Professional Perspective

We are on the journey to you 2.0! You are Player One in the video game of your life. And the therapist is simply a guide, confidant, and witness. You are capable of understanding the fuller picture of yourself. You have agency to choose or not choose. You will be using the tools in your toolkit to complete your life quests.

Sensations, environmental stimuli, and social interactions help us humans experience the world around us. Your mental health, emotional wellbeing, and motivations are affected directly by these relationships.

The longest relationship you’ll ever have is your relationship with yourself. Investing time to gain awareness on how you interact with other people, environments, possessions and substances, identity, sensations help you learn more about yourself, self-concept, and the qualities that make you, you.

Research has found that the single biggest determinant of effective therapy is the connection, the relationship, or the rapport that the patient has with the clinician. Your clinician AKA therapist is an important role to fill. Remember: you’re inviting this professional to join you on a deeply personal journey to your 2.0 that takes an investment of time, money, and emotions. Although it is natural that a relationship occurs over a series of sessions it is up to you to determine if you are feeling heard, seen, and helped.

The first step of therapy is to gain insight and awareness. Now you need to make behavioral changes to sustain progress and tolerate stressors. Together we find the organic mix that works for you and your brain. 

I include a mix of interpersonal, mind-body practices, and evidence-based approaches for implementing change. Each session will include agenda-setting (what are we working on?) and how-to change self to gain and sustain progress.

Approaches that are my go-to:

• Person-centered

• Strengths-based

• Existential

• Somatic Practices (trauma-informed) 

• Narrative; Self-esteem and confidence

• Acceptance and Commitment

• Emotion Focused

• Cognitive Behavioral

• Mind-body Holistic Practices (trauma-informed)

• Dialectical Behavioral 

The first step of therapy is to gain insight and awareness. As a human the way you respond to challenges (or a total existential crisis) may not always be productive. The coping habits – or survival responses – you’ve developed are valid, but might not be helpful for the momentum needed for change.

The second part of therapy is to do something with awareness. Afterall a bunch of awareness and implementing the awareness into your self-concept is one of the most challenging parts of the therapy process. And often when people drop out. Making behavioral changes is necessary to achieve progress, tolerate stressors, and sustain contentment. Together we find the organic mix that works for you and your brain.