Is therapy right for you?

Therapy is a joint effort, the results of which cannot be guaranteed. Progress depends upon multiple factors including motivation, effort devoted, and other life circumstances. Helping you to reach your goals, feel better and feel empowered is the purpose of our work together. You can do your part by openly and honestly communicating your thoughts and feelings, even though this may be difficult.  There is a risk of feeling anxious, depressed, frustrated, or hopeless at times. This is a normal part of the therapy process. We will work together to get through the difficult times. If you are ever concerned that our work together is not helping, please let me know so that we can discuss your concerns.

When should I seek help?

Being human means we hurt from time to time, and feel “stuck.” When this persists beyond a reasonable time, or reoccurs with more and more frequency and persistence, it may help to explore further with a trained professional. Perhaps you have become aware that you are moving through the day without a sense of aliveness or happiness, or even living a life that is not yours. You suspect there may be “more,” and you’re “missing out.” You may be in crisis: a death, loss, breakup, or a major transition… Perhaps you suspect you are drinking too much or using other substances and have been unable to stop. In addiction, our belief compensates for and inflates the diminished reality. Therapy can provide perspective and relief and a way to move forward and constructively through this pain.

What are your fees?

Individual Therapy: $170 for 50 minutes. There are reduced fee slots available on a limited basis.

Couples and Family Therapy: $170 for 50 minutes, $220 for 80 minutes

Relapse Prevention Group: 60 minute groups, currently Tuesday and Friday at 10am.  $150 for 2 groups a week

Family Support Group: meets twice each month, $150 for both

Do you accept insurance?

Currently, I am a provider for Compsych and Health Advocate. You will be provided with a Therapy Receipt for submittal to your insurance company; most have paid part of the fee.

My approach

“If there is a fear of falling, the only safety consists in deliberately jumping…”  Carl Jung

I use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Gestalt Practice, and Mindfulness, interchangeably and not restrictively. These are simply different therapeutic modalities, briefly described below. They have been developed over the years, all with the goal of helping you find relief from anxiety, depression, addiction, grief - anything stopping you from living a fulfilling life.

CBT: CBT works with the process of thinking itself that, while a vital function of the mind, can turn against us and cause great suffering.

MET: This is one of the most powerful therapies for working with addiction, helping our clients see the consequences of both change and their continued use of substances, despite adverse and potentially deadly consequences.

DBT: This therapy was developed specifically for treating clients that have been resistant to other treatments, some displaying suicidality and self-harm. The disease of addiction as well as the underlying mental health disorders of anxiety and depression often coexist causing great suffering. DBT teaches coping and self-soothing skills that help manage and reduce this pain, often making the harmful strategies of self-harm and drug/alcohol abuse less likely.

Gestalt Practice: Developed by Fritz Perls and Dick Price, this practice, along with Mindfulness discussed below, invites our clients to explore the very great power of being fully present. “Thinking” here is viewed as a poor substitute for living, and breeds most of what we call neurosis, including worry, anxiety, and depression. For most of our patients, a return to the present moment is a way to literally “take themselves back,” and unlock strength, creativity, and an abiding calm. Many therapies and therapists still encourage “talking about” one’s experience; Gestalt Practice emphasizes the experience itself.

Mindfulness: This can be seen as tying it all together, no matter how one choses to work, inviting patients to enter their present moment with consciousness and non- judgmental self-awareness. It’s an antidote to the futuristic thinking of an addicted individual – the terrain of most anxiety. And to the past, where we ruminate hopelessly over “unfinished business,” a term made prominent by Fritz Perl’s. Meditation is a way to practice this skill. A growing body of research sites proven health benefits for both mind and body. Patients are invited to bravely sit with themselves, paying close attention to whatever arises, including the craving, wanting, and unfulfilled desire that accompany anyone gripped by an addiction or compulsion.

What about medications?

These are not the specific purview of an LMFT. I will work with a providing psychiatrist whose job it is to assess the potential for medications to help. Research consistently supports the belief that the combination of talk therapy and medication can be the most effective intervention for persistent psychological distress. I work with clients that are currently using suboxone, methadone, naloxone, and vivitrol, and anti-depressants, all proven useful in helping to manage the stress and craving of addiction.

What about rehab, “failure,” Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOP), other considerations:

I will help you formulate a specific program of recovery, one that may also work with an existing one, such as if you are already in therapy, or if what you are currently doing is not sufficient. I have vetted and work with local in-patient rehabilitation facilities. I refer my patient to one if they are engaging in behaviors that are unsafe, or if they have been thus far unable to initiate abstinence. While attitudes are slowly changing, addiction is one of the few diseases in which a patient is still blamed for displaying symptoms of the disease. To that discouraging truth, I never “kick” someone out of therapy, or recommend a rehab that would do so. Perhaps we might consider that “treatment failures” may in fact be those of the therapists or rehabs themselves, not the patients! One’s inability to enter into a safe place of abstinence and recovery means to me that as the therapist, I need to try something different, and even increase the intensity of the treatment program. Patients come to me with enough of the experience of failure and shame to last many life times; I will do everything possible to belie these false recriminations. They have not “failed,” they are not bad, and they certainly do not deserve, or could possibly benefit from, punishment.