119 Ward Street, Larkspur, CA 94939
Your emotional health is an integral aspect of how you function individually and in your relationships. There are many obstacles that can prevent people from being as happy or as fulfilled as they’d like to be, whether it be life stressors, anxiety, depression or complicated family of origin histories leaving an imprint on how you see yourself, others and the world. Friends and family can be helpful but you might need a bit more.
If you are here, something isn’t working for you and you feel stuck in some way. You might have a very specific issue or perhaps it’s less clear. Perhaps you have a sense there might be some connection to your past and you’re ready to do some exploring to finally make deeper level changes. I’m happy to help.
I view people as a mosaic of sorts; a compilation of historical experiences, personality traits, present circumstances and the unique ways they cope with their challenges. Some come to individual therapy/counseling with clarity around what’s holding them back from optimal functioning. Others aren’t really sure what’s going on with them other than knowing they would really like to feel better emotionally and possibly in their relationships. The two can be deeply connected.
The currently offer following areas of focus in my Marin individual therapy practice:
- Family of origin work
- Stress / Anxiety
- Self-Esteem
- Sadness / Depression
- Codependence
- Excessive Anger
- Perfectionism / Type A
- Relationships
- Life Transitions
My therapy/counseling approach is about meeting people where they are. There are some basic steps I find helpful to getting you where we need to be.
1) We need to clearly identify the issues at hand.
Sometimes this is clear and other times it’s not. We will get clarity on the problems you are having and what you are hoping to change.
2) We need to understand why the issues exist.
This can be straight forward or more complex, depending on many things, including whether family of origin or other prior experiences are at play. This will involve looking at your core belief systems and how they impact you. If your concerns are clearly now-focused, such as a difficult relationship situation you need guidance on or stress around a current life situation, we can figure it out together.
3) The final step is to resolve your issues.
The aim is for deeper level change rather than a bandaid approach. I want to empower you to do things differently with a new way of seeing yourself and practical tools to implement these changes in your life. My hope for you is to be in the world with increased resilience, positive self regard, improved coping mechanisms and no longer behaving in ways that don’t serve you.
“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserves your love and affection.” – Buddha
A bit more about Family of Origin Work: If you are aware that your
challenges are rooted in childhood experiences from parental relationships, attachment deficiencies, social or school experiences or other, we will look deeply into this to understand how you coped and adapted to those experiences at that time. Often times there is a connection to how you currently function.
- Did you feel emotionally safe (and physically safe) growing up?
- Did you experience criticism and have high expectations placed on you?
- Did you learn from experience that people can’t be trusted?
- Did you hear messages that either overtly or covertly indicated you weren’t good enough?