Psychotherapy

I am a compassionate and empathetic therapist with an intention to empower you by helping you identify your personal inner resources of strength, creativity, insight, and healing. I'm dedicated to creating a safe enviornment for you to expand your awareness and navigate the ebbs & flows of your life. I use a holistic approach focusing on the whole self - mind, body, and spirit. Embracing a holistic view of human psychology means that I look at how all areas of your life are connected. I believe in working with the mind, body and spirit to create change.  You already have everything you need to be whole, healthy and happy. A therapist can be a facilitator to help you discover the unhealthy thought patterns and behaviors that maintain suffering. You can learn how to practice self-compassion and strengthen the positive qualities you already have in therapy.  I use a combination of techniques and theories in my practice, depending on the needs of each individual. I most often use cognitive behavioral therapy which focuses on identifying and re-framing beliefs and thoughts that lead to negative emotions and behaviors. I educate clients in techniques that research has shown most effective in creating change. I also implement mind-body techniques based on current research in neuroscience and integrative health.  Mind-body techniques include the practice of mindfulness, hypnosis, compassion training, meditation and breathing exercises. Mindfulness is the non-judgmental awareness of what is happening in the present.  Most of us are operating on automatic pilot, rushing through our days stuck in behavioral patterns motivated by unconscious, self-limiting thoughts. Mindfulness allows us to reclaim and experience the fullness of our lives in the present. Real change takes place outside of therapy sessions when you practice the skills and techniques you have learned. Therefore, I often assign homework and practices to be completed during the week between sessions such as meditations, written assignments, physical activity, journaling, etc. I work with a wide range of presenting concerns including, self-esteem & self-image, grief & loss, anxiety, depression, relationship issues, emotional blockages, dissolving limiting beliefs & emotional patterns, transition and adjustment issues. The therapeutic relationship is a collaborative process, together we will find the tools you need to move forward, feel better than before and clear the root of your issues. 

Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy is a process, which creates a non-ordinary state of conciousness. This non-ordinary state of consciousness, which is a different state from normal waking consciouness, allows a client to respond to suggestions with higher than normal receptivity. The word hypnosis comes from the Greek word “hypnos” which simply means, “sleep.” The therapy itself uses guided relaxation techniques that invoke feelings of intense relaxation, concentration, and/or focus to achieve a heightened state of awareness or trance-like state. Hypnosis is interactive and involes verbal and non-verbal communications between client and hypnotherapist. 

Hypnotherapy is commonly used as an aid to psychotherapy and it directly engages the client's conscious and subconscious mind in the therapy process. Most theraputic work is greatly enhanced while clients are in a hypnotic state because they are able to access information, healing, creativity, memories, and insight that is not normally avaliable when in the waking concious state. Clients report that these expanded states of conciousness change them in lasting positive ways. Clients realize that, for instance, although they have anxiety, they are not the anxiety, that is, they can dis-identify from the anxiety. From these hypnotically accessed transcendent states, clients begin to have a new sense of self and a new way of relating to the challenges in their lives. They become dis-identified from their stories and the previously percieved roles they have played in their lives. Hypnosis allows the conciousness to expand along with expanding sense of Self. These hypnotic state also become vehicles through which we can re-create our realities.