Individual Adult Therapy

Seeking counseling services can be a daunting experience; therefore, my therapy sessions are designed to create a context in which people feel safe, accepted, honored and comfortable. Sessions will be tailored to fit your specific needs, whether they are short term (specific stressors) or whether you need longer term healing. The goals of individual therapy are to:

• recognize negative thought and behavioral processes
• gain insight about your personality and development
• learn tools for self-care and relationship enhancement
• reach your goals

Together, we will work on a plan that suits your immediate and/or overall needs.

Couples Therapy

Trying to balance independence and dependence in relationships can be frustrating, confusing and lonely. Healthy relationships require hard work, effort, good communication, sacrifice, prioritizing and empathy. I have been trained in a variety of couples counseling modalities that will allow me to help you build a healthy partnership in your relationship. I often utilize Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) techniques, as empirical research data has proven that EFT is a superior counseling technique with regard to:

• alleviating depression 
• improving intimacy and trust 
• augmenting couples forgiveness 
• increasing problem-solving techniques

My goal is to make couples sessions as participatory and educational as possible to ensure that you are getting the most that you can out of our counseling sessions.

For New Parents

Whether you are adopting or conceiving a child, your transition into parenthood may be exciting, rewarding, scary and stressful. Having children impacts many aspects of women's and families' lives, such as: hormonal balances, sleep, relaxation, spontaneity, personal sense of control, intimacy (emotional, physical and sexual), communication, jealousy and self-esteem (to name a few). If you are experiencing stress, sadness, anxiety, loss, anger and/or confusion related to your transition into parenting, I will help you in the following areas (depending on your preference):

• Self Care Plans 
• Empowerment
• Postpartum Depression Assessment
• Reducing Isolation 
• Reducing Perfectionist Thoughts about Parenting
• Reducing Anxiety and Depression
• Improving Self-Esteem
• Parenting Tips and Child Development Information
• Couples therapy that focuses on transition, communication and empathy for you and your partner
• Family therapy with your parents and/or other children

Family Therapy

Let's face it, being part of a family can be completely rewarding, yet complicated and difficult. All families experience transitions differently and respond to familial stressors diversely. Therefore, it is important to work on improving communication and relationships as an integral part of family therapy. I have been trained in Attachment-Based Family Therapy (ABFT) for depressed, anxious and suicidal adolescents. ABFT encourages healthy teen/parent attachments in efforts to reduce family conflicts and increase family cohesion. ABFT has been shown to reduce depression, hopelessness, anxiety, family conflict and suicidal ideation. I have also been trained in Structural Family Therapy (SFT). SFT examines the structure, boundaries and subsystems of families and how each one of these constructs impact family functioning. SFT also highlights the importance of balancing familial stability w/ realistic change.

Family therapy sessions will be designed for your family’s specific needs and will focus on improving your family’srelationships while building skills in the following areas:

• Empathy
• Effective Listening 
• Conflict Resolution 
• Problem Solving
• Tolerance and Respect
• Boundary Making
• Understanding Developmental Stages

Teen Therapy

Navigating through the teenage years can be overwhelming, especially for parents! Depression, anxiety, anger and obstinacy can be common during the developmental stages of adolescence. I particularly enjoy working with teens as they go through the difficult and confusing transition of progressing from childhood toward adolescence.  Although I value family therapy treatment sessions, I will balance the needs of the adolescent's autonomy with the needs of the family cohesion by using both individual and family counseling sessions.

Child Therapy

Children go through life challenges just as adults suffer from difficult transitions. If your child is experiencing anxiety, sadness, self-esteem issues, turmoil over loss or transitions and difficulties with divorce and chronic illness, I will work with you on a plan that will help your child get through this challenging time.  Before working with your child, I typically request to meet the child’s caregivers to better understand your child’sdevelopment. Although I will periodically work with your child on an individual basis, parents are encouraged and expected to take part in therapy sessions to maximize the benefits of counseling and to utilize skills learned in therapy at home.

Emotionally Focused Therapy, EFT

EFT helps people understand their core emotional needs in relationships and then incorporates those needs while changing relational styles and patterns in order to enhance connection. Are you feeling alone in your relationship? Or constantly on-edge, wondering what you could be doing or where you could go? Perhaps it is time to disconnect in order to connect. Pause, be in the moment, there is plenty right in front of you. Your relationships will be more meaningful, deliberate and rewarding. 

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Supervision

After we develop a contract that will guide our work together, I will help you to formulate your clinical social work professional identity as well as to develop and enhance your skills to practice more insightfully and effectively. Over the course of our work, I aim to educate you in assessment, treatment/ interventions, evaluation of those interventions, ethics and clinical issues such as cultural competence and transference/counter transference. Through our work, you will be better prepared to adapt your interventions due to clinical barriers and you will learn new implementation skills for various populations. You will accomplish this by: reviewing theory and researched interventions, case presentations, role play and showing tapes/actual sessions of your interventions (this is a recommendation, but not a requirement).