About Therapy
About Me
Why do I do this?
Simply put, I had my own transformative experience in therapy. My first career path I had prepared for since high school wasn’t feeding me anymore.
In my first therapy session, I cried. We worked together to look at depression, anxiety, self-loathing, guilt, and shame. Those issues were not on the list when I met my therapist. I just wanted to feel better, and that was my starting point.
I hadn’t intended to change careers; that prospect arose during my work. I had a good experience in therapy. I wanted to pay that experience forward to people living in emotional pain.
Here’s my background
I have a master’s degree in social work from Barry University and have worked with children, teens, and adults. I am a training candidate with the Philadelphia Association of Jungian Analysts.
My style is eclectic, and I focus on tuning into your inner resources to help you find your way. (See the FAQ for more information.) I enjoy working with trauma, PTSD, depression, anxiety, grief, ADHD, and your general sense of feeling stuck about something.
My first career was in music. I still enjoy it.
Therapy is like taking a trip
You go to the airport, get through security, walk to your gate, and find your seat on the plane. The process starts when you decide to drive to the airport. While we’re in the air together, we’ll work on things you feel we need to do.
You’re the pilot, and I’m your guide and co-pilot. You may discover new things about yourself. We might encounter turbulence.
This trip is different
Your journey is a private one that we share together. Most sessions feel like conversations. Some people cry in therapy, but there may be moments when we laugh together.
Sometimes, the trip is brief, sometimes long
We can work for four sessions, four months, or a few years. It depends on what you bring into the consulting room and how far you want to go with therapy. A trip from New York to Washington, D.C., is not the same as a trip from New York to Hawaii.
It takes us some time to get the plane up to cruising altitude, and it can take time to muster the courage to look at certain emotions or situations from the past.
Things may get prickly or feel muddy. For some people, that’s a part of the process.
At some point, the plane will land
When we finish our work together, you should feel like you have new knowledge, skills, attitude, coping, resources, and insight into what brought you into therapy.
We know the journey is over when you feel differently
Triggers don’t hit you the same way anymore. Hot buttons aren’t as hot anymore. Grief feels different and more manageable. Past trauma doesn’t activate you the same way it used to.
You discover new ways to respond, speak, and be yourself. That thing from the past doesn’t haunt you as it used to.
When the plane lands
We’ll celebrate your progress, the changes you’ve experienced, and the passage you’ve undertaken. We’ll review our work together and highlight your new way of thinking and feeling. Then we’ll say goodbye to each other.