“there’s not an expiration date on needing help, or needing people. You don’t get to a certain age and it stops.”
Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life
MY APPROACH
Feelings are part of life - but regulating them is hard and tolerating the uncomfortable ones is extra hard. Managing your emotions is not taught in schools or valued in today's culture. In fact, you may have been told feelings are not important and should be ignored or pushed away. This can leave you feeling totally lost about how to cope when faced with any sort of emotional experience. Food, substances, self harm, compulsive shopping or other maladaptive behaviors may become the one way you know how to tolerate or repress feelings. Maybe you are realizing that these behaviors have stopped working for you and have started to impact your functioning. You might feel stuck - like something needs to change but you are not sure what. Or you don't really want to give up your current behaviors - but want to understand them better. Together, we can figure out a game plan to help you deal with feelings and live your best life.
Half of my training has been skills based and action oriented. Half of my training has been focused on the life long development of individuals and what role past events and relationships are playing in the present. These two approaches tend to work well together - but it is also up to you as to where our focus lies.
I am an active therapist - I will push you and challenge you to accomplish your goals - not just let you hang back on the couch. If you meet me half way, we can figure out what thoughts patterns and behaviors are not serving you well and help you take actions towards being your most effective and authentic self.