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About Me: I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in the state of North Carolina who practices psychotherapy. My practice is grounded in creating an environment where a client can experience me as honest, caring, and non-judgmental. Why does this matter? I believe it is critical that the person seeking help/growth feel that they can trust and also relate to the person they're working with. Without this relationship, the psychotherapy process is reduced to a simple service which can feel distant.
About my Practice: I work from several different psychotherapy models. My work is heavily influenced by Existential/Humanistic Therapy. This is a form of psychodynamic therapy that looks at the larger questions of a person's existence, how we gain more freedom, how we take responsibility for our life, and how we can create more meaning. Existential/Humanistic Therapy is considered a “relational psychotherapy” meaning that I try to be an active and accessible person during a session who my client can see as a person who genuinely cares for them.
In addition to providing a caring space to develop insight, I have found that clients generally require concrete coping skills to move towards increased personal freedom and a more value-based life. It is from this realization that I have been influenced by the newer Mindfulness-Based Behavior Therapies that show great promise in helping people learn specific strategies to improve their life. In particular, I work from two of these therapies:
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Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): DBT starts with an assumption that a person is always doing the best they can, while also acknowledging that the person can also function at a higher level by learning specific coping skills to effectively manage their thoughts, emotions, relationships, and more broadly their lives.
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Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): ACT is a new behavior therapy that has been shown to be effective for many issues. ACT psychotherapy looks at specific thoughts/feelings which may be keeping us from acting and being more flexible, free, and living how we'd prefer. ACT differs from more traditional cognitive-behavioral therapies in that it does NOT aim to eliminate "negative" thoughts or feelings. Instead, ACT emphasizes effective behaviors despite "negative experiences" in an effort to continue to live a valued and rich life. You may learn more about what you truly value in life. Additionally, you may find that certain behaviors you've been using to avoid and control ("negative emotions") may have actually kept you from living the life you wish you could live. Another goal is to learn and sense the part of yourself that does not change regardless of your thoughts, feelings, and body changes. As is true of many of the contemporary "third wave therapies" ACT teaches mindfulness: how to be in the present moment instead of living in historical or fabricated realities that your mind creates. The assumption here is that the present moment which is our closest contact with reality is the place where healing is maximized.
One of my focuses as a clinician is looking at how ineffective behaviors usually relate to problems with recognizing and expressing emotions in a more useful way. Therefore, my practice is grounded in learning to sense and then effectively express emotions as a critical element in healing. I also enjoy integrating a person's belief system into their work. I respect and encourage a person's spirituality or beliefs about their existence to have a place at the table and recognize the importance of using faith traditions or personal philosophies to aid recovery.
About the Psychotherapy Process: Psychotherapy has the potential of resulting in both pleasant and unpleasant emotions. Unpleasant emotions might include various levels of distress, including sadness, guilt, anxiety, and anger, among others. The benefits of therapy in general have been clearly demonstrated. Often therapy leads to a significant reduction in distress, improvements in relationships, resolution of specific problems, personal growth and development, increased clarity regarding one’s self and one’s goals, and greater self-knowledge. In any given individual case, however, the benefits of therapy cannot be guaranteed, nor can the time required for treatment outcomes be predetermined.