My Approach

The most important predictor of success in therapy is the strength of the therapeutic alliance.  Having a therapeutic alliance means that the therapist and client work together to achieve the goals of therapy.  It means that there is a feeling of safety and trust shared by therapist and client.  I have expertise in several approaches to therapy and what I’m really good at asking the right questions, with the right timing, in ways that spark insights in my clients.  My clients are the experts of living their own lives; they all have an innate wisdom that carried them through difficult times.  Much of what I do is to help clients reconnect to wisdom that they already have.  

 

Much of the work that I do, in both couples therapy and individual therapy, involves working with attachment styles.  Attachment styles result from early life experience and often include memories that were formed before we were fully verbal.  As a result, much of what comes up in therapy has no story attached to it.  We know what we feel, but we don’t know why we're feeling it.  And, in some cases, we aren’t even aware of exactly what we’re feeling.  

 

I believe that therapy needs to engage the smartest parts of our brain and the most ancient parts of our brain to be truly effective.  The smart part of our brain responds to information and logic.  The primitive brain responds to sensation and metaphor and regulates how safe we feel in the world.  My education and aspects of my PACT training help me engage the smart parts of the brain while other aspects of PACT training, SE and NLP training, and my training as a tantric healer engage body awareness.