People are naturally resilient with the right support. Therapy facilitates the healing process by helping you deeply understand and love yourself, with compassion, so your presenting concerns can be effectively addressed. The approach I use varies to fit the style and presenting issues of each client. Some clients place greater importance on alleviating symptoms quickly, while others want to address the underlying causes of these symptoms so that more substantial inner growth and self-love can occur. Typically, I take a holistic approach combining in-depth traditional talk therapy with more recent, empirically-validated and present-focused approaches. I sometimes act as a life coach, helping clients change behaviors and discern choices that lead toward the lives they envision. My predominant focus, however, is guiding the kind of deeper exploration that results in real inner transformation, personal fulfillment, and learning to love yourself. Most of the struggles and pain that bring people to therapy are based on experiences in past and present relationships, and what we learned about ourselves from those relationships. Exploring the grief, losses, joys, and disappointments of your life, how you developed to cope with these, and how they inform how you feel about yourself, leads to insight, awareness, and emotional intelligence that is vital to healing and growth. An important component of this process is the therapeutic relationship—your feelings in relationship with me, and what you learn about how to love yourself through this relationship—as we make this exciting journey together.