Life can be very stressful.  Sometimes no matter how hard you try, you feel like you’re spinning your wheels.   Not getting anywhere in terms of your relationships, or perhaps not moving ahead with your personal goals.  Environmental factors such as experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic can greatly affect individuals, as well, heightening anxiety and depression.

In therapy, sometimes external stressors need to be explored carefully and addressed effectively.   Other times, there are internal issues which are usually caused by some form of past trauma.  Trauma is viewed here in the general sense, and can range from having a critical parent to being a survivor of war to adjusting to the radically changed world of a pandemic.

I work from the perspective of Humanistic Psychology.    I don’t think of my clients as having “disorders.”   Rather, I simply view a client as an everyday individual who is struggling with some of life’s problems and having difficulty achieving his/her/their potential for optimum feelings of self-worth and fulfillment in life.

Here is where Cognitive Behavioral Therapy enters the picture. Human beings who have had trauma can form false negative thoughts about the self, or about others, or about the world, which can cause a great deal of internal distress. Negative thoughts can create very negative emotions in the individual, such as anxiety, depression, anger, shame, guilt and despair. Negative thoughts can also impact a person’s ability to maintain a healthy relationship or have a successful career.

CBT works on dispelling these erroneous beliefs and helping the client to replace negative, trauma-based thought patterns with positive, soothing, and evidence-based objective thoughts. When a person learns how to think differently, that person will then find that positive feelings will follow as well.  Greater levels of self-acceptance, and clarity, will be obtained.

Therapy will provide a holistic, comprehensive viewpoint which encompasses a wide range of psychological modalities.  You will have an opportunity to explore the self in an enlivening, and nurturing, environment.  Secrets can be aired, shame or guilt can be dispelled, reassurance can be obtained.  Empowering ways of thinking will be learned.  And you will be able to move forward in your life… to find the relationships which give you pleasure and solace, and to have the fortitude and ability to pursue your passions and achieve your personal goals.