My Approach
Restoring Resilience
Change for the Better
The factors that make each of us feel safe, settled and connected are as unique as we are. We’ll explore that together at the outset and throughout our work together. I welcome your understanding of how things got to be where they are and how you want to change.
My approach will help you to be guided into healing and change by your emotions. Why emotions? We focus on emotions because our emotions are nature’s way of revealing the knowing about ourselves and our worlds that is entirely, uniquely and exclusively our very own. However, it is quite common to be unknowingly afraid of feeling the full extent of our emotions, especially if that’s come with bad experiences in the past.
Burying our feelings buys relief in the short-run, but can lead to a few problems in the long-run. These problems often show up in a few ways: We might become detached from the power, energy and wisdom that is uniquely our own. We might be unsure how to feel “real” and “be ourselves” around others. We might lose access to a vast source of knowing about what we want, value and dream of, and the ability to trust and love ourselves.
AEDP
The style of psychotherapy I practice is primarily informed by Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), which integrates experiential, emotion-focused and psychodynamic theory to help you feel better in ways that “stick” and last.
AEDP has empirical support for its effectiveness for a variety of psychological issues and problems including depression, general psychological distress, interpersonal problems, negative thoughts, and emotion dysregulation. It is also shown to enhance positive psychological functioning such as self-esteem, self-compassion, and wellbeing.
Ultimately, AEDP therapy should be a place where you feel good – not necessarily in the sense of happiness – but in the sense that some part of you can recognize from the first session that what we’re doing feels helpful and aligned.
“AEDP is an integrative model of psychotherapy that brings together relational work, experiential techniques, and a focus on the process of change and healing itself, with the aim of not only alleviating negative suffering but also bringing about positive flourishing.”
— Diana Fosha, Ph.D., founder of AEDP