Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy provides the time and space for people to explore thoughts and feelings and gain insight into the root causes of their problems and conflicts. Over time, clients can expect to see significant changes in day-to-day life, self-esteem, and self-awareness.
There are some cases in which it is clear within the first few sessions that you a patient may be dealing with a specific problem that can be resolved with just a few meetings. Whether you’re struggling to make a difficult decision, deciding whether to move across the country, or making plans for an aging parent, short-term counseling can be immensely helpful. In these cases, five to fifteen sessions is often enough to resolve the problem that brought you to counseling.
In other cases, the problem is more involved and has been troubling you for some time. Perhaps the problem is bringing up a conflict from your early childhood or resonating with a past trauma or unresolved loss. Maybe you’ve been feeling depressed or anxious for a few months. To explore and resolve these situations, short-term psychotherapy with once or twice weekly meetings for several months may be the treatment of choice.
When the issues involve the collisions we have in life regarding “sex and drugs and rock-n-roll,” we believe that comprehensive treatment using holistic, multidisciplinary approaches, is what has proven to work best.
People in Relationship
When the issues involve relationship negotiations, especially for relationships that fall outside “orthodox” notions, such as in polyamory and open relationships, it can be helpful to have one or all of the partners participate in therapy.
Are you having difficulty communicating without fighting? Has it been hard finding the right balance of togetherness and separateness? Is your sex life not what it used to be? Are you struggling with jealousy and trust or repeatedly find yourself discussing a past betrayal? In these situations and many others, relationship therapy together can be helpful.
Intimate relationships not only demand honesty and self-examination, they also inevitably bring forth unresolved issues from our families of origin. With couples or other relationship combinations, we facilitate productive conversations and conflict resolution by helping to resolve emotional wounds and encouraging the development of the skills necessary for satisfying and enriching relationships. In addition, we help combos to understand how their relationship has been shaped by each partner’s childhood experiences. With this understanding, couples often gain an increased sense of mastery and effectiveness in their relationship.
For some issues, a few sessions are enough. Other times, a longer commitment to psychotherapy is required. In most cases, we meet with combos once weekly. Depending on your particular problems and situation, we may agree to meet more or less often. Regardless, relationship therapy together can provide you with a safe space to discuss the difficulties in your combo and to develop hope as your relationship moves forward.
Family Dynamics
Is your child or adolescent struggling with academics or troublesome behavior? Has it been difficult to fully integrate a new member into your family? Are you struggling to care for an aging parent? Perhaps your family is simply experiencing too much conflict or a lack of intimacy. Is your child or adolescent struggling with academics or troublesome behavior or stigma? With these and other problems, family therapy can be helpful.
Because problems exist in a context larger than the individual, we often work with entire families. In family therapy, we help families to address the problems that inevitably arise as children grow, elders develop, and families change. Together, we improve communication, clarify boundaries, and create collaboration among family members. Family therapy is effective with a wide-range of problems, including difficulties with communication, relationship conflict, eating disorders, grief and loss, stigma, and many more.