I embrace a client-centered, strengths-based, and integrative style of therapy. My goal is to provide an empathic space where clients can move towards psychological balance and wholeness.
WHAT TO EXPECT: THE COUNSELING PROCESS
The purpose of counseling serves to help you get a clearer understanding of any issues that may be troubling you and to help you resolve that discomfort in a manner of your choosing and with goals that we outline together in session. As a professional counselor associate, I will ask you questions to help me understand the details of your life and your issues and perspectives, and how you are feeling about them. By understanding your experience, I can then help to support you as we work together to develop a strategy to resolve what is troubling you.
BENEFITS AND RISKS OF COUNSELING
There are many potential benefits to the counseling experience, including an increased level of self-awareness and understanding, fresh perspectives on a variety of issues both internal and external to you, easing of fear and anxiety together with renewed confidence and trust in oneself, improved communication within relationships, and greater clarity and satisfaction with life. Counseling has helped many people, though it should not be regarded as a quick, magic remedy for all ills, and hard work is often involved.
SELF-AWARENESS IS KEY
For some, increased self-awareness comes with a few negative consequences, as well. Gaining clarity about one’s feelings or goals may put you in a position where you are motivated to make life changes, and change or transition can be uncomfortable. Your work in counseling may change your perspective on and participation in relationships, which can also be painful and challenging.
Old memories may come to light, and old patterns that were your means of survival may give way to new insight and new ways of coping with life’s stresses – all of which can feel overwhelming while undergoing the process. There are risks involved in self-study, but I believe that if we are careful and you know that I have your best interests in mind at all times, the rewards of counseling far outweigh the risks.
“People only seriously consider change when they feel accepted for exactly who they are.”
OTHER THOUGHTS ON WORKING TOGETHER
Counseling is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor. Instead, basic tenets inform my work, and every client receives personalized care
I tend toward an active approach, rooted in deep listening, and will guide you to make greater contact with things like themes, patterns, collections of energy, values, and more, that arises in our work
Journal writing, active involvement in your process between sessions, and creative interventions that support growing self-awareness are common
Somatic work, including voice, body movement, and physical expression are supported for clients who wish to move energy around beyond talk therapy
All photography provided by Full Send Media.