Our approach to psychotherapy is based on the understanding that our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual selves are integral aspects of a unified whole.
We therefore believe in a therapy process that goes beyond talk to include an awareness of how feelings and life experiences are held and manifest in the body. These manifestations can be seen as muscular patterns that effect how we perceive, feel, move, breathe, think and express ourselves.
The psychological defenses – rationalizations, denials, and suppressions – one uses to handle pain and the stress of life, are anchored in the body as chronic muscular tensions that inhibit breath, distort posture and impede the free flow of life energy.
We help our clients bring attention to their unique holding patterns as we support them in gradually exploring the underlying emotional terrain, and beginning to release tight muscles through expanded movement, deeper breathing and emotional expression.
As the therapy progresses, the client normally uncovers beliefs, experiences and emotions which have been repressed since childhood, and begins to understand that habitual defenses manifested in the body as muscular tensions and in the mind as self-limiting beliefs were once a recipe for survival in an early non-supportive environment. In current life as an adult, however, these same physical and mental defenses inhibit a capacity for joy, pleasure, love, sadness, sensuality and healthy anger.
Through bodywork, analysis, and the experience of a safe, healthy, supportive connection with the therapist, clients gradually
- gain a greater understanding and awareness of old patterns of action and reaction
- become able to tolerate more freedom and power in their emotional and physical expression of feelings
- increase their capacity to tolerate and resolve old pain, conflict or trauma
- experience more pleasure and relate to self and others in more satisfying ways
We offer psychotherapy for individuals, couples, children, adolescents and families.
Play Therapy – Family Therapy – Parent Counseling
Children who are experiencing emotional, developmental or learning difficulties – or who have experienced significant changes or traumatic events in their lives – can benefit greatly from play-based psychotherapy.
In play therapy, toys are like the child’s words and play is the child’s language. It is through play that children process, express and regulate their emotions, and learn about themselves and their relationships in the world around them.
In our work with children, we strategically utilize play therapy, in addition to other therapeutic approaches, to help children express what is troubling them when they do not have the verbal language to express their thoughts and feelings.
Through play-based psychotherapy, children learn to express and manage feelings, communicate more effectively with others, modify behavior and develop problem-solving skills.
In addition to our work with children (0-18), we offer family therapy, parent counseling and dyadic work with parents and children.