My Approach to Helping

We've been hearing for years from clients about how their previous therapist was a good listener, but they didn't feel like they made much progress. While active listening is an important skill for a therapist, listening can only go so far. We believe what sets us apart from many other therapists is the fact we actually help you help yourself make the necessary changes in your life by giving you techniques, tools, skills, and guidance to achieve your goals. You'll almost always walk out of a session with a new technique or two that you can go home and start using immediately. While any given technique doesn't work for everyone and most people need a plethora of techniques, We'll be sure to give you the techniques and tools that we think are most appropriate for you and specially modified for your given circumstance. We also believe that therapy doesn't have to be boring, hard, or last years. We've heard from most of our clients that they actually enjoy coming to therapy because its not like they thought it would be. It's OK to laugh, talk, and generally have a good time in our sessions while working on very difficult and complex situations and issues.

More Info About My Practice

Services
We have 3 therapists in our practice with expertise in the areas of anxiety disorders, parenting, children/adolescents, couples counseling (both pre-marital and marital, heterosexual and homosexual), family counseling, relationship counseling (any type of relationship), divorce counseling, life coaching and general life issues, sport psychology, Borderline Personality Disorder, and psychological testing (personality, ADHD, and LD primarily). Specifically, we are well versed and considered experts in the Atlanta metro area for the following disorders and issues:

Psychiatric/medication management
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Anxiety NOS (Not otherwise specified)
Panic Disorder (Panic and anxiety attacks)
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Marriage, family, and pre-marital counseling
Alcohol and Substance Abuse
Sexual Trauma
Borderline Personality Disorder
Bipolar Disorder
Eating Disorders
Specific phobias** (flying, driving, insects, closed spaces, etc)
Social phobia
Sexual issues
Sport Psychology

**Note that we do frequently go out into the community to drive with clients who have driving phobias, elevators/heights/enclosed spaces, and fear of flying. However, any time beyond the normal 45-50 minute session will be charged a fee per hour that will not be covered by insurance. These extended sessions are almost always extremely beneficial and very necessary for treatment. If, for example, we need to take a short flight together we will discuss and agree on a reduced rate fee.

We have many years of successful experience working with these issues and thoroughly enjoy these areas specifically although we do see the full range of therapeutic issues. Contact us to find out if your issues match our expertise.

Additionally, we do run a variety of groups including divorce groups, general processing groups, relationship groups, and any other highly requested groups.

Skype
We do offer sessions via skype for those clients who cannot make it in to the office due to timing issues. We also offer this service to individuals who travel for business and who are not in town during the week. The fee for these sessions is the same for in-office sessions.

Fees
We are currently taking several insurances. You may call or email to verify benefits. However, most of our clients pay out of pocket. We will provide you with any and all information to file for any out of network claims.

Specific Issue(s) I'm Skilled at Helping With

Because we have 3 different therapists here, we have someone that has significant experience in almost every area of of focus. We have a tremendous amount of experience working with issues and disorders stated above and have developed a wide variety of techniques, models, and philosophies to help our clients that suffer with these disorder not only manage and minimize them, but thrive. We do not use cookie cutter techniques and we take our clients' issues very seriously and independently (although positivity and humor and used frequently). We adapt many of the methods we use to each individual so that it has the maximum impact.

What I Love about Being a Psychotherapist

We can honestly say that we love coming to work every day. Not many people can say that and you'll notice it each and every time you're in our office. As much as we dislike seeing people in crisis and pain the first time they walk in our office, we love seeing the progress and ultimate success that the vast majority of our clients have. Most of our clients leave happy that they underwent this process with our and feel like it was time and energy well spent. We don't have the mindset of making therapy as hard and dramatic as possible. Rather, we take a positive, fun (usually), goal oriented approach where clients can see and enjoy their success along the way.

Importance of the Client-Therapist Alliance

The client-therapist relationship is THE most important aspect of therapy. Once a good, trusting relationship has been established, almost anything is possible. We feel like that is one of our best attributes as therapists. To be able to develop that relationship with each and every client is at the top of our list initially. We're non-judgmental no matter what the issue and feel like if you are trusting us with your inner most secrets and issues, then we owe it to you to not judge you and help you overcome whatever you are dealing with.