My Approach

I aim to approach each session with openness, empathy, and a mindful mode of listening. My clinical perspective is informed by psychodynamic and psychoanalytic theory. This means that, throughout our work together, you will be encouraged to share whatever is on your mind, to speak and feel without censorship. All the while, I will be listening to and looking for the ways in which mental activity outside of your conscious awareness, in “blind spots” so to speak, may be influencing your day-to-day attitudes and actions [1]. 

My hope is that each session provides a space for self-discovery — that each session gives you the space, and the time, you need to uncover and reflect upon your desires and fears, dreads and fantasies.

During this discovery process*, it may also be possible for us to identify how your life has been organized around and shaped by those desires and fears. That is, we may be able to learn more about the habits and cyclical patterns—sometimes very old, rigid, and difficult to alter—you use to seek what you want or think you want or to defend against what you fear or think you fear. Sometimes, a deeper appreciation, interruption, and/or modification of those patterns, can lead to a greater sense of agency, authenticity, connectedness, creativity, and joy. It is a process, in short, that may allow you to live a fuller life and to feel more alive.

*Which, in some cases, may be facilitated by the use of medication and non-pharmaceutical drugs/supplements. 

References:

Cabaniss, D. L., Cherry, S., Douglas, C. J., & Schwartz, A. (2011). Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: A Clinical Manual (pp. 3-7).