View of the redwood-covered ridge, from the office.
In my private practice in Mill Valley, California, I interactively and collaboratively help you with your individual needs and goals. This may involve individual therapy, participation in one of the groups I facilitate, or a combination of the two. You may also choose to consult with me regarding an area in which I specialize. For our work together to be successful, I maintain a respectful, safe, therapeutic environment, maintaining ethical and legal professional standards.
As my approach to therapy is non-authoritarian and client-led, you take the lead on what you want to work on, at your own pace. In both my private and agency experience, I've received positive feedback from clients who seek help with various difficulties and challenges in living. Typically, they report that they feel respected, safe, heard, and understood; that the work we do together has led to successful outcomes. However, therapy is a process which requires work and honesty on your part (as well as mine) and painful feelings can at times emerge. In my opinion, the psychotherapeutic relationship should consist of an equal power dynamic, and it must be compatible to each client so that effective work takes place. You are the final authority on your life choices and goals, not the therapist or anyone else.
I believe that recovery and change are complex, individual processes that involves many aspects including gaining insight, interpersonal learning, and having "corrective emotional experiences" or a different, healthier outcome from what one experienced in the past. This can occur within a trusted psychotherapeutic relationship and in other life experiences. Recovery is also a process of integrating the past with one's current life and disconfirming inaccurate, self-limiting beliefs that are deeply-held, and experienced on both cognitive and emotional levels. Recovery involves identifying and changing patterns of behavior that may have worked in the past, but are no longer effective. Recovery is also understood as a process of integrating traumatic experience and loss into a coherent narrative.
People seek out professional help for many reasons, including recovering from trauma and loss; gaining relief from painful feelings; strengthening a relationship; mastering psychological conflict; understanding family of origin influences; learning psychosocial skills; attaining individual goals; managing stressors, gaining trust in self, changing self-sabotaging patterns; deepening understanding of self and others.
You may want professional support for specific situations, such as leaving an abusive relationship or group, negotiating through a crisis (the economic crisis, a relationship, or illness, for example) or recovering from a loved one's death, recent or long ago.
In couple counseling, you and your partner can better understand how each other's past experience affects your relationship; find ways you can effectively communicate your needs and concerns so the other truly "hears"; and discover how you can co-create a more satisfying life together.
You may seek a psychotherapy support group so you can gain support with others who understand, genuinely express yourself, receive acknowledgement and validation, increase your insight and try out new ways of relating.
Successful outcomes can relate to gaining more self-confidence and comfort within oneself, achieving personal goals, and engaging in a more fulfilling life. Recovery can also be measured in terms of increased toleration of painful feelings and less frequency and intensity of painful symptoms.
I appreciate the wise words of Harry Stack Sullivan, M.D.: "We are all more simply human than otherwise" and relate this perspective to understanding that we are not alone in our experience, and that our beliefs, feelings, and behavior makes sense.
Clinical studies developed over the past 40+ years by the San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group (formerly known as the Mt. Zion Research Group) indicate that 1)people have been observed to exhibit considerable control over their conscious and unconscious mental life (thoughts, feelings, defenses, wishes) and their control is regulated by unconscious and conscious appraisals of safety and danger; and 2) people are highly motivated to master psychological conflicts and psychic trauma.
I've observed how people find creative and unique opportunities and solutions for healing, change, and attaining goals. I'm deeply grateful for the opportunity to help in any way I can.
View of the redwood-covered ridge, from the office.