What happens in individual therapy will be unique to you.

In session we explore your experiences.  I’m curious about you. We talk. I ask questions. What sheds light on your stuck places? What stops you from being you? What gets in the way of your relationships? Therapy for individuals is tailored to what you are working with. We look to your body and our relationship for clues about what needs nurturing and wants to change. 

Often, our bodies will reveal unconscious beliefs that rule our behavior. This is the heart of somatic therapeutic work. Our bodies speak a different language than our words. How the body expresses itself is often connected to our core hurts and longings. When we can create enough support in therapy and skillfully follow the clues, your body’s wisdom will lead us to potent places for your healing. 

Therapy is an experiment in relationships.

The beliefs, attitudes and behaviors that keep you stuck often show up in the therapy room too. In individual therapy, what happens between us can be a mini version of what is happening in your life. While the therapeutic container is unusual and separate from your life, I am still a person relating with you and your experiences. Eventually, with time and trust, how you relate to others and the world around you will start to creep into how you view our dynamic and me. We can study this for clues about how relationships can become problematic for you.  

With this awareness, we can experiment and try different ways of being. What is it like when I respond or relate to you in a familiar or unfamiliar ways?  What unconscious expectations or projections come to light? Trying new ways of relating can be scary and difficult. At your pace, we notice how this is for you with compassion and acceptance.  This gives you self-knowledge, which is key to freedom, self-expression, acceptance, compassion and authenticity. 

My role.

I see myself as a companion to you in these explorations, meeting your stuck hurt places with kindness. Being met with understanding and validation, by its self has tremendous potential for creating change. Often, we are stuck because others have not met us in a way that supports our needs and sense of ourselves. We are missing an experience that would help us to feel more complete. Part of my role is to discover with you what it is you most long for, provide that experience and support you to fulfill this longing with your relationship with yourself and others. 

In individual counseling, I also discern what approaches to use and how to best support your way of healing. If you are working with trauma, I learn how much your systems goes to dis-regulation and determine the best ways for you to regulate, resource and support your nervous system.

 I teach my clients mindfulness. Mindfulness is a fancy way to say that you are aware of your inner experience, can indentify feeling in your body, thoughts and sensations. Often we are strong at knowing one area be it thoughts, feelings or body. I support you to deepen others ways to know yourself. I find this kind of self-knowledge supports all kind of clients in their processes. 

Growth happens.

I trust the organic way your process wants to unfold in one on one counseling. There is no one way your process of healing is supposed to look. All living systems will move towards balance, using their own creative power and inner intelligence to find this balance. I believe this is true about our emotional lives as well. Even though you have been hurt and are hurting, I trust a part of you wants to heal and move towards wholeness. 

Contact me for a free consultation.

In this 20 minute conversation we can check out if we might work well together.