Helping People Find Therapists & Advocating for Ethical and Healthy Therapy & Marriage Counseling Practices

My Approach to Helping

WELCOME. I invite you to treat yourself to a free session where together we can explore your interests, questions and concerns in a real and comfortable way.

I love to help my clients uncover their unique gifts/strengths/talents, their dreams and their personal wisdom. As these surface, they can make true, grounded, and lasting changes in their lives--in relationships, meaningful work, creativity and more.

Therapy can be a marvelous process. It can allow you to magnify your own real strengths. It shows you the rich, enjoyable, healing potential you already have within your own mind.

Although you have a wealth of inner resources, these may be blocked now by sadness, relationship problems, shame, emotional pain or a lack of fulfillment in your life. Due to these deeper concerns, on the surface you may be more aware of feeling anxious, lost or having low self-esteem.

Even though therapy can be hard work, I have found it is a process that most of my clients enjoy. It can be a place where you laugh through the sorrows and meet past trauma from a close tie of support.

I use humor, spontaneity and a genuine curiosity about my clients to bring this about. My approach is positive, warm, and down to earth.

I love helping couples rediscover the positive qualities and fun that brought them together in the first place. You can learn how to be more effective in listening and talking so each of you feels heard and understood.

Perhaps you want to enrich your life through meditation/spiritual practice but don't know where to begin. I can help you get started by showing you how to meditate. This practice can add confidence, calm and enjoyment to all aspects of living--even the stressful ones. Many clients find it a blessing and a joy to add this to their therapy process. It can have benefits far beyond what you might imagine--not only for yourself, but those around you as well.

I often work with people who have been in therapy in the past and now want to take their healing to a new level.

You don't have to suffer endlessly. Therapy works, especially when there is a good fit between you and your therapist. This is why I offer a free thirty-minute consultation at my office or on the phone at 510-540-0813. You may also contact me via e-mail.

Some of the things that I help clients with include:

* Overcoming anxiety --feeling uneasy, nervous, fearful, or panicky and sometimes not even knowing why.

* Alleviating depression--feeling that you're stuck, that your life won't get better no matter what you do; having a long list of complaints about your life.

* Improving relationship problems--when it seems like you're doing all the work in the relationship, that the loving connection is weakening, or that you're in a downward spiral with each other.

* Reducing frequent or chronic stress--the experience that you can't get off the treadmill, can't slow down or relax, feeling that you can't find the "off" switch inside you.

* Increasing self esteem--the general sense that you're not good enough; you don't measure up to your own expectations, or to other people, that you're missing something that others have.

* Easing emotional pain from having difficult parents and overcoming the effects of childhood trauma--from abusive, neglectful, critical or overbearing parenting.

* Developing your own unique spiritual path--getting guidance from a long-time spiritual practitioner to bring deeper meaning, satisfaction, wisdom (and fun!) into your life.

* Life Transitions and Career issues--young adults, divorce, Empty Nest, menopause and grief)--facing the challenges and opportunities that come with adulthood, divorce, menopause, grief and financial changes and job or career issues.

* Gay/Lesbian issues--wanting a sympathetic ear for issues that arise around the opinions of others; wanting to create a stable relationship in the midst of forces that seem to work against that.

* Other issues--if you do not find your particular area of interest here, please do not hesitate to call. It is likely that I can be of help to you, or can refer you to someone else who works with your concerns.

 

More Info About My Practice

Many of us have beliefs about ourselves that we developed when we were so young that we were unable to judge accurately who we were, what was really going on around us, and what we were capable of. We also absorbed beliefs from our culture that may or may not have been accurate. As a result, people can pick up negative beliefs about themselves and their lives. If this happened to you, as it does to many of us, you may find that you secretly doubt your worth, or your ability to handle life with confidence and skill, or that your standards for yourself and possibly others are so high that you are constantly disappointed. You may believe that life is fundamentally dangerous, that you can never feel safe.

