Therapy should be both a challenging and rewarding process, and the first step is finding a therapist that you feel comfortable with and who knows how to help you.

My approach to therapy involves a combination of different elements. Sometimes I will be sitting and listening, trying to really understand who you are and what you're going through. Sometimes I will be sharing information and expertise, offering a psychological viewpoint on human emotions and relationships and what to do when things get off track. Sometimes I ask questions, encouraging you to really dig into what you think and feel so that you can build a clearer picture of what's important. Sometimes I teach techniques and strategies, showing you practical ways you can handle situations or feelings that you find difficult. All of this takes place in the context of a client-therapist relationship that is professional but warm, caring but honest, and goal-oriented but at your own pace.

My technical approach to therapy is what's called "integrative", which means that rather than follow one set of techniques step by step, I combine elements from different concepts and therapy approaches to target your specific needs. Influences I draw from most heavily from include:

• emotion-focus (EFT): Emotions are at the core of our psychological well-being. Sometimes people have trouble connecting to their emotions (e.g. feeling numb, empty, or disconnected) and sometimes people feel them so strongly that they don't know what to do (e.g. feeling overwhelmed, having outbursts of anger, bursting into tears unexpectedly). People feel calmer, happier, and more fulfilled when they can understand their emotions and express them in healthy ways.

• attachment: How we learned to relate to others as children impacts how we act later in life, and we sometimes get stuck in unhealthy patterns in relationships.

• humanism: Therapy is not about diagnosing people with mental disorders but about facing the complex, existential questions that come with the human condition: What makes life meaningful? How can we learn, and grow, and become the person that we want to be? How can we face life and also death with courage, dignity, and grace?

• mind-body connection: Our physical well-being influences our mental well being and vice-versa.

• systemic issues: Our individual well-being is directly affected by larger societal and political issues. (e.g. social pressures, access to power and resources, impacts of stereotyping or discrimination when it comes to gender, race, sexual orientation, disability, class, and more).

• hope: Deep down, all people tend to want to grow, learn, and flourish, and therapy can help people make incredible changes in their lives if they approach it with courage, determination, and an open mind.

If you like the sound of my approach, feel free to get in touch.