Understanding Yourself, Resolving Internal Struggles, Restoring Self-Esteem

Do you find yourself feeling misunderstood, challenged with making decisions large and small in your life? Are you struggling with self-confidence and direction, believing that you’re not good enough compared to others around you? Help and professional support are available when things become difficult to manage day after day.

As an individual, life experiences unique to you inform the internal struggles you are dealing with. Your culture, religion, family and relational dynamics, significant life events such as loss and grief or a trauma can impact your self-identity, create internal conflicts, affecting both how you grew up and your emotional well-being today. As we begin, my work with you will combine an Insight-Oriented Therapy (IOT) approach with “parts work”, or more formally an Internal Family Systems (IFS) approach, and introspective and retrospective processing. Translation: if we explore and challenge the false negative beliefs that you may be carrying about yourself, you can begin to clear a path towards autonomy, clarity, closeness in important relationships, and finding your place in the world at large. 

Dating, Relationships, Environment & Social Peer Development, Codependency

When tension in your relationship with someone you care about arises, do you find yourself blaming the other, or perhaps taking on the issue as yours alone to solve just to “keep the peace”? If you’re struggling to understand why you don’t feel confident or truly connected at times with others, there may be a cycle of reactions running under the surface that is causing each of you, and the relationship, to suffer. We get to know ourselves through the connections we make; relationships can bring us joy and fulfillment, yet also come with difficulty and stress. At times we sacrifice our relationship with ourselves for the sake of the needs of the people we care about, because we fear losing important people in our lives should we stand up for own needs.

Building and maintaining healthy relationships with friends, romantic partners and colleagues plays a vital role in life growth. If you are looking to improve your self-confidence and deepen intimacy within your relationships (romantic, platonic, and/or most importantly with yourself), we can work to understand your responses to varying relationships in your life that may not be working, and help to develop different responses that are more effective in working toward the kinds of relationships and feelings about yourself that you most desire.

Depression & Anxiety

When depression and anxiety make it difficult to function every day, help is available. If you find yourself having trouble focusing, if you become lost in thought, feel sad or irritable, have little energy or excessively worry, symptoms such as these can affect your closest relationships at home and at work. If you’ve recently dealt with a loss or grief, struggle with addictive behavior or live with stressors affecting your family of origin, I can assist you to explore the challenges and find a clearing to reduce and effectively manage the symptoms you are experiencing. We often grapple with feelings of not having control when issues become long-standing, repetitive, and get in the way of our important life goals. In our work together, we will explore what’s blocking your joy, as I help you build on your comfort level to better express yourself and your needs to the world. You may discover how your mind and body respond to depression and anxiety, make sense of how they came about, and learn to alleviate their impact on your life. 

Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults

As a parent, there are moments when figuring out how to support or relate with your child can feel confusing, difficult and almost unbearable. Children, teens, and young adults often feel misunderstood as they develop and establish a sense of their own identity separate from their parents. I will work with your child to empower, support, and create healing for them and your relationship together. I can help young people express their thoughts and feelings in a non-judgmental environment, and to provide help in learning healthy decision-making. Therapy is a space to learn new skills, gradually develop communication and emotional expression, find appropriate ways of coping with challenges and change, learn how to better handle difficult emotions, and discover what core strengths are present that can be used toward a person becoming their best self.