Working Together

The most important factor contributing to therapeutic success is the work you’re able to put into making changes. The second most important thing is the relationship with your therapist. Whether that’s me or someone else, what I wish for you is for you to have a therapist with whom you feel comfortable, who feels like they care, and who you trust and feel like you can open up to.

My Approach

I combine multiple approaches to therapeutic work.

Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)

I love the positivity and optimism in Solution Focused work. It’s strengths based. In SFBT, we work in partnership with each other to look at what is working well and how one can do more of that. I find it’s great, especially in the early stages of therapy, for simply helping things to get s little better, and for moving some of the clearest obstacles out of the way.

Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)

I love EFT for couples work. It views relationships through an attachment lens and uses emotions as a way of “going in.” EFT presents a fantastic way for looking at negative interaction cycles (aka arguments), slowing them down, and holding them in our hands so that we can see what are each of us bringing to this interaction that is fueling it and causing it to spiral out of control.

Narrative Therapy

This is a post-modern therapeutic approach. It has a lot for us. One thing that I love about it is that it locates “the problem” not in the individual but between individuals, or between individuals and systems; this aligns with how I understand things to work. Narrative Therapy has a helpful technique called an “Externalization Exercise” where we look at an issue as a thing that exists outside of us—in a way that is very similar to “parts work” or “inner child work.” Narrative Therapy also focuses on the stories we tell to craft our identity and our understanding of ourselves, and how we can thicken strands of narrative that support our autonomy, agency and growth, while thinning those that keep us feeling stuck or put us in the role of victim.

Gestalt

I cannot claim to be a Gestalt therapist, but have had the honor to work closely with Gestalt therapist and Gestalt’s approach resonates strongly with me. I believe in being completely authentic with my clients, an approach valued in Gestalt; this sometimes includes sharing hard but therapeutically useful truths. Gestalt focuses on what is happening in the present moment. (I named my practice Presence Counseling for a reason.) Gestalt centers the relationship of the therapist and client, using the differences of perspective as a way to learn and grow. Gestalt also focuses on “process” in a way that I believe to be incredibly useful.

Design Thinking

I’ve worked for decades as a graphic designer, user interface designer, and user experience designer. My approach to solving design problems mirrors how I work with personal or interpersonal one:

• What is the goal?

• What are the elements that we have to work with: assets and constraints

• What is the current process?

• What appears to be blocking process achieving its goal?

• What needs to be added or removed to do this? And how?

• Continue iterating and assessing as needed.

I think relationally, systemically and visually, and I find that I metaphors and archetypes frequently show up in my work.

All that said…

The work is highly individualized and deeply personal, meaning that it feels completely different with every client!