My Approach to Helping
I love working with those who are spiritual seekers, who want to grow spiritually as well as psychologically. Love is the greatest source of healing we humans know and one could say that all good therapy is about bringing love to the places that hurt inside of us. My Masters Degree is in Spiritual Psychology and I use a holistic body - mind - spirit approach in the work that I do. I was a Zen Buddhist Monk for over ten years and have followed a Buddhist - Christian path of meditation and contemplation for over 50 years. I love sharing the wisdom I have gained over these many years of what it means to be a spiritual being having a human experience!
More Info About My Practice
I work a lot with people who have survived childhood abuse and neglect. From my many years of experience working with trauma survivors, it has become clear to me that good therapy cannot be just the usual talk therapy that so many of us professionals were trained in. The body is the access point for so much of our emotional pain and needs to be addressed in therapy. Because of trauma, we often have learned to avoid that pain through addictions, compulsions, acting out, avoiding intimacy and many other ways. But in shutting down the pain we also shut down what was alive in us as well. Our work together is to befriend our pain and to love ourselves unconditionally. This is ultimately what heals us.
My View on the Purpose of Psychotherapy
We have all been wounded in some way in our childhoods. Psychotherapy is about what do we do with these wounds. The issue is basically, how do we relate to ourselves as these issues arise in our daily life? The work is to become our own best friend - even when the going gets tough. With insight into our issues, with self-compassion, humor, and commitment to getting better, our life starts to unfold in new and beautiful ways even if our childhood was pretty awful.
What I Love about Being a Psychotherapist
For me, the healing work of psychotherapy is sacred work. It requires of me an open heart and open mind as I journey along with a seeker on their journey of healing and spiritual growth. For me, there is no real distinction between the psychological and the spiritual. As we heal psychological wounds our hearts open, we find new meaning for our lives, and we realize that our life is more than just about us.
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