My Approach to Helping
Therapy can be a powerful vehicle that helps us attend to the practice of living an authentic, joyful, dynamic and engaged life. To me, each therapy session is a creative and dynamic process through which my client and I work collaboratively to engender healing and growth. I base my therapeutic work on several optimistic and humanistic assumptions. First, we all have the innate capacity to experience unconditional happiness, compassion, and wisdom. Second, no matter how destructive and negative our behaviors may be, we are all doing the best we can at the present moment, and these behaviors arise from our attempts to cope with distress. As we build and apply more adaptive coping skills, our negative coping behaviors subside. Third, we all have the need to feel love, acceptance, validation, and a sense of belonging. Finally, in most cases I have encountered, suffering originate from internalized self rejection, alienation, and judgment. Therefore, the cultivation of kindness, acceptance, compassion, and love toward oneself is the path to positive transformation.