What's My Approach to Therapy?
Are you ready to make changes in your internal world to help with changes in your life, and ready to have help doing it? We're meant to do life with others, and change can be scary and difficult, so why not have a professional partner with you in compassion, empathy, and directness to challenge the ways of thinking and avoidance of feelings that have gotten you stuck?
Some issues I work with frequently: anxiety, OCD, grief, trauma, substance use compulsions, codependence, enabling behaviours, boundaries, low self-esteem, relationship issues, depression, and more.
I am educated and experienced in several methods of therapy, so I can tailor treatment to your specific needs and style. I am licensed in Colorado, Arizona, and Virginia, offering online sessions in all three states and some in-person sessions in Aurora, CO. I am a summa cum laude graduate in both my bachelor's and master's programs, and am an EMDR Approved Consultant, offering consultation to therapists interested in becoming certified in EMDR.
In addition to working with adult individuals, I also help couples. All relationships experience disconnections and conflict. You can get back those good feelings that brought you together in the first place. Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) can help change negative patterns. Partnerships often start with an intense connection, but over time can fade. I offer a way for you to learn how to communicate in ways that bring you closer together by helping you understand negative patterns of communicating, allowing each of you to express thoughts and fears in safe, respectful ways to help you feel more bonded and close again.
Contact me for a free 15-minute phone consultation to see if I have current openings and to talk about what you are looking for help with.
My Practice & Services
I provide online therapy in Arizona, Colorado, and Virginia, and some in person therapy in Aurora, CO.
The following payment methods are accepted:
* private pay (including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, checks, and cash)
* Employee Assistance (EAP): ESI, Optum, Wellspring, AllOne, CuraLinc
* FSA and HSA cards
* Victim's Compensation in Colorado
How Psychotherapy Can Help
Many people don't see all of the strengths they already have but are not fully utilizing. I can help with pointing these out and building on them. With couples, it can help to have an objective third party treat the relationship without blame of either partner. By approaching issues from this perspective, both partners can have their needs and feelings understood.
What I Say to People Concerned about the Therapy Process
All of us grow up with "raw spots" from painful experiences - many that were unintended by people who participated in them. Left untreated, the raw spots lie in wait until they get touched on in our adult relationships - personal and sometimes professional ones. Part of being human often makes it harder to see our own raw spots than to see other's, which is why therapists go to their own therapy, too. You might be surprised how many of these early experiences send unintended messages that your feelings don't matter, and you'd better do something with them that doesn't include expressing them. The "what" you learned to do with them can take many forms - using anger to get needs met in the moment, abusing substances, focusing on everyone else's needs and never your own, terminal ambivalence, and on and on. If this applies, we work on identifying the ways you avoid your own emotions and inviting your feelings, a powerful part of the human psyche that, in essence, is our internal GPS.
Therapy can sometimes feel like the emotional gym and I am there to spot you. Your nervous system sets our pace, and we lift the emotional weight you can handle at any given session. Otherwise, therapy won't feel good overall and you'll likely start looking for excuses to quit. It's a self-loving thing to respect the pace you need, and this will be part of our conversations throughout the process.
