Psychotherapy

Whether or not you come to therapy with specific issues to be addressed, the work is the same: to uncover your particular paths to fullness of experience and acceptance of self.  We suffer less and enjoy more not as destinations, but as consequences of this pursuit.

If you come to me for therapy, I will join you in addressing the issues or diagnoses you name.  I’ll also guide you to regard differently those aspects of yourself that have been dismissed, disregarded, or shunned. 

Psychotherapy is an art and a science, and I strive to weave the two.  While we will practice the arts of attention, compassion, and insight, we’ll also work with what knowledge, experiment, and empiricism have yielded. 

Personal Development

You may not be reading this out of a critical need for help or relief.  You may be here because something inside says it is time to stop going it alone.  For some it is a nagging feeling, or a thought that keeps appearing, or an ache in the spirit.  If you’re feeling this way, I imagine you have come a long way and have achieved much with what you could.  And so my job, if I have one, is to meet you where you are and to encourage the next step, stage, leap or letting go.

If you are suffering some named, diagnosed, or unnamed ailment of the mind or spirit, I may be able to help.  If life feels fine or even good, but lacking something, I may be able to open you towards what’s missing, or what’s possible.

Short-term Consultation

I’ve met plenty of people who have no time, interest, or resources for a longer-term therapeutic or coaching relationship…but could surely use some guidance now and then.  

Over the years I’ve become skilled in listening closely, examining the issues, and offering a clear-eyed response.  For my long-term regular clients, we may have some sessions primarily focused on addressing a current dilemma.  For others, I may be the infrequent call for consultation when an issue is particularly thorny or seems unresolvable.

When the issues involve interpersonal dilemmas, group dynamics, personality conflicts and behavioral issues, I may offer some expertise from my field.  But in most cases, my role is to untangle the threads of your concerns so that you can deal with them through your own knowledge and abilities.  This untangling tends to feel easier within the private, nonjudgmental space I maintain.

I can also act as a sounding board for ideas or decisions not quite ready to be shared.  I am a curious person and widely read, and so I may be able to ask questions, offer frameworks and language, or provide reflections that help develop your ideas or their presentation.

This style of work may be well-suited to entrepreneurs, leaders, creatives, and the self-employed, but I offer this kind of consultation to those navigating personal dilemmas and decisions as well.

Professional Partnerships

Professional partnerships are human partnerships.  They require interest, readiness, commitment, and shared vision.  But just as in our romantic partnerships, these essential conditions can change.  What once worked so well can begin to feel untenable, saddled with conflict or complication you could not have predicted.

How many brilliant efforts have failed because the partnerships failed?  How many friendships?  What success has been lost because the people involved can’t find a way to get along or part ways with decency?

Just as with our romantic partnerships, professional partnerships can be nurtured and helped.  You can choose to prepare better, practice humility, seek commonality, and make space for necessary but challenging conversations.  

My training as a systemic therapist means I know how to work with relationships.   I have an ear for unspoken agreements and an eye for unconscious interpersonal process.  And my experience helps me make some educated guesses at the likely issues so we might move forward more quickly.

If you’re considering partnership but haven’t talked it all through, I can help you have the conversations necessary to make a clear-eyed commitment.  If your partnership is starting to falter, I may be able to help you right the ship.