The work of psychotherapy can consist of just one, or a few, sessions to address a specific problem or get support in dealing with a particular stressor.  Alternately it may be a longer term, more in-depth process, where the work is more extensive, but so are the changes made.  Then, there is anything in between. 

 One area I focus on is helping people identify their emotions clearly, thus helping one to know oneself and one's needs better.  Expressing emotions in a safe place, and finding the wisdom in them, serves to create a more grounded position from which to make choices and guide behavior.  This helps people integrate body, heart, mind.  My work is based in deep empathy and compassion, which supports strengthening of compassion for yourself.  This is a powerful practice, and research indicates that it produces quicker and more pervasive healing.  Our minds and our bodies don't always agree, and this can create pain.  I endeavor to help clients create healing from the body up (calming the nervous system, working to re-wire the brain), as well as from the brain down (using the thought process mindfully to guide and collaborate with the body).

If you seek more of a challenge, deeper transformational work can be pursued, which emphasize self-realization and living life in a honest, or spiritually truthful, manner.  This means working to know and understand your inner landscape—positive and negative, taking accurate responsibility for yourself and not taking responsibility for what belongs to others, making choices from a place of love and honesty, and finding and following your soul's path.

Change can be a subtle and complex process, different for each person.  Addressing the problem areas in your life and working on challenging issues can be a wise investment in improving life satisfaction.  It involves some work, and the harder one works often the bigger the change.  On benefit is that you can learn to understand yourself and your inner experience more thoroughly, and how this affects your life.  You can find relief from what is troubling you, develop greater comfort with yourself and your world, and even gain a profound sense of peace and joy for life that you may have never experienced before.

You can learn to nurture a positive sense of yourself and strengthen self-compassion, no matter what your life circumstances.  I can support you in identifying and manifesting your core values.  We can identify the issues standing in the way of those, and work to dissolve them. 

The manner in which I work with a person varies, because everyone is unique.  At the same time we have universal qualities, as most humans beings deal with similar struggles.  The work is a collaboration, and it usually unfolds organically, as the direction to take makes itself apparent.  It's not always a smooth or linear process, just as life is not like that.  There can be starts and stops, periods of hard work, time to review and reinforce what has been learned, and time for rest and relaxation. And, of course time for fun. All of these parts are crucial to help change occur.

Mindfulness-based cognitive behavioral therapy helps you gain insight into your thoughts, change distorted ones to more adaptive and positive ones.

Moving into the present moment, not worrying about the future or regretting the past, helps you co-create your reality.

Setting really clear goals, and ones that really honor where you are at, at this point in your life, can be quite powerful.

Utilizing creative expression can be pleasurable and healing, and there are unlimited ways of expressing itself.  

Sometimes going slow is better than going fast, simple better than complex.