My Approach to Helping
I subscribe to an existential approach to working therapeutically, meeting people where they are in the moment. From there I work with individuals to determine their most immediate needs to help them cope more effectively. We may pursue problem-solving and a solution-focused approach, or we may go deeper, exploring psychodynamics and family history. My aim is to meet people where they are and find with them the approach that will be most effective in enhancing their functioning and addressing the blocks they are encountering in their current life situations. For helping individuals who are feeling stuck in their lives, I like to alternate between a cognitive approach and, if they are willing and open to these options to introduce Jungian-oriented dream work or shamanic journeying to help them access unconscious material that has the potential of helping them interrupt old dysfunctional patterns and gain new awareness that opens new options to them. While I see some people for only a few sessions, I like to work with people who are willing to engage on a long-term, psychodynamic basis for helping them travel more successfully through life transitions and access new dimensions of their psychospiritual reality.