“Psychotherapy, done well, should be a journey of liberation.”~Alain de Botton
One thing I’ve learned in my fifteen years of doing psychotherapy with now hundreds and hundreds of clients is that most of us live with the yearning for a life that is of our own making.
Jungian analyst and the author of “Women who run with the wolves” Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés calls this kind of life a hand-made life, a life weaved by hand- one individual stitch at a time. This kind of life-making is slow and gradual, but what it produces is a creation that is entirely handmade and entirely original, just like its maker.
To make a handmade life is to honor the gift of life as well as to honor the importance of each individual creator, each original voice.
When our handmade life is un-lived or stifled or buried, one goes on saying that “something is missing” or that “I’m not doing something I’m supposed to be doing.”
My sense is that no matter what brings one into therapy, the underlying pain at the root is always life that is not being lived.
Psychotherapy as a journey of liberation brings what is important into focus. But most importantly, it is the journey of freeing one-couple or individual-to live the lives of their unique original making.
My approach and philosophy
I am most passionate about seeing how we as humans navigate our way to crafting a life that is hand-made. It’s never a linear process and it cannot be achieved in a sprint. I believe we cycle back over and over to themes that want to be explored deeper, unearthing something of value at each successive cycle.
My own approach to how this work is held is a complex one, but most importantly, it is very individual.
I begin any meeting with an individual or a couple in a space of complete curiosity. Some people of course share what they wish to work on before we meet for the first time and I hold that as an important marker that can begin guiding the work. Within several sessions, the heart of the work becomes crystallized and the journey then becomes clearer, or at least the next few steps do. The client as a journeyer becomes clearer about what the they wish to explore, uncover or shift.
My background is in trauma-informed care. I am trained in art therapy and some somatic modalities. I utilize a variety of approaches, including Jungian psychology, inner child work, attachment theory, Internal Family Systems, mindfulness and dream work to name a few. I am also an Imago-trained therapist. My background as a whole helps me pay attention to the verbal and the non-verbal, which offers a more wholistic view of what emerges for you, the client.
I have a strong relational lens. This means two things. One is that I see the therapeutic relationship itself as a powerful healing container and secondly is that even when I work with individual clients, I hold their relationships with the same care I give to the work with the client themselves.
Most importantly, I travel step by step with you. Needs change and what comes into focus changes in therapy. To belong to one’s life is not a triumphant grand act of instant enlightenment. It is a steady unfolding. We must pay attention to what is present and to what wants to emerge through dreams, symbols, words and often through what is not being spoken at all.