Holistic Counseling
I create a safe and nurturing environment for a person to delve into their therapeutic process, a space of holding, questioning, exploring and transforming. I work with individuals and couples of all ages and backgrounds, people struggling with health issues, relationship and career challenges, creative blocks, grief and addiction.
I believe in a multifaceted approach to counseling. Along with the more traditional talk therapy, I employ sand tray therapy, imagery, body-based psycho-therapy and mindfulness practices. These techniques go beyond what can be accessed on a strictly verbal and conscious level and reach into the mystery and wealth of the unconscious.
Sand Tray Therapy
Sand tray therapy utilizes a small tray of sand in which a person creates scenes with miniature objects. The tray is a magical space, where our inner and outer, conscious and unconscious worlds are given a visible form to meet and communicate. Sand tray is like a dream experience bringing to consciousness that which has been repressed and hidden from our every day experience. Our inner voice and wisdom is given space to speak and be known. This container offers a safe holding to recognize our hidden blocks and wounds and to re-envision our lives with healing insight.
Body-Based Psychotherapy
The entry point in the body-based psychotherapy work is the body and its’ symptoms. Deep wisdom, welling up from our unconscious, communicates through the body. Our symptoms and sensations can be our most powerful allies.
In the unfolding of a sadness, an irritability, a tension, a pain, we see our story reflected back to us much like in our dreams. We see our specific way of suffering and coping and we discover the fertile movement this life is calling forth from us. In this process the symptom is not merely sickness in need of treatment, but rather the messenger urging and guiding us toward wholeness.
Mindfulness Practices in Relationships
Relationships offer a unique pathway into personal transformation. There is no other human experience quite like relationships for revealing the internal madness inside of us. We unconsciously project our life long unseen, unmet needs, and ego wounds on to our partners. This vulnerability is often hidden from our conscious selves. Relationship crisis activates and amplifies this hidden brokenness offering us a unique opportunity to heal this otherwise out of reach wounded inner core.
This becoming conscious is a very simple yet exceedingly difficult process for most people. Our relationships offer the foundation for an accessible step-by-step mindfulness practice, helping us to feel more connected, and loving to ourselves and therefore able to be more truly loving and loved in our relationships.