to the process.
Do we ever meet individually with the therapist?
Sometimes it is helpful to have an individual session with each partner to complete the assessment, however the focus of work is with the couple together.
What will our first visit be like?
Ideally, both partners will attend the initial session to establish a collaborative starting point. Each person will have the opportunity to share their view of the problems and their goals. Couples may also receive a practical homework exercise to complete after their first session together.
In subsequent therapy sessions, we will explore the history of the relationship. Simultaneously, we will focus on emotional healing, strengthening your connection, and changing behaviors.
My partner won’t agree to couples counseling?
While the most effective way to make changes in a relationship is with both partners working together, I work with many clients in individual counseling who see their relationships becoming healthier as they address their own issues, grow more successful in dealing with others and make healthier choices in their lives.