My Approach to Helping
What is Integral Recovery for Addictions?
As human beings, we are creatures of habit. This can be a good thing. Good habits provide stability, consistency, and the stamina to achieve certain goals.
But too often, habits become addictions. Our behaviors no longer serve us, and we get locked into a destructive pattern that harms ourselves and others. We are stuck, enslaved in chains of our own making, stifled from finding our true selves, from achieving our innate potentials, and manifesting our gifts to the world.
Integral Recovery is much more than just the abstinence or reduction of addictive behaviors. In Re-covery, we Un-cover and Dis-cover who we really are in all our dimensions, and when freed from the unhealthy habits, we start to grow again.
For almost 25 years, I have had success with people who have a variety of addictions, from the kinds that misuse chemicals from the outside (drugs and alcohol) to the ones that stem from the chemicals already inside the brain (sex and love addiction, abandonment patterns, sexual compulsions, gambling, internet, work, etc.). I have a passion for Recovery and love seeing the light in people's eyes brighten as they leave destructive patterns behind and embrace an enriching and fulfilling life that has always been theirs.
We may also traverse issues of anxiety, depression, and experiences of trauma as a natural part of healing from addiction. We unhook from parts of the past and addictive pain tapes that also prevent us from moving forward and being happy in our present and our future.
We can work from abstinence-based or harm reductionist strategies, depending upon your aim.
I am a South Bronx native who has collaborated with a diverse range of people without shame or judgement, from teens to elders, traditional to alternative sexualities, socio-economic levels "from jail to Yale," spiritualities, and many cultures and sub-cultures.
It would be an honor to connect with you and make your new life a reality.
More Info About My Practice
I am an LPCC who has an endorsement from the California Board of Behavioral Sciences to also do family and couples work. I was trained in Family work at Iona College and the Ackerman Institute.
I am also a Nationally Certified Tobacco Treatment Provider (NAADAC and ATTUD), a DOT Qualified Substance Abuse Professional (Q-SAP), and a CalGETS Gambling Treatment Provider.
My View on the Purpose of Psychotherapy
To Wake Up, Grow Up, Clean Up, and Show Up
To Wake Up... to the Reality that is much larger than your own ego bubble - "Don't believe everything you think."
To Grow Up... to greater emotional intelligence and capacity, beyond what our parents and society may have modeled for us, beyond our trauma defenses, to learn the power of vulnerability and authenticity.
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince
To Clean Up... and be accountable to your past behaviors on yourself and others without going into a toxic shame spiral, making amends when that is the best thing to do.
"Clear the junk to make room for your New Life"
To Show Up... Seize the Moment, be there for others, live in Integrity, and Dare Greatly
On the Fence About Going to Therapy?
People often believe the myth that psychotherapy is about sitting on a couch, telling someone all your problems, getting "analyzed" and "fixed". Maybe you?ve been in therapy before, and the counselor(s) didn't solve your problem.
The truth is, YOU are your own best doctor, your own best medicine. No one fixes you.
BUT, it is an inside job, with outside help.
You want that helper to have the skills of the doctor who knows how to operate, who knows how to stitch, and what medications to give you. But you do the work of healing. You rest, don?t abuse yourself, eat well, take the meds as prescribed. You are the main collaborator of your healing.
How badly to you want to alleviate your suffering? How willing are you to release your own destructive habits? How willing are you to do the work?
The hard stuff that you may face making changes is nothing compared to what you suffer through every day.
I welcome you to come in, and give yourself a break. Dream a little about a new you, who is living a new reality, free from your old habits, not "someday," but now.
You do not have to walk alone.