About Therapy - My Approach
My approach to therapy draws on depth psychology, including the psychoanalytic (especially Lacanian), psychodynamic, existential, and feminist therapy traditions. This means that our work together will tend to be more patient and holistic than other forms of therapy you might have experienced. I do not view you, or your struggles, as a problem to be solved, but rather as pieces of a complex and multifaceted whole, to be explored, brought to light, and perhaps healed.
There are many things that may bring you into therapy: you may feel lost, stuck, miserable, or devastated. You may feel alone, bored, or dissatisfied with your life. You may feel as though coping mechanisms which used to serve you well now no longer do. My goal as your therapist will be to hold space for you, to help you explore all of the parts of yourself, and to bridge the gap between a challenging present and a more hopeful future.
A more detailed look...
But what does all this mean? Terminology can be confusing or overwhelming. In this section, I will go a little more in depth about a few aspects of my approach to psychotherapy and what our work together might look like.
Speaking and Listening
Why come to therapy at all? Why not just talk to a friend, family member, or confidant? While some people are indeed naturally good listeners, the act of speaking and being listened to by non-therapists is quite different from what you experience in therapy.
A therapist is a professional listener, trained to listen actively and attentively. I do not avoid subjects or expect you to listen to me talk about my day in return. I rarely talk about myself. Perhaps most importantly, I do not judge you for any of your thoughts or feelings, and I encourage you to share everything that comes up for you as openly as you can. Being listened to this way can be liberating, cathartic, and a relief.
Drawing Connections
As I listen, I will attempt to notice and illuminate connections between areas of your life - your thoughts, feelings, dreams, fantasies, relationships, behaviors, and sensations - that you may not have noticed before. Through my outside perspective, and informed by my experience and training, I may be able to see connections, patterns, and repetitions in your life that would otherwise have remained hidden from you, and help bring them to light.
Looking at the Past
Over the course of our work together, it's likely that we will spend a considerable amount of time exploring your past. This may seem counterintuitive - after all, the problem or problems that bring you in to see me are problems in the present, and many therapists would attempt to resolve them there without giving much if any consideration to how they arose.
My philosophy is different. I believe that problems often have causes stretching into the past, sometimes very deeply. Even if we manage to successfully solve a problem in the present, you may find that it crops up again and again, in different forms and different disguises. It is only by tracing their ancestry and untangling the knotted ball of their roots that we can truly begin to understand and resolve them.
