Psychotherapy can help you, your child and your family to:

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• Change behaviors

• Understand decisions

• Develop skills and tools to solve probelms effectively

• Cope with negative emotional states such as depression, anxiety, and stress

• Discover strategies for addressing learning difficulties and behavior problems

• Create positive family interactions

• Increase life satisfaction 

• Make important life decisions

 

Psychotherapy is quite dependent on the personalities of the therapist and the patient and the particular issues of concern.  It is important to understand that psychotherapy is not like visiting a medical doctor.  It requires substantial active effort on your part.  In order for therapy to be successful, you will have to work on things discussed both during your sessions and at home.  Psychotherapy works best when clients are willing to take risks in the form of trying new solutions to old problems and/or are actively willing to make changes.  Therapy can be a highly effective tool for changing one’s own behavior and/or thought processes but is generally not helpful in changing thoughts and behaviors of other people.  However, changing one’s own behavior and attitudes frequently can lead to changes in others. 

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I use an eclectic approach drawing upon many frameworks and methods to deal with the problems that you hope to address and am experienced at selecting those which are most appropriate for your individual situation.

 

You should know that there are a number of potential risks and benefits involved in psychotherapy.  Risks sometimes include experiencing uncomfortable feelings (e.g.  frustration, anger, sadness, anxiety, guilt, loneliness, helplessness, or other difficult emotions).  Therapy often requires discussing difficult and unpleasant aspects of your life.  However, psychotherapy has been shown to have benefits for people who undertake it seriously.  Therapy often leads to a significant reduction in negative feelings, better relationships with significant others, improved ability to cope with stressful feelings and difficult situations, and resolutions of specific problems.  However, there are no guarantees about your therapy results.  The initial sessions will involve an evaluation of your needs, your current concerns and possibly the collection of additional information (standardized questionnaires and possibly more formal psychological testing.).   After these initial sessions, I will offer you some preliminary impressions and a proposed treatment plan.  You should evaluate this information along with your own opinions of whether you feel comfortable working with me.  Since you will be committing time, money, and energy to the therapeutic process, you should be sure to select a therapist with whom you feel comfortable.  If for any reason, you feel that I am not the right therapist for you, I will provide you with referrals to other professionals.