My Approach to Helping
I know that you're looking for help because you've been suffering. Suffering is the mind's experience of what the body calls terrible physical pain. It becomes challenging to know what to do, let alone how to start, but you're trying by looking for a therapist.
Anxiety feels like a constant churning of fear and emotional confusion that won’t leave us alone. At times, we experience more and less of it but are never entirely free from anxiety. Unfortunately, it tends to get worse as time passes.
Depression slowly crawls up on us, bringing fatigue, isolation and negative thoughts about ourselves and the world around us. It feels like people discard us, and there are times when our anger breaks through.
Trauma can result from a one-time, extraordinarily frightening and painful event. Sometimes, that event gets repeated. They are always uniquely experienced by you.
Childhood neglect and abandonment are forms of trauma that are more difficult to realize but just as real. This form of trauma is beginning to be recognized as a complex post-traumatic stress disorder.
EDUCATIONAL AND PRACTICE HISTORY: After obtaining a degree in psychology, I attended medical school, did an internship in family medicine, and then completed a four-year specialist certificate in psychiatry. I practiced as a psychiatrist from 1992 until 2016, and then, after a couple of years, I began a different form of work as an online counsellor and therapist. I do not practice as a Psychiatrist now. Yes, I have grey hair and enjoy retirement age, but I still like working with folks.
With education and experience, I've learned there is no universal agreement about how the brain works, how it makes the mind, or how the mind produces our thoughts, feelings, and sense of self. The brain is the only organ in the body that, during medical school, we didn't start by studying its cells. A diagnosis wasn't made from biological evidence but rather from matching the patient's symptoms to lists of diagnoses. We know that every brain and mind is different from every other brain or mind in the world, which is why you are unique.
This is why no single form of therapy fits every client at all times.
Consequently, I have always practiced Integrative Therapy, taking the best aspects of the major forms of therapy and applying them to each individual at the appropriate time.
The first session lasts 60 to 90 minutes and is free. The best predictor of successful therapy is the fit between the therapist and client, so you need a chance to see how we work together.
Then, each subsequent session also last from 60 to 90 minutes and costs $100. There is no charge for emails. Life happens; if you can’t pay for a session, we have it anyway, and it’s free. Your ongoing therapy is more important.
I hope you reach out for some support and gentle care.