How I Practice

Since 2017, I’ve helped my clients break through the obstacles that seem to be holding them back in life. Life's too short to be unhappy, unsure, or unfulfilled. Let me help you learn and develop better ways to handle the issues that are standing in the way of your goals. Get in touch today to see what I can do for you.

Motivational Interviewing

Motivational interviewing (MI) is a client-centered counseling style that facilitates and engages intrinsic motivation within the client to change behavior. It's particularly effective in helping clients navigate issues where ambivalence or resistance to change is present. Here’s how a therapist typically uses MI in counseling:

Expressing Empathy: MI relies heavily on a non-judgmental, empathetic, and understanding approach. Therapists use reflective listening to validate the client's feelings and experiences, creating a safe and supportive environment.
Developing Discrepancy: The therapist helps the client explore the differences between their current behaviors and their broader life goals or values. This discrepancy acts as a catalyst for change, as the client begins to see how their current actions may not align with their desired outcomes.
Rolling with Resistance: Instead of confronting or arguing against resistance, MI encourages therapists to accept and roll with it. Resistance is not opposed but explored, helping the client to examine their ambivalence and consider different perspectives.
Supporting Self-Efficacy: MI involves bolstering the client’s confidence in their ability to effect change. The therapist encourages the client to recognize their past successes and strengths, fostering a belief in their capacity to make meaningful changes.
Enhancing Motivation for Change: Through strategic questioning and guidance, the therapist helps the client articulate their own motivations for change. This self-motivation is more powerful than externally imposed reasons for change.
Collaborative Goal Setting: The therapist and client work together to set achievable, client-driven goals. This collaboration ensures that the goals are tailored to the client’s personal values and motivations.
Focusing on the Present and Future: MI concentrates on current concerns and future goals rather than dwelling extensively on past behaviors. This focus helps clients envision and work towards a future that aligns with their values.
Building a Plan for Change: The therapist assists the client in developing a concrete plan for change. This plan includes specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals.

In summary, motivational interviewing in therapy is a respectful and encouraging approach that helps clients find their internal motivation to change. By working through ambivalence and empowering clients to take an active role in their healing journey, MI effectively supports clients in making positive, self-directed changes.

Logo-Therapy

Logotherapy, developed by Viktor Frankl, is a therapeutic approach that helps individuals find meaning in their lives, even in the midst of suffering. When a therapist utilizes logotherapy to assist clients, the process generally involves several key steps:

Identification of Meaning: The therapist encourages the client to explore and identify what gives their life meaning. This could be through relationships, work, personal achievements, experiences, or even through the way they respond to suffering.
Understanding Suffering: In logotherapy, suffering is not seen as unnecessary but as a potential avenue to find meaning. The therapist helps the client understand and reframe their suffering in a way that emphasizes its role in personal growth and finding purpose.
Future-Oriented Focus: The therapist guides the client to look towards the future and set goals that align with their identified sources of meaning. This future orientation fosters a sense of purpose and direction.
Existential Analysis: The therapist engages in existential analysis with the client to address their fundamental attitudes towards life and existence. This involves confronting and examining existential questions and anxieties.
Responsibility and Choice: Logotherapy strongly emphasizes the individual's responsibility for their choices and attitudes. The therapist helps the client see that they have the freedom to choose their response to circumstances, thereby empowering them to make decisions that align with their sense of meaning.
Practical Techniques: Techniques such as de-reflection (shifting focus away from oneself to others or meaningful tasks) and paradoxical intention (encouraging the client to embrace their fears or symptoms to lessen their impact) are used to help clients deal with specific issues like anxiety, phobias, or obsessive thoughts.
Navigating Life Transitions: For clients dealing with life transitions or existential crises, logotherapy aids in navigating these periods, reinforcing the idea that every stage of life can be meaningful.
Addressing Specific Issues: Whether a client is dealing with grief, trauma, depression, or other challenges, logotherapy is tailored to help them find personal significance in these experiences, providing a resilient and hopeful perspective to move forward.

In summary, logotherapy in counseling is centered on helping clients discover and pursue what makes their life meaningful. It empowers them to live purposefully, even in the face of adversity, and equips them with existential tools to navigate their personal and psychological challenges.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a structured, time-limited psychotherapy that focuses on identifying and changing negative or unhelpful thought patterns and behaviors. Here's how a therapist typically utilizes CBT to help clients navigate their issues:

Identifying Distorted Thinking: The therapist helps the client recognize negative or irrational thought patterns, often referred to as cognitive distortions (like all-or-nothing thinking, overgeneralization, and catastrophizing).
Challenging Unhelpful Thoughts: Once these patterns are identified, the therapist works with the client to challenge and reframe these thoughts. The goal is to replace them with more realistic and positive perspectives.
Understanding the Link Between Thoughts, Emotions, and Behaviors: CBT emphasizes the interconnection between thoughts, emotions, and actions. Therapists help clients understand how their thoughts affect their feelings and behaviors and vice versa.
Developing Coping Strategies: The therapist equips the client with practical skills and techniques to manage negative thoughts and emotions. These may include relaxation techniques, stress management skills, and problem-solving strategies.
Behavioral Experiments and Activities: Clients are often encouraged to engage in activities or ‘homework’ outside of therapy sessions. These tasks are designed to put into practice the skills learned in therapy and challenge existing beliefs in real-world settings.
Setting Goals: The therapist works with the client to set specific, achievable goals. These goals are usually related to changing behaviors or thought patterns that contribute to the client's problems.
Encouraging Positive Activities: Clients are encouraged to engage in positive activities that can improve mood and alter negative thought patterns, like exercise, hobbies, or socializing.
Monitoring and Reflecting: Clients often keep journals or logs to monitor their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. This self-monitoring helps in identifying patterns and tracking progress.
Addressing Core Beliefs: Over time, CBT aims to address more deeply rooted beliefs and schemas that contribute to persistent issues in the client's life.
Preventing Relapse: Finally, CBT involves developing strategies to maintain gains and prevent relapse. This might include recognizing early signs of setbacks and having a plan to effectively deal with them.

In summary, CBT is a highly effective, evidence-based approach that helps clients address a wide range of issues by changing detrimental thought patterns and behaviors. It empowers clients with practical tools and strategies, making it a proactive form of therapy with lasting benefits.