My Approach

I offer insight-oriented therapy for anxiety, depression, self-defeating habits, repeating patterns in relationships, trauma, life transitions and grief. A more extensive list of the problems I work with can be found on my Services page.

Therapy is a specific type of conversation between two people that is focused on the concerns of the person who is seeking help. Each session can provide a temporary refuge from your daily life, allowing you to slow down and say how you really are. I offer a time and place to meet, and my attention and experience in order to listen deeply to what is confusing, distressing, or discouraging you.

The essentials of therapy involve bringing issues that are troubling you into the room and allowing yourself the freedom to express what comes up. The therapeutic relationship between us creates a relational home for your feelings, thoughts, and behaviours. Then you may come to trust enough to remember and mourn what has been lost, recover from old wounds, try out new behaviours, and look forward. 

During appointments you can give voice to your distress in ways that you might not feel comfortable to do with friends or family. With the people in your inner circle, you may hold back—worried about hurting them, being a burden, or afraid you’ll be judged. In therapy, you’re encouraged to say what you need to say, candidly and spontaneously.

Procrastination, Distraction, and Avoidance

Other things that can get in your way of being present are distraction and its variations: procrastination, and avoidance. You want things to get better but it seems like your focus and determination keep getting sabotaged. You know what you need to do but getting yourself to do it isn’t so easy. We’d ask what is distracting you from getting into whatever it is that you think you might want to get into. Addressing distraction is a key part of therapy.

Insight-oriented Therapy: What matters to you?

What happens when we pay attention and become curious about what you’re doing and what’s preoccupying you? Our inquiry might include questions like: What is it that you’re going through? What do you make of it? Who else is involved—alive or dead? What do you want less of? What do you want more of? What truly matters to you?

As you get to know yourself better you can begin to emerge from the fog of frustration and confusion that has been limiting you. In rediscovering your own desires vs. those that others have for you, you can move towards living and relating more authentically.

You are the only you that is, was, or ever will be. So, there can never be a generic plan for therapy. That said, it’s my experience that whatever the problem, when you feel comfortable in the company of a non-judgmental and compassionate therapist, you can start to recover the wholeness of what it is to be human, show up more fully in your relationships, and engage with increasing courage, curiosity, and confidence in the world.