Clinical Psychologist
Approach
Psychotherapy begins with curiosity
Having a clear sense of what might be troubling you, or even knowing exactly what you want to change, isn't always necessary before beginning therapy. People often come in because something in their lives has become painful, confusing, repetitive, or difficult to carry alone.
Anxiety, depression, relationship difficulties, grief, questions of identity or meaning, troubling patterns of behavior, or a more difficult-to-name sense that something is not right can all be places to begin.
I don't assume that a symptom has one meaning, or that a particular theory can tell us in advance what is happening. Instead, we begin with your experience and become curious about it together.
Understanding develops over time
My approach to psychotherapy is primarily psychodynamic, which means that I am interested not only in what is happening in your life now, but also in the experiences, relationships, and patterns that have helped shape the way you experience yourself and others.
Understanding in therapy is not only intellectual. We also pay attention to what happens in the body: changes in breathing, tension, sensation, impulses, or other physical experiences that may arise as we talk. Sometimes the body registers something before we have words for it.
Some of what affects us is readily available to thought and language. Other experiences can be harder to recognize or put into words. They may appear in recurring relationship patterns, emotional reactions, dreams, bodily experience, or ways of protecting ourselves that once made sense but have become limiting.
Over time, things that have felt confusing, overwhelming, or outside awareness can become more understandable and more available for reflection and choice.
The relationship matters
Psychotherapy is not only a process of talking about your life. What happens between us can also become an important part of the work.
We each bring our histories, expectations, sensitivities, and ways of relating into our relationships, including the therapeutic relationship. At times, patterns that are difficult to recognize elsewhere may gradually become visible between us. When that happens, we can become curious about them together, as they are occurring.
I try to listen not only to what you tell me, but also to what may be more difficult to say, what happens emotionally between us, and what I notice in myself as I am listening to you. I don't assume that my perceptions are necessarily correct. They are things we can think about together.
This requires a relationship in which there is room for uncertainty, disagreement, humor, silence, strong feelings, and the possibility that I may sometimes misunderstand you. Therapy does not depend on either of us getting everything right. It depends much more on our capacity to notice what is happening, remain curious about it, and continue thinking together.
The aim is greater freedom
What can often change in the process of psychotherapy is our relationship to what we experience. As we understand more about the patterns, conflicts, and experiences that shape us, we may become less governed by them. Reactions that once seemed automatic can become more available to thought. Old ways of protecting ourselves may become less necessary. Choices can begin to feel more like choices.
I think of psychotherapy, at its best, as gradually creating more room to live: more freedom to feel, to think, to relate to others, and to decide how you want to inhabit your own life.