Together we can look at what your basic beliefs are, and how these shape your thoughts, feelings and actions in the present. We can explore how you came to develop these beliefs, how they play out in your life. Together we can re-assess how accurate they are for who you are now. With this comes a new, more accurate sense of self worth. You may be surprised to discover the strengths and good qualities that you are discovering inside yourself. The anxiety, shame, anger, depression or guilt that you have felt may begin to lose its hold over you. When this happens, relationship problems often start to become more workable. You may find that your own creative wisdom is beginning to open up, and that you yourself are becoming the best judge of what you need and how to make this happen. With this, you will find a firmer ground for deepening the meaning of your life, and if you like, for discovering your own unique spiritual path.

 

Importance of the Client-Therapist Alliance

My relationship with my clients is a foremost interest of mine. The bond of trust that I develop with my clients allows us to do deep, honest and transformative work that gives my clients the feeling that they are seen for who they really are, trusted, respected and enjoyed. From this accurate mirror that I offer my clients, they feel safe to reveal parts of themselves that they otherwise might not feel comfortable sharing--such as shame, low self-esteem, anger, fear-- parts that they might not even believe they possess--such as their own good qualities and abilities. Usually a person's wounds in life have resulted from their real needs and good qualities not being seen or valued. This is why my relationship with my clients can have such a transformative effect--they are finally been seen and valued for who they really are. When this happens, it is natural for people to want to open up, become more at ease in themselves and take positive risks in their lives--in work, relationships, creative avenues, and more. As this happens I am careful to support these desired changes with concrete guidance and encouragement.

Services I Provide

• Individual Therapy & Counseling
• Marriage, Couples, or Relationship Counseling
• Family Therapy
• Group Therapy
• Coaching
• Online Counseling / Phone Therapy
• Home-Based Therapy
• Other

Ages I Work With

• Children
• Teens
• Adults
• Elders

Languages I Speak

• English

Groups I Work With

Lesbian Gay Bi Trans Queer and Questioning,
Those interested in the spiritual or transpersonal side of life and therapy,
Those suffering from anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, or stress,
Teens,
Survivors of childhood trauma

Therapy Approaches I Use

• Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy
• Acceptance & Commitment Therapy
• Anger Management
• Art Therapy
• Body Psychotherapy
• Body-Mind Psychotherapy
• Client-Directed Outcome-Informed Therapy
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy /REBT
• Coherence Therapy / Depth-Oriented Brief Therapy
• Collaborative Therapy / Collaborative Language Systems
• Conflict Resolution Therapy
• Contemplative Psychotherapy
• Creative Art Therapy
• Depth Therapy
• Depth-Oriented Brief Therapy
• Developmental Needs Meeting Strategy
• Emotion Focused Couples Therapy
• Existential Psychotherapy
• Family Attachment Narrative Therapy
• Holistic Psychotherapy
• Humanistic Psychology
• Integration of different therapy models
• Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy
• Internal Family Systems
• Interpersonal Psychotherapy
• Journal Therapy
• Mindfulness Based Approaches
• Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy
• Narrative Therapy
• Non-Violent Communication
• Object Relations
• Person Centered / Rogerian
• Pragmatic / Experiential Therapy for Couples
• Process Oriented Psychology
• Relational Psychotherapy
• Relationship Enhancement Therapy
• Self Acceptance Training
• Self Psychology
• Self Relations
• Solution Focused Therapy
• Transpersonal Psychotherapy

Concerns & Issues I Help With

• Identity Issues
• Attachment
• Trauma
• Abuse: Emotional, Physical, or Sexual
• Occupational & Academic Issues
• Life Changes
• Health & Body
• Anxiety, Fear, & Stress
• Emotion Management
• Social Skills & Problems
• Family Problems
• Childhood & Adolescence
• Relationships & Marriage
• Depression & Mood
• Self-Esteem & Confidence
• Sexuality
• Reproduction
• Spirituality
• Self-Harm & Suicide