My Approach to Helping
I am committed to helping you fully express yourself and to finding solutions to your problems that work for you.
I tend to be more interactive than many counselors and strive to be clear and direct, down-to-earth and practical.
I use a number of techniques, including Narrative Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Solution Focused and Client Centered Therapy, selecting from each as it seems appropriate.
However, I have found that techniques are not as important as the working alliance that the counselor and the client build together.
I strive to create a private, non-judgmental environment that feels like a natural, normal conversation, but turns out to be like no other conversation you've ever had.
I try to challenge you to think about your troubling issues in a different way.
I will invite you to give me feedback as we go along so that I can alter my approach to make our sessions more effective in achieving your goals.
By reading my website, you already know something about me. Please tell me something about you and what we could work on together.
More Info About My Practice
I am fully vaccinated and, if you are, too, I can meet with you in-person at my office at 18 Harvard St three days a week. I will still be counseling by telehealth five days a week.
Specific Issue(s) I'm Skilled at Helping With
I have a great deal of experience with helping people recover from substance abuse, trauma, depression, and anger and sexual issues, but I have always resisted specialization because I want to be ready for anything. One thing you will never hear me say is that I can't work with you on something. I may enlist specialists to help us with your care, but I will never just send you away. You may feel unprepared to face whatever it is that you are facing, but I will stand with you and learn as you are learning. After all, most of what I know I have learned from my clients and my experiences, not from books or school.
To give you an idea of why I can say this, let me tell you something about me:
At age 19 I moved to Western New York State. There, I built a house, farmed, and started a small lumber company.
When I got tired of making little pieces of wood out of big pieces of wood, I enrolled in Empire State College and got a degree in psychology.
I interned at a Veteran's Administration chemical dependency unit.
My first job was working with troubled adolescents in a group home.
I was an employment counselor for a while, took calls on a crisis line, and facilitated group therapy for male sex offenders. I was employed as a therapist at a program for people with severe mental illnesses.
I completed a master's degree in education with an emphasis on counseling from Alfred University.
For twenty years, I provided psychotherapy in a community mental health cente