My Approach

Jumping In

You come in concerned about a feeling, an issue, a situation. That’s our jumping off point. Your concern becomes our concern. I listen with an ear toward your core issues and your goals.

We start with the story – the narrative of why you’ve come to see me. From there we go deeper, exploring the assumptions, beliefs, values, internal and behavioral patterns, and lifestyle choices that are holding you back and building on ones that help you.

Treatment Focus

To me, the most important thing about the story you bring to therapy isn’t the actual events. Rather, the narrative’s importance is in how you relate and respond to it: What you tell yourself about it and how it shapes and shows up in your present actions, feelings, and relationships.

This is because our goal is not just to alleviate discomfort or problem-solve. Our goal is also to give you the tools to deal with future concerns. We do this by building your awareness of your inner workings – your patterns, priorities, and values. This awareness gives you the freedom to choose effective action and live life in a way that’s more meaningful to you.

Awareness, Meaning, and the Origins of Mood

Depression, anxiety, and anger are physical, mental, and emotional phenomena. But I believe that one often-overlooked origin of these moods is meaning – or rather a debilitating lack of meaning.

As adults, we often choose to set aside or mute our immediate needs or reactions to achieve a goal or get along with others. For example, we may silently endure tedious meetings to succeed at work. And consciously making choices and sacrifices like these can be useful and right for us.

But often we take this several steps further. We repress emotions entirely, saying to ourselves that they’re unjustified. Or we take actions that we don’t feel comfortable with, imagining that we have no choice.

When your existence is cut off from your values, how can you feel anything but sad, anxious, angry, flat, or empty? If you pretend to be okay – that is, if you live in denial of what you feel and what you know to be important and true – how can you feel okay?

For that reason, the process of therapy involves the process of highlighting your values and finding ways to act on them. So that you can live authentically, instead of repressing feelings and living in opposition to yourself.