How I Can Help
I use a variety of therapeutic approaches. With individual clients, the approaches that I find most helpful come from humanistic psychology, expressive therapies, guided imagery and EMDR. Humanistic psychology focuses on the uniqueness and inherent strengths of every person. Healing is accomplished by empowering clients through the client-therapist relationship. Expressive therapies and guided imagery help clients use their own creative processes to envision solutions to their problems.
EMDR is a therapeutic approach that often produces remarkable results in a short time. EMDR is based on the idea of healing through adaptive information processing. Painful experiences are thought to be stored in the brain differently than normal experience. Using EMDR, painful experiences are processed so they no longer are associated with negative thoughts, feelings and sensations, i.e. the painful experience is no longer painful…and often transforms into a positive memory. EMDR was originally developed to treat trauma (PTSD) but is now used to treat many types of psychological problems.
When working with children, I use play therapy because young children cannot verbalize their concerns but will demonstrate them through their play. I also teach parents how to improve their relationship with their child. It is much easier to deal with behavioral problems if there is a positive parent-child relationship.
When working with couples and families, I draw upon family systems and family-of-origin approaches to understand and treat troubling couple and family dynamics in order to foster better relationships.