Services
Individual Psychotherapy
Trauma can push people into defenses that give them a false and fragile sense of self. I enjoy working with people who want to do the brave work of getting to know themselves and other people better.
While the work of therapy can at times be painful, because it means getting in touch with feelings such as grief, anger, and shame, the enjoyable side of therapy is just as important. The relief and joy of healing make the hard work sustainable. Health is a fluid state of oscillating between emotions without losing oneself or becoming dysregulated. There are no negative emotions; all feelings have a role in being a whole, vital person.
Relationship Therapy
Relationships are such powerful influences in our lives. When a couple or other committed family group chooses to engage in therapy to improve their relationship with each other, the results can be so deeply helpful to both partners for the long term. I love helping couples develop a solid foundation to grow on.
In my work I try to help each partner gain insight and compassion into the old hurts each partner brings to the relationship, and the ways in which their understandable defenses clash and reinforce each other’s fears. To build a more solid foundation of secure, trusting commitment takes a lot of work, but the results can be deeply rewarding.
Coaching and Teaching
Sometimes people want help to maintain what they’ve learned in previous therapy. While psychotherapy is no longer medically necessary for them (or, if it is, they are being treated by another professional), they still find it helpful to get extra support for their ongoing efforts to maintain healthy relationship patterns and self-care habits. I offer this kind of coaching on a limited basis.
I also enjoy offering classes for psychotherapists and others in related professions on topics including rupture and repair in psychoanalytically informed therapy.
Supervision and Clinical Consultation
In my own training I have benefited from many teachers, mentors and clinical consultants who have been my ongoing teachers. Psychotherapy is a profession in which the learning never ends. Professional support at every phase in a therapist’s career helps us offer effective and ethical care.
As a supervisor and clinical consultant, I enjoy supporting therapists in developing their own sense of their clinical values and ways of working. Psychotherapy is in many ways an art of translating your training into a style and idiom that suit you and allow you to connect most effectively.
