These are two of the same questions many people ask, including myself.

I don’t have any cookie cutter answers or a short and sweet answer. Every day the answers to these questions are changing in our lives, our world and our perspective.

A short answer I can give you is that therapy is not like the movies or T.V shows like Dr. Phil. I won’t make you lie down on the couch, I won’t ask you over and over again how you are feeling. We may actually laugh together and find humor in the therapy process.

Over the years (personally and professionally) I have experienced working with different individuals, young adults, families, and adolescents, in different settings and environments. Through this,
I have come to witness and believe the beauty of how therapy can change lives. I believe that what you put into it is part of what determines what you will get out of it.

Therapy is not easy, and at times it is stressful, scary, emotional, frustrating, and you may not want to come back. At the very same time, therapy can be a breath of fresh air, a weight lifted off your shoulders, humorous, and you may find the “ah-ha” moments and clarity in life.  You may become empowered, strengthen and build relationships, understand boundaries, become a stronger, healthier, and improved individual, family, or couple.

Therapy can be a place to talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly. Here, you can talk without judgment or ridicule, in a safe place, with a trained professional. I am here to help you and/or your family, or significant other start the journey of making positive changes.

      If you feel alone in sharing the pain that’s inside you or you don’t want to tell anyone else, then I hope you will           take a peek  inside your mind and your heart and see if counseling might be something to look into. 

I could use fancy, big words to describe psychodynamic therapy and all of its cohorts in a textbook sense, but in a down-to-earth, real world sense, it feels like talking to your most supportive friend combined with perhaps the wisest grandmother one has ever known who simply listens to you, then gives you mind-blowing advice custom-tailored to you. And, it’s usually based on how you have the answers already, right inside of you. 

These realizations help you make decisions (good decisions because you feel good!). Even if just one at a time. Each good decision, over a period of time, will lead you to opportunities and doors to open. Each opportunity leads you to support systems and prosperity because it is the path that you chose, not the one your emotions have hidden from you. 

In time, you’ll look back and see how this one small decision to try out counseling may have led you to a series of decisions that are now your life. Your new life. Your (happy) new life. At least that’s my goal. And, I can’t wait to meet with you. Talk to me about your own day and time right here.