My Practice

For individuals and couples I use a kind of therapy that is talk based and eclectic borrowing mainly from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT is a method of identifying goals and values aka: what’s important to you. And then living life to the fullest by making change based on those values. People usually find themselves in therapy when a problem has gotten out of control and they are beginning to feel hopeless and possibly helpless.

In my experience, it is better and more effective to come to therapy before the problem gets out of control. That’s not to say that therapy cannot be helpful when the problem has taken over our lives and consumed much of our thoughts. It only means more effort and time are needed to peel back the layers of the issue.

I will ask questions about your family history. Again in my experience, our primary family (the people who raised us) teach us through observation, how to manage our lives and particularly make decisions. (I will not just blame your parents for everything!) We fall into roles in our relationships and often mimic the roles we see our parents and siblings act out. They feel comfortable and familiar, even though they may not feel good sometimes.

We will not dwell in the past: Yes we can learn so much from the past but I find people come to therapy to make decisions about the present and future. The past can feel overwhelming when we think of talk therapy (do I have to talk about every detail of my past?), but it does not have to consume many sessions. We will focus on the here and now and what kind of person you would like to be or the kind of outcomes you want. Our patterns are important and as I said, we learn our patterns from the people who raised us, but fortunately we can form new patterns.

I will not stare at you and expect you to talk the whole time: I am very engaging and after nearly 20 years’ experience, I have a good sense of when to talk and when to listen. In Winter Park, I have dealt with many clients who are new to therapy. It is hard to pick up the phone or email a random person found on the web and plan to discuss things you wouldn’t necessarily share with people closest to you. That is why I recommend that potential clients see more than one therapist to determine a good fit. Not all therapists are the same.