My Approach

The term Mindfulness refers to a set of psychological skills that all involve paying attention with flexibility, curiosity and nonjudgmental acceptance to our present moment experience. Formally associated mostly with contemplative practices such as Buddhist meditation and practices in other ancient wisdom traditions, mindfulness is now widely viewed as a central component of modern psychotherapy largely due to an incredible depth of research demonstrating is effectiveness for many different issues. Mindfulness has even been shown in brain imaging research to help our brains grow in positive ways!

Compassion simply means noticing when we or others are hurting and responding with kindness. In recent years, research has demonstrated that having compassion for ourselves improves mental health and performance across many areas of life, and also to help create a more stable sense of wellbeing and self worth.

A focus on values adds an existential dimension to traditional CBT. Bringing values into therapy means not just trying to help you feel better (although we will certainly aim for that!), but also helping you clarify who and what it is that you most care about, who you want to be in life and how you want to spend your precious time on this earth. Your values can then serve as a kind of guide, or inner compass, that can guide your forward in life, and help motivate you to do that hard work of confronting your challenges and problems.

ACT is a type of CBT that can help you to develop practical mindfulness skills, clarify your values, set goals and take action to improve your life.

You can read more about ACT Here

CFT is a type of CBT developed especially for clients with mental health challenges, and who struggle with shame, self-loathing, and harsh self-judgment and criticism. CFT can help you to develop a more supportive, understanding, and kind relationship with yourself, so that you can feel true confidence and self-acceptance, motivate yourself without shame, heal emotional wounds, face your difficulties, and thrive.

You can read more about CFT Here

Schema Therapy

The Gottman Method

Behavior Activation

Cognitive Therapy

Exposure Therapy

I use formal Testing at the beginning and end of every session to track my clients’ progress, identify stuck points, get feedback about our sessions, focus our work in therapy, and to tailor my approach to each unique client in order to accelerate their growth and healing.

Empathy in TEAM means that, before I engage in any problem-solving or suggest a specific treatment approach to my clients, I take special care to make sure they feel heard, understood, and cared for. This builds trust and safety in our relationship, and is sometimes all that is needed for client to begin addressing the issues that have led them to therapy. If we do need to use some other therapy methods, this focus on empathy helps clients have the trust and safety with me they need in order to take risks in our sessions and try new things.

Agenda setting in TEAM means using a clear, structured method to understand your goals, create a collaborative agenda, increase motivation and help you remove obstacles necessary to achieve the change you want. Agenda setting helps us both be clear about what you are wanting help with, what I can offer, what will be required of you in therapy, and to address any resistance and reservations you have to the methods I suggest clearly and directly BEFORE we start working on something together. This way, you never feel pressured or coerced into doing anything you are not willing to do.

Methods in TEAM means using the many powerful and research-supported tools and techniques in CBT to help you address problems you’re struggling with so that you can live the life you want to be living.

IPNB is an interdisciplinary field of research pioneered by Dr. Dan Siegel and others, that seeks to understand how our minds, brains and relationships relate to one another, and to apply this understanding in order to improve people’s lives. You can read more about IPNB Here.

Polyvagal Theory is a scientific theory about how our nervous systems responds to threat. PVT helps us make sense of the sometimes very strong reactions we have in our bodies when we’re upset, especially related to traumatic experiences. You can learn more about PVT Here.