Individual Therapy
Individual therapy can be a powerful tool for addressing many different types of struggles, including difficulties with mood, grief, anxiety, substance abuse, trauma, integration of psychedelic or other big experiences, or just ongoing adjustment to the challenges of modern life. Talking about yourself in the presence of a receptive and caring other allows you to more effectively access and move through big emotional responses, and has been demonstrated in research studies to be effective many times over at this point.
It may seem counter-intuitive that just talking could have much impact on these matters that we think of as “just mental.” That’s a notion most of us have received from the western culture we have grown up in, but also one that has been thoroughly debunked at this point. Put simply, talking is a physical act (as are thinking, feeling, day-dreaming, etc.), and physical acts affect the physical body. This is especially true of physical acts performed in the presence of another - we are social beings, and given modern lifestyles other people are the greatest threat most of us face on a day-to-day basis. Having the opportunity to share your inner world with another person who is receptive and non-judgmental allows allows a social re-patterning to start to happen, which in turn allows you to develop new patterns around your emotional and physical life.
What does the process look like? You bring in whatever is going on in your life - events, moods, thoughts, feelings, images, bodily sensations, or anything else - and together we start to investigate. At first I will primarily listen as I get to know you and start to understand at a deeper level what it is you’re struggling with. Then I usually start to introduce some mindfulness practices into our sessions together, which can act as tools that allow us to dig deeper into unconscious aspects of what is happening. As we work together in this way we start to excavate the core beliefs that drive how you relate to yourself, those around you, and the wider world. And as you feel into these and get to know them at a more intimate level, you get more opportunity to start doing things differently.
Even if you don’t know what to talk about, exploring what is happening in the present moment (and there’s ALWAYS something!) out loud, with another person, can be a powerful corrective action. But I also fold in my knowledge of psychodynamic and developmental processes, Jungian approaches, and somatic mindfulness practices primarily from the Hakomi and Shambhala lineages. This blend has grown out of what I have found most effective in my own life, as well as what I have consistently seen work for clients.
I work with all kinds of different people facing all kinds of different difficulties, but I have a couple of specialties working with people in mid-life career or family adjustments, people dealing with climate anxiety or depression related to the unfolding climate crisis, and folks working on integrating psychedelic or other big experiences.
