Counseling

I am a trained counselor who is trained to help empower individuals, couples, and families with different types of issues including but not limited to:

Mental Health

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Bi-Polar
• PTSD
• Trauma
• Personality Disorders
• Adjustment Disorders (adjusting to a new set of circumstances)
• Bereavement

Life Issues (Adjustment Disorders) 

These are issues that happen when there are circumstances in your life that you find difficult to accept and yet you cannot change them.  This can include loss of a loved one, divorce, change in health or even a chance in employment.  When life doesn’t “work” the way we feel it should sometimes a counselor can help with the transition.

I work with people who are in need of short term and long term counseling.

I have a special certification for Trauma therapy and crisis type therapies and have worked with people who have developmental disorders.

Types of Therapies

                          DBT (Dialetic Beahvioral Therapy)

I typically begin with DBT (Dialetic Behavioral therapy).  This theory holds that when we want to change a behavior, we must not only change the behavior but the thinking or through processes behind the behavior.  It further holds that there are times in which the behavior must change even when either the thought process cannot change or the environment within which we find ourselves in will not change and therefore we need to adapt and learn how to accept the things we cannot change.

It teaches mindfulness, distress tolerance, interpsonal effectiveness, and emotion regulation.  This has been found  to be a promising intervention across clinical and non-clinical populations and many different settings.

This therapy can consiste of DBT skills training in a group setting or other setting, DBT individual therapy, DBT phone coaching, and Sometimes a sonultation team.  Using this type of therapy first gives some initial relief while we continue to work on some of the things that can change.

                                 Family Systems

Family Systems is the second type of therapy that I use once ther person is no longer in a crisis state or in need of immediate relief.

This therapy views a person as a part of a whole and that the unit cannot change unless that whole unit changes as well.  It evaluates the different parts of the system in relation to each part of the system and the whole system.  It identifies the different parts and how they interact with each other.  It then identifies the patterns of communication and or relationships within the whole.

After identification of the parts, interactions and relationships, and patterns of behavior it allows for the system to change through each of the parts doing work individually and together.

• An example of this is when a part is “stuck” in the past (usually traumatic experience) while other parts have gotten past the trauma or have to make up for the part that is still stuck in the past.
• Another example is when we have two very different views on the same issue.  You might hear someone say “Part of me thinks they got what they deserved but the other part of me feels bad for him”. We naturally think in parts and therefore can examine each piece … why do we feel one way and or the other way and how does that fit together in our system as a whole.

This, as a whole or parts of the system, can allow for us to challenge certain core values or beliefs or thinking patterns, if need be, so as to make them healthier.