My Approach to Therapy
The most important part of therapy is the relationship that you and I develop throughout our work together. I will foster a safe environment that is built on compassion, mutual respect, acceptance, and honest communication. My hope is that we develop a strong partnership so that we can work side-by-side to map out your path to the life you want to live.
I have a holistic approach to therapy and will encourage you to explore the connection between your physical, psychological, emotional, social, and spiritual conditions and your well-being.
As we work together, I will encourage you to cultivate the following qualities that will support you throughout therapy and the rest of your life.
Be Present
It’s human nature to push away strong, painful emotions because we just don’t want to experience them. When we avoid these emotions, they don’t go away – they get more powerful which can cause strong emotional reactions such as anxiety or depression. People who have substance use issues may turn to alcohol or drugs to help them ignore these emotions.
I will encourage you to start to be present to these emotions for a limited period of time. While this can be overwhelming at first, you will notice that these emotions will have less of a “hold” on you as you sit with them without wanting them to be different. When you are more present to your emotions, your mental health symptoms will start to decrease and you can more easily tap into your coping strategies.
We will discuss ways to practice mindfulness and I will encourage you to develop a regular mindfulness practice to support your increased presence within yourself and with the world around you.
As you become more present, I will also encourage you to explore your unhelpful thoughts and how they affect your emotions and behaviors. When you recognize your unhelpful thoughts, you will learn to challenge and replace them with more helpful thoughts that reduce your mental health symptoms.
Be Curious
All too often, we don’t really think about why we are engaging in a behavior or thinking a certain thought because it’s a habit. When we become curious in a nonjudgmental way and ask ourselves why we’re thinking or doing something, we can recognize we’re stuck in a habit loop. We may worry, judge ourselves harshly, use alcohol or drugs, go on a spending binge, or eat to relieve stress. As long as we stay in those habit loops, we will continue to experience anxiety, depression, or other powerful emotional responses that can keep us from moving forward on our journey.
I will encourage you to become more curious which will allow you to be present to your physical, mental, and emotional experiences. We will explore your habit loops and strategies you can use to get untangled from them. When you are able to let go of these habitual behaviors and thoughts, you have the freedom to tap into many more choices that will help you achieve your goals.
“Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love.”
- Brené Brown
Be Kind
While we all have a tendency to be kind to others, most of us are not usually kind to ourselves. When we’re unkind to ourselves, we can become overwhelmed with a relentless barrage of extremely harsh and painful self-talk. If we continue to listen to and believe our critical self-talk, we can get stuck on our journey because maybe we don’t believe we deserve to be happy or we doubt our abilities to achieve our goals.
I will encourage you to reflect on your negative self-talk and recognize that the messages you are telling yourself are stories that are simply not true. We will explore ways to practice self-compassion and I will encourage you to talk to yourself as you would talk to your best friend. You will begin to practice self-compassion which I will encourage you to continue for the rest of your life!
The theoretical foundation of my counseling approach includes:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
– we will explore the relationships between thoughts, emotions, and behaviors and how changing your thoughts can change how you feel and act.
Self Compassion
-We will explore the nature and lasting benefits of self-compassion, barriers to being self-compassionate, and a variety of ways to cultivate kindness to self.
We’ll work together to create a treatment plan tailored to your needs that will guide us as you start to navigate your journey. This will be a “living” plan which will give us the flexibility to focus on other issues as they arise and identify coping strategies to help you address these emerging issues.
