My Approach

INDIVIDUAL THERAPY

My first step in counseling is making sure you recognize with me that the most important tool on your journey is you. I will never know you better than you know yourself. But there may be times when I am able to more quickly see parts of you that you have hidden or protected as a reaction to the pain and suffering in your life. Counseling will give you the space and time to go to work on yourself, finding obstacles that have kept you from moving in good directions and learning how they arrived in the first place.

As we go to work, you begin to teach me what it is like to be you encountering your obstacles. As you teach me about who you are and how you’ve arrived where you are currently, you get the assurance and comfort that I am with you through understanding and compassion. As I reflect back to you what I hear, ask good questions that take you in new directions of thought (getting you off the hamster wheel for a while) together we find the sequences of your cycles which have been obstacles. As your knowledge increases, you begin to access your power to change. Through compassion and challenge, you are able to be on the move towards the change for which you hope. There are tools inside of you waiting to be put to use FOR you.

We will have goals established for your counseling and a process to check how those goals are coming along.

While I have training and expertise to be of help to you, it is never my job to tell you how to live your life. It is my job to sit with you as you uncover how you want to live your life and find your best ways to those goals.

I am a faith-based counselor. I have a psychological lens and a theological lens with which to be of help. My job is to only bring into the room what you know to be of help to you. We all have faith in something whether it is God, others, ourselves, or things. Your faith and its part on your journey is brought into the room if you desire it to be a part of your work. As you claim its power, it can be a liberating process for you. If you do not want the faith element(theological lens) in your counseling, your wishes are respected and honored. We will use the psychological lens alone to help you. The therapy room is your time and space to do whatever good and hard work is before you and it is important to me that the time and space be used in the ways that will best help you arrive at your goals.

COUPLE AND FAMILY THERAPY

In couple or family therapy, you have the privilege of discovering yourself and your loved ones in new ways. It’s been said “if you don’t want to get to know yourself, don’t get married”. The same could be said of learning about yourself and your loved ones in all family relationships.

Relationships are hard. But relationships done well are among the most enriching experiences in life. It is a privilege for me to sit with two or more people who want to be on the same team but are struggling how to love self and others at the same time. I get the opportunity of witnessing what couples and families do with the space given to them. I get to see them move from despair into new avenues of hope. The seat I am given by you is one of honor and trust. I make it my aim to treat that trust with the greatest care I possibly can. Through emotionally-focused therapy, I see couples and families able to trust one another again and more importantly trust and speak for self, which carries into all areas of life(home, work, friendships)

My goal in counseling is to get you comfortable inside of your own skin again so you can approach life’s challenges and relationships with confidence.