Child Therapy:
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD); anger management
issues; defiance & oppositional behavior; school behavior problems;
impulsivity, excessively sad, tearful or anxious; poor motivation
The goal of child therapy is more than simply achieving an obedient
child, the goal is to achieve a cooperative child; a child who is emotionally,
socially, and psychologically healthy; and a child who will grow to become a
mature, responsible, and healthy adult capable of success in the workplace and
family.
I work from a developmental framework that has at its foundation an
understanding of the neuro-developmental processes of brain development in
childhood. These
neuro-developmental processes extend beyond mere behavior to include critical
features of parent-child communication and how relationships are developed and
expressed.
I work closely with parents as co-therapists, offering parents active
and constructive guidance on communication and relationship interventions they
can employ to help them more effectively and productively resolve the child
behavior issues that they face at home and in the child’s classroom.
Parent-Child Relationship Therapy: Improved parent-child communication; improved child cooperation;
improved family mood, less anger-fighting-frustration and more
smiles-laughter-happiness
The most powerful and effective approach to resolving children’s
emotional and behavioral problems is to enlist the active involvement of
parents as co-therapists by helping parents to understand the issues involved
and how they can help in resolving these issues. Most parents also
appreciate being offered specific recommendations for how to respond to their
child’s behavioral and emotional problems in a way that will not only resolve
the problem situation at hand, but that will also support their child’s healthy
emotional, social, and psychological development.
Therefore, my general preference for child therapy is to serve as a
consultant to the child’s parents in helping them understand the issues
involved and to help them become the agents of therapeutic change for their
children. This approach not only helps with the target child and current
situation, the knowledge and understanding gained by the parents can be helpful
with siblings and with later problematic situations that may emerge in the
family.
Parental Alienation Dynamics: I am also available as a consultant for
issues that are commonly referred to as parental alienation, a parent-child relationship
process that involves a child's intensive and excessive rejection of one
parent, with an over-idealization of the other parent, typically as part of a
divorce process.
Marital Therapy: Improved communication and development of productive dialogue; resolution of relationship issues that are causing emotional distancing, arguments, and resentments.
I take an active approach to marital counseling in which I serve as a
consultant to both partners on communication and relationship dynamics in order
to resolve dysfunctional communication and relationship patterns that have been
undermining productive resolution of their issues. I listen to the
meanings contained beneath the surface issues in order to hear and address the
deeper concerns contained in the marital communication, helping both partners
to productively resolve the core relationship and communication issues that
have been creating the impasse.
Individual Therapy:
Resolution of depression, anxiety, and anger management issues; personal
growth and development.
In individual therapy I work from a perspective
that recognizes the central importance of personal and life meaning as core
organizing forces in our lives. Issues of intimacy and loneliness, and of
authenticity in self-experience and self-expression, can emerge as core therapy
issues being expressed through symptoms of depression, anxiety, and anger.
We tend to repeat relationship patterns from the past, but unlike more psychodynamically oriented therapists, I don’t believe it is necessarily important for adults to explore the details of their childhoods. The most important feature is how we approach our lives right now. We may bring relationship patterns and expectations from our history into our current relationships, in which case it becomes important to become more grounded in the truth of the current situation. But the past is only important as it becomes actualized in the present. Therapeutic change is a process of releasing and moving forward.