What is therapy?

Let’s start with what therapy is not.

Therapy is not a place where you will be told what to do. I won’t tell you outright if you should leave your relationship or quit your job. We also won’t spend our precious 50 minutes bad-mouthing your friends or your spouse. It is not a place where we lay the entire blame for the current state of your life on your parents. You won’t be told what is “right” or “wrong.”

Therapy is not linear. Progress is more like a spiral. You might feel worse before you feel better. Sometimes recovery means circling back to process the pain you left behind.

Therapy is not always comfortable. The stuff we resist dealing with is often the stuff we need to look at the most. Any change, even the most positive change, comes with a version of loss and grief.

Therapy is not magic or a cure-all. The real work is what you do with your new skills and insights outside of session.

So, what is it then?

Therapy is a safe place to help you process difficult thoughts and emotions, learn new skills, and get back to your true self.

Therapy is a place where you will be compassionately challenged, so by the end of it, you discover what is best for you.

Therapy is for you. You, that has been trapped by worry lately. Consumed by worthlessness and self-doubt. Perhaps you keep reliving painful memories or punishing yourself for mistakes you have made. You lost the love of your life, a friendship, your identity. That feeling of doom just won’t let up. Unwanted thoughts lead you to unwanted compulsions that offer only fleeting relief. Maybe you want to learn how to tell people “no” or send your food back when the order is wrong. You want to rediscover your purpose.

I want help you maximize your potential to have a meaningful life, while effectively handling the inevitable pain that comes with it.

If you have been to therapy before but have not seen the changes or relief you expected, I suggest trying out EMDR with me. EMDR is an evidenced based treatment for those facing trauma, anxiety, and depression. This type of treatment encourages our mind’s and body’s natural tendency to heal and resolve disturbing or stressful memories, events, symptoms with long-lasting and genuine results. It bridges the skills you have learned in therapy or life with what you feel internally.