Joan Brady, BCD

The relationship between psychotherapist and client is of utmost importance in my practice- feeling understood, accepted and not judged. With my extensive experience in the field both as a practitioner and a teacher, having a foundation of knowledge of human psychological development and unconscious processes is requisite to being able to listen to and understand what people are expressing, both within their awareness and what may not be accessible to them without professional help. I work with each person based on what their individual needs are.

Most people require some interaction from the therapist. I play an active role in eliciting people's experiences in order to fully understand what they are struggling with. However, there are some people who need to speak and not be responded to for some time. Being intuitive and knowing when and how to intervene is a critical part of my practice.

My psychodynamic training has enabled me to help people understand what may be underlying their difficulties in relationships: family, friends, and intimate ones. Also this training has provided me with more tools in couples' counseling; couples usually have difficulties when "emotional baggage" from early familial conflicts or deficits have not been clearly understood and resolved. Also I have done extensive work with people facing infertility. Adoption as a resolution to infertility has also been my expertise.

I see my role as a therapist to listen to and try to understand what each person is communicating both verbally and non-verbally; in addition people often have difficulty expressing feelings and thoughts that have not fully been articulated to themselves. This is a crucial part of the process since people cannot work on something they haven't fully expressed and therefore experienced. This process requires the therapist to be non-judgmental and patient, able to be flexible in approaching each person according to their individual needs. The "fit" between patient and therapist is crucial. It usually is very difficult for people to feel free to talk about their most difficult feelings and issues with a complete stranger at first. Sensitivity to this is crucial for the therapist to enable each person to feel free to begin this process.