F.A.Q

In my opinion, everyone could benefit from therapy. But some clues that NOW is the time for you may be related to how your particular problems are affecting your quality of life. Is your relationship struggling? Are your career goals being negatively affected? Are you feeling overwhelmed, stuck, paralyzed, or apathetic to your own life? Is talking to friends or loved ones not satisfying or helpful? Do you feel as if you need a new, clean perspective? If so, it may be time to get help.

Therapy (AKA psychotherapy, counseling) is a process by which you, the client, has a dedicated time (45 minutes) to talk with someone, like myself, who has been trained to help you with various life problems. During the on-going weekly talks, you and I would work together to understand your patterns of thinking and acting and I would offer my objective, non-judgmental, trained, and experienced point of view. This interaction will likely give you new ideas about how to see the world and how to act with people important to you.

A clinical psychologist holds a doctorate in clinical psychology and has been trained to help people with psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety, etc.. Unlike psychiatrists, who have been though general medical school and then specialize in psychiatry (vs podiatry, internal medicine, and the like), psychologist cannot write prescriptions for medication.

A Psy.D. is a Doctorate of Psychology. Psychologist can have a Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D.), a Doctorate of Education (E.D), or a Psy.D. While all degrees share basic training structures for psychologists, Psy.D.'s are specific to psychologists, whereas Ph.D.'s and E.D.'s are also offered for other disciplines.

I explain Cognitive Behavioral Therapy as a method of therapy that is based on the idea that challenging your own ideas (cognitive) and putting new ones to the test (behavioral) can produce positive effects on your life.

I explain Relational Therapy as a method of therapy by which the therapists uses the therapeutic relationship itself as a way to bring positive change to your life. Talking directly about the therapy relationship is common. Also, using the relationship to model and/or practice new ideas and behaviors is helpful.

Parent coaching is when a therapist works with the parents to collaborate and educate for the purpose of bettering the lives of their children.  Issues for parent coaching include: your child's behavioral issues, emotional issues (eg. anxiety, depression), and also relational issues with family or peers.  While children are sometimes seen for diagnostic purposes, the majority of parent coaching involves working with the parents alone.  I have found that parents are the most effective therapeutic tool for children of all ages. ​