| My career as a psychotherapist was and
continues to be grounded in a spiritual commitment to be a presence of healing in this
world. For me, this means offering to my clients a safe, consistent and authentic
relationship where we are able to explore places of wounding in both past and present
circumstances and, perhaps most importantly, where we are able to create possibilities for
hope and change. While I used to think of therapy as a place to make whatever changes
necessary to reduce or eliminate pain, I have come to understand my work as both a process
of helping clients to creating meaningful change and to accept what they have come to
experience as unbearable. Somehow, in ways that I continue to learn about everyday, the
therapeutic relationship allows clients the opportunity to experience themselves
truthfully, and in that context to feel understood, accepted and appreciated; it offers
the possibility of restoring belief in their worthiness and from that a sense of security
and value in the world. I believe that the most enduring and authentic clinical change
occurs within the context of the therapeutic relationship. Toward that end, I work with my
clients to develop intimacy not only by sharing information about what is relevant in
their lives outside of therapy, but by inviting and engaging them to appreciate who they
are in the therapy relationship and how that both reveals and obscures who they truly are.
While this process might sound frightening, especially to those who are considering
therapy for the first time, my clients have given me consistent feedback that the
combination of challenge and support that therapy provides is essential to growth and
change.
My style has been shaped by many things. My training in psychodynamic, systems and
feminist theory influence the way I think about people and the larger familial and
communal culture from which they emerge. My understandings of religion and spirituality
have shaped my views about what hurts and what heals. Additionally, my experience in both
my family or origin and my families of choice provide a rich context for an ongoing
appreciation for how our past affects our present; how both individual and relational
needs emerge, are developed or are thwarted; and how powerful is the human desire for
connection and integration.
My graduate training has been both in clinical psychology and in religious and
theological studies. While my clients and I might not discuss religion or spirituality
overtly, it is a frame of reference that takes place in the backdrop of every clinical
session. I work with many kinds of people with many kinds of issues; I have learned that
while human beings share many areas of pain and suffering, we each have a life story that
provides a unique unfolding of our greatest challenges and our greatest desires. It is my
intention to provide each client a place to share their understanding of themselves and to
help then, to draw connections to others who struggle in similar ways. Because I have seen
the power of healing in a group context, especially in conjunction with individual work, I
have expanded my clinical experience to include facilitation of two on-going therapy
groups. These experiences remind me of the vitality and power of human connection. |
