​My approach to counseling is Wholistic and my base theoretical orientations are Humanistic and 

Existential.  I use specific Psychodynamic interventions, and I emphasize Mindfulness.

​

Humanistic approaches recognize that there's a force which moves us towards health, wholeness, self-actualization and authenticity.  

 

This "actualizing tendency" continually acts within us for our healing, to bring us home to ourselves, and to help us express ourselves authentically in life. 

​

 We have natural, inherent worth simply by existing.  However, sometimes others imply that our

worth is conditional on complying with their ideas.  

 

Trying to accommodate to these "conditions of worth" can cause us to lose awareness of our natural authentic self, and to create blocks and restrictions in the action of the "actualizing tendency". 

​

Existential approaches recognize that everything we perceive in the world is inherently neutral.

 

It's our responsibility to be aware of our choices regarding how we view things and draw meaning

from them.

  

In the safe space created during the counseling process, we can be assisted in awareness and understanding 

about experiences which have caused us trauma and grief.

 

We can recognize freedom and heal; we can discover our authentic essence and live our lives

as an expression of it.

​

Psychodynamic approaches address unconscious aspects of our process, stages of development 

throughout our lives, and the healing of trauma and grief.  

 

It's not about "fixing" things, it's actually about resolving the unconscious fixations we have with

old and unhelpful patterns of functioning. 

 

The unconscious is made conscious.....we understand ourselves and evolve.

 

Mindfulness is pervasive throughout all these orientations; it's when we bring our attention to whatever we're experiencing in the here and now.

 

When our open, conscious, awareness is fully in the immediacy of the moment.....we can discover and experience the luminosity of the presence of authentic self.  

  ​​