My Approach to Helping
I am a Licensed Professional Counselor who has been providing therapy to children, adolescents, adults, the elderly, and couples for 20-plus years. I have worked with people from all walks of life. I call myself the Blue-Collar-Therapist, because it is my belief, all people, regardless of their station in life, are worthy of unconditional positive regard and assistance with life's difficulties. I have years of experience providing therapy for individuals across the life-span (children through the elderly), and helped these individuals with their depression, anxiety, ADHD, behavioral and aggression problems, substance abuse problems and relapse prevention
I have an eclectic approach to therapy, though the most common approaches I use are Behavioral, Cognitive Behavioral, Supportive, Psychoeducational, Solution-Focused, Reality Therapy, and Interpersonal Therapy.
I Have 10 years experience working with the elderly, and 10+ years experience working with individuals (children, adolescents, adults) and couples experiencing depression, anxiety, problems with aggression, substance abuse, and relapse prevention, as well as, relationship and parenting difficulties.
I attempt to create a safe environment for clients to share any difficulty they may be experiencing in life. Clients who work with me, above all else, feel listened to.
From a very young age, people have been drawn to me as a person who listens and is willing to help others when they are down, or experiencing difficulties. My initial goal as a Ph.D. candidate was to be a professor, but learned in my internship what made me happy, and wanting to return to work each day, was helping people in therapy.
My goal setting in therapy is 2-fold. Goals are both short-term goals (from the end of one session to the beginning of the next - often called homework), and long-term goals, or treatment goals, which are mutually agreed upon to guide and measure the progress of therapy, as well as giving my client and I a goal to reach relative to an end-point in therapy.
My first session is largely focused on rapport-building and obtaining a description and history of their problems, or the reason they came to therapy. Rapport-building is important given a strong therapeutic relationship between the client and the therapist is essential for positive progress in therapy.