Clinicians who offer sliding scale payment structures may offer lower or reduced fees based on an individual's ability to pay. Please contact this clinician for more details regarding their fees or sliding scale policy.My Approach to Helping
Thank you for taking the time to read my profile! My name is Dwight. I'm a licensed clinical social worker and have been working in the field for over 30 years. I specialize in relationship counseling for couples and individuals. I'm an advanced Certified Imago Relationship Therapist and workshop presenter of Harville Hendrix's "Getting the Love You Want" weekend workshops.
A lot of people ask me what does a "relationship counselor" do and how do you work with clients. Couples work is about restoring the connection that is lost in conflict. When using Imago therapy, the couple is the client. Maintaining neutrality is important to provide safety for the couple by holding the space in a way that both individuals feel heard and understood. My goal is to help couples improve their communication through better self understanding of why each individual feels the way they do or react the way they do. When communicating your pain to your partner, without blame, a remarkable transformation can occur which can help the healing process by fostering curiosity. Learning new skills to communicate your pain is important. Along with learning how to communicate, its equally important to learn how to listen with curiosity in a validating and empathetic way. Structured and guided communication helps to improve the ability to see each other through a new lens of compassion and empathy so that the rupture in connection can begin to heal.. This process also helps the individuals in the couple heal their wounds in the presence of their partner.
When I work with individuals, the concept of relationship and how they impact our daily mood, and sometimes behaviors, are important to understand. We are in relationship on a daily basis. Our most intimate relationships tend to activate deeper emotions. Frustration and anger not only impact these interactions but also activate deeper feelings of our own inadequacies. We tend to blame others for how we feel, when in actuality, others can activate deeper feelings within that have a deeper meaning only to you. Understanding this pain and being able to bring it to the surface can help us to be more conscious of its impact and we can look at reframing it to a more adaptive response.
Struggling in our daily relationships can activate feelings of depression, anxiety, stress and coping difficulties. Utilizing an eclectic approach of CBT, IRT, and supportive counseling and helping you explore thoughts and feelings can be challenging yet insightful and create better self awareness and understanding that can bring motivation for the change you desire.
Therapy is a process of understanding who we are as individuals, why we think, feel and react the way we do. Understanding the depth of our processing is important so that we can rewrite how we see ourselves, understand where our feelings come from, change maladaptive reactions and more importantly how we relate to the world around us. I see my role is to help you to be the best person you can be and look forward to hearing from you to discuss your questions or needs!