About Our Work Together in Therapy

How can therapy help?

Therapeutic counseling can give you the time and space to slow down and really look at the issues you are currently facing in your life; a safe place to come and talk, to feel heard where you don't have to take care of anyone else, just yourself.

Here, you'll find a trained professional with over twenty years' experience providing mental health counseling, and life coaching who will listen without judgment, and help you look at struggles, concerns, confusion, and doubts in new ways. I will be your guide and coach through changes, and for overcoming challenges, and resolving difficult circumstances.

While you may feel skeptical that counseling can change you or the way you feel about things in your life, you may be pleasantly surprised at how you can begin to understand yourself and your reactions to life differently, and how you can feel more empowered to overcome the difficult situations you are dealing with in your life or your ability to handle them. You may find you feel lighter, encouraged, and even more empowered as our work together progresses.

What do we do in therapy?

Good therapy involves you and a trained professional guide working together to identify, address and achieve what you want or need.

You and I will meet for an hour of counseling once a week in which we will use methods such as Solution Focused Counseling, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Narrative Therapy, or Life Coaching. If you aren't inspired or comfortable with these "talk therapies" we can pursue a more creative and artistic approach from a repertoire of activities known as Expressive Arts Therapy. These options are describe below.

We will meet for as many weeks as you think it is helpful or until you think you have accomplished what you came to counseling for.

How much does it cost? Usually $90 per session, however a sliding a scale is negotiable. Click here for more details.

Can I use my health insurance? Yes. However, not all insurance plans will cover our work together; Learn more about using your insurance.

More About the Counseling Approaches We Can Use in our Work Together

Life Coaching

You may know what you want to achieve in your life, yet maybe you don't know how to get started and progress on your goal;

Or perhaps you don't yet know where you want your life to go and need help identifying your life's path.

Life coaching is a form of counseling in which you and I work together to achieve your hopes, dreams, desires and goals.

I'll help you uncover your hopes, dreams and potential; then we identify realistic options, explore opportunities, and develop goals and an action plan to achieve your goals. You may find blockages to be cleared, or hurdles to negotiate, and I will coach you on finding and utilizing your own talents, skills and strength to overcome obstacles that block your way.

In fact, you may find that for some reason you keep getting in the way of your own success. Without judgment I'll help you understand both your fear of failing -- and your fear of success.

You CAN empower yourself to take charge of your life and achieve your goals!

Solution Focused Counseling

This is another style of "talk therapy" focused on problem solving and difficult decisions in which we explore all possible options and develop thoughtful solutions to whatever you want to change in your life or emotional experience.

I help you learn more about yourself, and I'll help you find strengths and abilities which you may have overlooked, or that you haven't developed yet, and then help you learn to utilize your new understanding to address the challenges and make desired changes in your life.

It's important to remember that YOU are not the problem, the problem is the problem and you are just reacting to a problematic circumstance. YOU can take charge of the problem.

Narrative Therapy

This is way of examining your life experience and changing the course of your life by placing your experience in the context of a story. You tell your story about yourself and what you are concerned about as well as happy with in your life, and I ask you questions which challenge you to understand your experience differently. Then you can 'rewrite' the 'story of your life' and make changes for a more desirable outcome.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Learn skills and methods to change how you think, label, and understand the things that happen to you and how you perceived them, and then make a plan to change your responsive behaviors to react to life challenges in a self-empowered way.

Expressive Arts Therapy

Do you prefer active and more expressive ways to help you understand yourself and to help you grow?

Using self-expressive creative arts I help clients understand themselves at a deeper level in order to manage anxiety, depression, phobias, ADHD, or to overcome PTSD, motivational paralysis, and self-sabotaging behaviors. By making art you can bring out the emotional blocks along with their empowering potential that we all hold in our unconscious mind.

You may choose to draw, paint, work with clay, make a mask, or write poetry. You don't need to be a talented artist, these exercises are meant to help and empower you.

In addition, drama therapy utilizing puppets and role playing can help you discover and understand your inner voice dialogues - self talk, and improve behavior, relating patterns, motivation, or self-esteem. Role playing can also help to overcome social anxiety and develop assertiveness by practicing interactive skills and enhancing your own comfort and confidence with others.

Expressive Arts Therapy can also be helpful children and adults on the autism spectrum.

See my Expressive Arts Therapy Gallery.