Treatment SPECIALTIES and services

I provide counseling to individuals ages 16 and older.  Credentials and experience aside, agency-based clinicians are as effective as one in private practice. However, a few benefits to a good private practice therapist is the personal attention. Your assessment, treatment planning, and on-going services are done by the same therapist. You have the added benefit of discretion as there are many suites in our building and no waiting room time. This therapist is dedicated to providing you with competent services designed for you. 

Relationships are precious, but no one ever promised they would be easy. Premarital counseling lowers the chance of poor communication and early separation. Once committed, unprepared couples face unexpected communication, compatibility, spiritual, and cultural adjustments. Therapy can work through many relationship problems, from communication problems to infidelity. When conflicts cannot be resolved, "breaking-up is hard to do." Pain, betrayal, pride, social pressure, guilt, and other psychosocial factors make separations and divorce a difficult and stressful experience. Therapy can reduce the potential for unnecessary damage.

Clinical social workers differ from other professional counselors in this perspective. We always look at the environment's influence on family conflict. There are always pressures of employment, extended family, friends, schools, neighborhood, culture and more. These systems can put strain on families to disrupt family relationships. This therapist will engage a family as a system of parts which connect, disconnect, and trying to find balance. Family Systems and Structural therapies will help a family understand itself as a unit. These approaches help everyone understand their roles, responsibilities, and challenges.

Often people experience symptoms common to mental illnesses--anxiety, fear, depressed mood, confused thinking, anger, and such, but they are not severe enough to be a mental disorder. When the symptoms seriously interfere with your ability to function, it is very important to see a therapist. In many cases, people in distress turn to mind altering substances to escape or to "get high" for recreation. The dangers of addiction are typically not understood until it causes real damage. A therapist can help you find a path to recovery for a positive and healthy lifestyle.