The type of counseling that you would encounter while seeing me is considered “responsible eclecticism”, which means that I use various types of interventions that I have been well trained in that are best suitable for you, your family, or your children.

 

I find that having one type of intervention may not be beneficial for all individuals, families, couples, and children. Some interventions include me not just listening to your problem, but helping you problem solve different areas, using your strengths, while trying different exercises and techniques in session, and encouraging you to try some things outside of session that will help you get your goals met. You would not experience any type of "new age", "suggestive", "psycho-babble", or questionable therapy while having counseling with me.

 

I enjoy working with teenagers, couples, families, and multi-cultural individuals and families, drawing from a variety of treatment approaches to best meet each person’s particular needs, in a safe and supportive environment. 

 

I approach each person, couple, and family as a unique and respected unit. My work is based on my belief that relationships, in every area of our lives, past and present, are one of the things that greatly affect our well-being and the potential to live our lives healthy. 

 

I support and strive to help others explore the values that they possess and the values that they want in close relationships. 

 

Finally, I support the reality that part of being a helpful counselor is seeking and receiving great knowledge from other counselors and paraprofessionals and I encourage and help others to utilize and build their support systems as well.

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Are we a good fit?: I do not offer free consultation/'get to know you' hours. Similar to a hospital setting, there is a lot of work involved in creating and obtaining the first appointment. I suggest us talking over the phone and you asking me any important questions you may have during the phone intake. I allow up to 15 minutes for us to have this time. It's also important to note that there are some people I cannot help:

-I do not meet with individuals wanting to do individual counseling due to challenges they are having with their long-term partner. My goal is to see relationships thrive, and at times, individual counseling for these purposes could potentially create more strife in the relationship. I would be happy to see you and your partner for couple's counseling and/or refer you to a colleague willing to see you for individual counseling. If you and your partner are already receiving couple's counseling, at that time I would be willing to see you for individual counseling.

-My approach is solution focused and I value having seen so many people healed and transformed by this approach. If it appears that we are not trying to find and work on solutions to challenges coming up, counseling with me may not be sustainable. I understand that at times the solution is simply just being able to vent and process situations coming up and receive unconditional positive regard.

-I cannot provide crisis care. Crisis care requires 24/7 contact, as well as agreements for an individual to seek out medical and psychiatric treatment often. Individuals who are in crisis are contemplating killing themselves or others and/or have some type of psychosis occurring. I do not provide these services.

-If you are in the mental health field, I understand that it may be difficult to be vulnerable and open up about challenges to another mental health professional for many reasons. I want to meet you where you are at and take things at your pace of comfortability. I would like us to continue to check-in to make sure we are making some forward progress. Again, my approach is solution focused and it may be difficult for me to help you resolve any challenges if there is an ongoing unwillingness to admit and/or see and address those challenges.

-It can often times be counterproductive to receive counsel from several avenues, especially if the recommendations are conflicting. Having additional resources and support outside of our counseling time is very helpful and recommended. If I learn that we are either duplicating services and/or you're receiving conflicting information from another counselor, I would like to process this more with you, and may suggest we discontinue counseling and encourage you to continue with that other resource.

-I only do weekly sessions for new clients. It is not helpful to meet less frequently. Again, my approach is solution focused and it is important to me that I see that we are resolving your challenges adequately.

-Frequent cancellations, whether within the cancellation time-frame or not, will result in either me terminating services or suggesting we move to an 'on-call' basis where you will no longer have a set appointment time, but you can call me when you would like my help for that week and I can let you know if I have any openings.

-Though rare, ruptures in the therapeutic relationship come up. This can happen when, for example, authorities need to be contacted by the therapist when either the client or a known individual is in danger. This can at times create trust issues between the client and therapist. Also at times there might be an offense either the client and/or therapist have while working together. This may be actually beneficial to the healing process; however, if it appears that the offense continues to be an ongoing issue, it might be best to see another therapist. Ethically as therapists we need to consistently assess if we are being effective with the people we are meeting with. If not, it's important to receive counsel from someone else.