Therapy Areas of Focus

Listed below are a number of areas that I assist and help clients work through during sessions and therapy schedules.

Treatment of Depression

Depression can be so debilitating, and most studies show psychotherapy to be helpful, and in appropriate cases medication along with psychotherapy. You do not want medication to numb you to the work you need to do, on the other hand you need to have the energy that psychotherapy takes. The way you think about yourself becomes so laden with harshness that your thoughts must be explored to get traction in moving to feeling better.

Substance Abuse

How can you tell if you or a loved one has a problem? I can help you explore this and take helpful not harmful action.

Addiction

Alcoholism and other drug addictions are illnesses that are treatable. There is usually so much shame that just beginning the therapy process is a big step. I have through the years strived to be a friend of the 12 step community, and have worked with many persons that are a part of the program. There are other ways that the addictive process is lived out such as with the computer, spending, and sex. Anything that is good in life can also become an addiction where it does not add to life, but gets out of balance and detracts from life. I have also worked with recovering alcoholics and addicts who have other challenges they want to address.

Adult Children of Alcoholics/Addicts often carry an "ache that does not go away. Challenges often include:

• The inability to enjoy satisfying adult relationships
• Perfectionism
• Workaholism
• Sadness and Depression unattended that carries an emotional weight
• Parenting in terms of what is "normal"

Attention Deficit Disorder

This disorder affects children, adolescents, and adults. Impulsivity, organization, and judgment are affected. Depression can often accompany the struggles, or "failure to reach potential," that so often accompanies ADD. It can really test the patience of parents, and yet the child or adolescent living with ADD or ADHD does need specialized help to have the best chance for succeeding.

Relationship Struggles which often include:

• Couples and Addiction
• Busy Couples whose marital connection is not acceptable any longer
• Connecting from the heart as well as the head for both partners
• Affairs, emotional and sexual

Young adult challenges

It is a time in life that often includes search for direction, changing of the relationship with parents, the search for intimacy. I believe therapy can serve to offer the young adult a place to clarify direction, improve relations with parents during this leaving time, and learn from intimate relationships or their absence.

Grief and Loss

Grief and Loss can take an enormous toll on your life. It is like carrying internal wounds that have not healed. The old saying, "time heals all wounds," is not the case with grief and loss if it is avoided.

Spirituality

I do not have a religious agenda; my desire is to help you utilize your spiritual or religious path as a support in your work as an individual or couple. I do want you to know that it is indeed okay and helpful for you to talk about your spiritual/religious life in therapy if you choose, because it is a part of your life.

Family work

There are times when the entire family can benefit from therapy. Whoever is willing to come in, that is where we start. Identifying patterns and implementing changes to habitual ways of relating can be difficult but pay big dividends.

Stressful life situations

At times a significant event, or a combination of events call forth the need to find better ways to deal with stress, both internal and external stress that sap life. Burnout can reflect the need to find new ways to work.

Parenting and Step-parenting

Parenting is just plain difficult, and yet can be so rewarding. There is not much in life that offers such highs and lows. The challenge inherent in this is often enough to seek consultation. There is an inevitable awkwardness that accompanies blended families. The tension for children, adolescents, and adults can be destructive. It can seem to a child to draw close to a step parent can feel like betrayal of a biological parent. Individual, Couple, or Family therapy can serve as a place to work towards less tension, and more closeness.

Clinical Supervision

Contact me and we can explore what you are looking for in supervision and if what I have to offer would work well toward your goals for supervision.