My approach to therapy involves an amalgamation of many different approaches, each of which I think has some truth to offer, but none of which is sufficient in and of itself. The core of my approach is a deep respect that each person has an organic, internal urge toward healing and that good therapy will help a person get back in touch with this urge.
I appreciate how a person’s being was/is at stake with severe childhood trauma, and that starting at some young stage – maybe even conception – evolutionarily evolved survival responses started to kick into gear, without any conscious decisions on your part, that allowed you to protect your being as best that was possible for you at the time. Granted, there probably were/are some significant costs to you and your body for doing what you did, but I trust that the benefits (survival) justified the cost at the time. In other words, at some level you did exactly what you needed to do at the moment to survive and thrive, as best you could.
I have learned not to think in terms of pathology, even when using pathological terminology, but to think in terms of "This is what you needed to do." My job is to now help you to complete the move toward real safety (if not completed already), and to help you complete the transition from a survival oriented life of doing, with its inherent costs to your organism, to an at-peace oriented life of being, which is much more friendly to you and to your body. I see this process of healing as a collaboration between you, me and the spiritual.
On the menu to the left under My Approach, I describe some of the major approaches I have incorporated into my own practice. I do not use a cookie-cutter, technique-driven, “I know what’s best for you” approach. I see my job as to help you discover what your particular core needs are (the needs of your inner being) and to help you meet those needs. These different aspects of my approach, I hope, will help us in that process. If they do, then I will continue to use them. If they don’t, then I will look to, or for, something else. If for some reason we can’t collaboratively figure out what you need, then I will refer you to someone I think will would be able to help you more than I can.
