Approach

You are not alone in feeling like you are struggling or stumbling. Life is hard. Life is messy.

You are also not broken or failing. Like everyone else, you’re human. For most humans, relationships, parenting, transitions and change are challenging—even overwhelming at times.

Many of us, even those of us with the most loving and caring parents, were not given all of the emotional and psychological tools needed during childhood to handle everything life throws our way as adolescents and adults. Many of us were taught things by family or by culture that we need to unlearn in order to thrive. Some of us were raised in families and communities that caused outright damage and we need to heal. And we can.

You already found the strength and resilience to get to this place where you are taking care of yourself, where you are seeking the help you need to live the better life that you deserve.

So here we are now, together, taking a compassionate and curious look at your life. Let's see how you got here. Let's discover all the wisdom, creativity, useful tools and skills you possess and strengthen them. Let's find the thoughts, ideas, memories, and perspectives you bring with you that make it harder and do the work together to let those go. Then let's create or develop new ones that are more useful to you going forward.

And what about those nagging symptoms or “bad” habits and behaviors that you want to get rid of? I’m guessing they must serve a purpose or you wouldn’t hold on to them. Often, symptoms have been the only solution to a problem that you could find. For example, someone might have horrible anxiety in relationships because they were mistreated by someone as a child, and this fear of intimacy has protected them, helped them keep others at a distance. It helped them feel safe. Let's not yank away your existing symptoms/defenses/protections, but rather do the work to make you feel safe again, so protection is no longer needed, and the symptom slips away on its own, when you’re ready.