Therapy
Just as there are different types of therapists, there are many kinds of therapies. Although at their core they all have a shared goal of addressing mental and emotional distress, they are not all the same. In very broad strokes, there are two major types of therapies: one that is focused on specific skills and one that is focused on development and growth. Understanding this will help you choose the right therapy for you.
Therapists sometimes compare the difference between the two types of therapy to someone giving you directions to get where you want to go (skills) versus being taught how to read the map (growth).
Although I have been trained in both kinds of therapy, and sometimes integrate specific skills or shortcuts for addressing specific problems, I generally use an approach that is psychodynamic in that it seeks to bring to light your understanding of yourself that may have been outside of your awareness so far; it is rooted in depth psychology as it seeks to understand you more fully, through your present as well as your past; and it is existential because it assumes that in order to ease our isolation, fear, despair, guilt and to live more fully we must be able to understand, take responsibility for, and make meaning out of our own lives. Regardless of your unique circumstances, I believe that therapy ultimately looks at the big questions of all of our lives: Can I become free of the things that hold me back? What meaning do I find in my life? How can I love and allow myself to be loved? How can I make decisions to change my life now?
I practice with warmth and commitment to the therapeutic process to help unfold your sense of potential, meaning, and choice. I treat to address the causes, not just the symptoms, of your difficulties. In our work, we will be talking together about the threads of your life that are tangled and looking for ways to pull them apart so that you develop new ways to understand and address your problems. Some of our work may be quiet, difficult, toiling through hard problems, but some will be practical and concrete. I do not promise quick solutions, but I do believe that therapy should bring you some form of relief from the beginning. You should have a sense that you're not wasting your time after our first session.
- Therapies focused on skills are based on predetermined interventions. They are sometimes called "manualized" therapies because the therapist follows an actual manual during the course of treatment, which may or may not be used directly in session with the client. These are also sometimes called "evidence-based" therapies because the use of the standardized manuals makes them easier to study in randomized controlled research trials that seek to generate measurable effects on the study participants. In this type of therapy, the therapist acts like a coach or a teacher who assesses your problems using standardized questionnaires and then teaches you general techniques to address those problems, often through the use of homework. This approach does not necessarily seek a deep understanding of who you are or the unique causes of your problems because it is based on interventions already established before you walk through the therapist's door. Because it aims to teach a set of predetermined solutions, this type of therapy is often time-limited by insurance companies (typically 6-16 sessions) and the therapist has an agenda for each of those sessions. At the end of the therapy course you assess your progress, usually through a questionnaire, and may choose to end therapy or to repeat the course. Therapies in this category have acronym names: CBT, DBT, EMDR, CPT, CFT, ACT, etc. This type of therapy can be effective, including in the beginning of addressing specific, immediate needs or when a person has limited time: for example, for fear of flying when you have a trip scheduled, for anxiety about taking an upcoming exam, or for parenting or communication tips. Although this can be productive and helpful work, and some therapists practicing in this way are very skillful at enriching the therapeutic work in addition to the manuals they use, I do not practice this kind of therapy.
- Therapies focused on growth and development are what we sometimes call "talk therapies", "depth therapies", "relational" or "insight-oriented" therapies. The therapist is your partner dedicated to the deep understanding of your problems in the full context of your life, for as long as it takes to resolve them. The goal of the work may be to awaken, understand, or deepen your sense of self and purpose; to increase your sense of attachment and intimacy; to integrate your experience of yourself and others; to grow your ability to invoke your agency; to increase your emotional resilience and affect regulation. In order to do this, you and your therapist must first understand your current way of seeing yourself and the world as deeply as possible, and along the way to formulate a change approach that is unique to you. Growth and change happen because of the work of self-exploration and self-understanding that you do for yourself, in the context of your relationship with your therapist. The goal of this kind of therapy is not to resolve a discrete problem but to help you find your own way of living a richer life. Although part of its goal is to alleviate your symptoms as quickly as possible, this kind of therapy is open-ended, because your growth is open-ended. I practice this kind of therapy.
Therapists sometimes compare the difference between the two types of therapy to someone giving you directions to get where you want to go (skills) versus being taught how to read the map (growth).
Although I have been trained in both kinds of therapy, and sometimes integrate specific skills or shortcuts for addressing specific problems, I generally use an approach that is psychodynamic in that it seeks to bring to light your understanding of yourself that may have been outside of your awareness so far; it is rooted in depth psychology as it seeks to understand you more fully, through your present as well as your past; and it is existential because it assumes that in order to ease our isolation, fear, despair, guilt and to live more fully we must be able to understand, take responsibility for, and make meaning out of our own lives. Regardless of your unique circumstances, I believe that therapy ultimately looks at the big questions of all of our lives: Can I become free of the things that hold me back? What meaning do I find in my life? How can I love and allow myself to be loved? How can I make decisions to change my life now?
I practice with warmth and commitment to the therapeutic process to help unfold your sense of potential, meaning, and choice. I treat to address the causes, not just the symptoms, of your difficulties. In our work, we will be talking together about the threads of your life that are tangled and looking for ways to pull them apart so that you develop new ways to understand and address your problems. Some of our work may be quiet, difficult, toiling through hard problems, but some will be practical and concrete. I do not promise quick solutions, but I do believe that therapy should bring you some form of relief from the beginning. You should have a sense that you're not wasting your time after our first session.
