My Approach
I think of counseling as a little like taking a course in yourself. At the end of the course you’ll know more about the topic--you!--and you’ll know how to apply what you have learned to feel empowered and be proactive whenever new or similar challenges arise in the future.
Counseling can help you move forward in your life with less stress and more joy. It can help you reach for your dreams--or find new ones. And it can help you feel more at ease with yourself and more self-confident in your personal and professional endeavors.
From a practical standpoint my goal as a counselor is to "work myself out of a job"--in other words to empower you and give you the tools to help yourself. I will provide you with a safe, accepting, and encouraging environment in which to do this, and I will help you move through the process in as timely a manner as is possible given the nature of the issues you are working on.
My counseling orientation is eclectic, holistic, and client-centered. This means I look at the whole person, and I tailor my approach to fit the individual person and issues rather than using "one size fits all" methods and treatments. I believe an individually tailored approach is especially important because I work with people from many different cultural backgrounds. I strive to honor those differences in the work I do, and I consider multicultural sensitivity to be one of the hallmarks of my practice.
While my counseling approach is eclectic, whenever it is appropriate and beneficial to the client I use brief therapy models combined with Cognitive Behavioral techniques (CBT). For some issues, significant results can be achieved in 8-10 sessions. In other cases a longer commitment is more desirable and will produce a better outcome.
For information about my background and training please see the About Me page.