Psychotherapy for Adults

My approach in providing individual therapy for adults is warm, relational, and engaged.  Within this context, the process of individual psychotherapy involves, at its most fundamental level, getting to know oneself.  Who you are, and how you relate to others, result from your experiences and your conscious and unconscious reactions to those experiences.  This personal and emotional narrative combines with your innate temperament, the contexts in which you have lived, genetics, and other influences, and leads to the develop of identity.

Together, in therapy, we will consider the complexity of who and how you are—your unique combination of these many factors.  In exploring formative experiences and present-day struggles and strengths, we will discover and address what is interfering with you having the life you desire.

Psychotherapy for Couples

My stance in providing couples therapy, just as in individual therapy, is warm, relational, and engaged. I emphasize insight into the subconscious factors that find their way into relationships and play out in sometimes invisible patterns that are no longer adaptive. My work with you and your partner will not only encourage experiential engagement with these shadows of the past as they show up in the present, but just as importantly, will foster emotional enlivenment and connection between you during our sessions. 

Communication is fundamental to healthy relationships, and obstacles to safe and open dialog often contribute to feelings of unhappiness, loss of intimacy, disconnection, and mistrust.  Developing more effective and loving ways of communicating will likely be part of our focus.  Additionally, we may integrate elements of Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and the Gottman Method into our therapeutic work, as needed. 

Psychotherapy for Young Children

I provide psychotherapy for children of all ages, with an emphasis in my practice on preschool and elementary school-aged children.  For these children, traditional “talk therapy” is less likely to be helpful.  Instead, young children typically respond best to play therapy, which permits the expression of their struggles and challenges through imaginative play rather than solely through language.  Play therapy may involve the use of games, puppets, balls, dolls and dollhouse, toy vehicles, figurines, art supplies, dress-up, and sand tray.  It relies on the child’s innate expressive capabilities and imagination to work through their emotional challenges while being gently prompted and guided by the therapist.

Sand tray is a specific play therapy modality in which the child engages both tactilely and imaginatively with a wide array of tiny, compelling objects, within a “landscape” of sand. The approach is designed to facilitate the child’s innate story-telling capacity, even when their narrative may be painful, angry, confusing, and otherwise difficult to express.  Healing takes place through our working within the metaphor of the child’s play, in which their personal narratives can be expressed, and engaged with, in a way that feels safe.

Bipolar Spectrum Disorders

Bipolar spectrum disorders include Bipolar I, Bipolar II, and Cyclothymic Disorders, depending on the severity and frequency of mood episodes.  They are among the most stigmatizing and potentially debilitating mental health diagnoses one can receive; however, a bipolar diagnosis need not represent a source of despair.  You can lead a healthy, productive life and avoid the most devastating consequences of the illness, provided you are treated appropriately and sensitively.

Whether you are coming into treatment with a new diagnosis, a suspected one, or an established one whose equilibrium you need support in maintaining, I can help you.  We will discuss the role of medication in treatment, and I will collaborate with your psychiatrist, as necessary, and perhaps others close to you who can help support your mental health (with your permission, of course). We will discuss tools to help you maintain life stability, and we may also consider auxiliary approaches—all in the service of helping you to feel like your best self.

If you are a creative artist with bipolar disorder, please see Creativity, below.

Creativity

As a former creative and performing artist myself, I bring a unique sensitivity to my work in addressing the psychological needs of artists of all persuasions.  For the artist, mental health must equate with creative health, and vice versa.  My work with artists may focus on creating conditions for creativity, exploring and resolving creative blocks and other obstacles to self-expression, and addressing identity and self-concept, self-esteem issues, injuries, and more.  If you are coming in for treatment of other conditions, your identity and practice as an artist nonetheless will always be respected and considered as an essential element of who you are and how we conceptualize treatment.

If you are an artist with a bipolar diagnosis, you are not alone.  Research shows that bipolar spectrum disorders can be associated with heightened creativity, and that a disproportionate number of artists have a bipolar diagnosis (compared with the general population).  Treatment of bipolar disorder among creative artists requires a clinician who will help you to balance your creative and mental health needs. My own research has found that treatment is almost always preferred by artists, provided that it takes into careful consideration the essential role that art plays in their identity and mental health.