My Approach to Helping
Welcome to your opportunity to make real change in your life! I am here to help support and heal who you are now, while stimulating your growth toward who you are capable of being. Whether you know it or not, you arrive with all the resources you need to heal and thrive deep within you. It's my job to help you access those resources. While working through your challenges, we find and activate your strengths. We heal your hurt places, build your resilience, and expand your capacity. I honor your individuality, and tailor my approach to meet you where you are now, and help you get to where you need to go.
I work with people who are ready to go beyond willpower-based change; who are ready to do what it takes to genuinely heal and evolve. I am here to co-create a relationship with you that will activate your innate ability to transform and evolve. It is through this kind of deep, foundational work that we are able to help you heal and evolve, and ultimately... relax! Willpower-based change works only as long as you can hold it. When stressors arise in life, most of us fall back into our most familiar patterns in order to try to survive the storm. This is not failure, it is simple, human neurobiology. My supportive, relational approach activates your brain's continuing ability to change (neuroplasticity) so that you can finally relax, knowing that the change you have realized will hold, even when life "hits the fan."
While my education, training, and professional experiences are indispensable, what most qualifies me to guide from "the chair" has been forged from my experience healing on "the couch." I offer you the resources I have gained through my own extensive personal work. This means I will never presume to walk you through territory I have not traversed myself. I've developed a powerful compass, which has allowed me the honor of guiding many others though their processes of healing and evolution.
What sets me apart from other therapists?
First, I am very genuine, connective, active, and personable with my clients. I do not check my sense of humor at the door. I do not hide behind a pinstriped suit or a mouthful of jargon to project an air of professionalism. Being authentic helps my clients to relax and be more fully themselves, which allows our work to be powerful and effective.
Working with me leads to feeling solidly like you have someone who knows you, understands you, connects with you and is dedicated to helping you create the experience you want to have in life. I have extensive education, experience and training, as well as an unusually wide breadth of life experience, and am therefore able to have an in-depth understanding of many experiences you might think you could never share or relate with anyone about.
Most importantly, I remain actively engaged in my own personal work in order to bring a level of deep, ongoing personal experience you won't find with all therapists. I cannot emphasize enough how vital this is to the effectiveness of a psychotherapist... we learn the most and become better able to help others heal through our own work and healing. Thus the maxim, "healer, heal thyself."