Psychotherapy

 

Insight oriented psychotherapy is a special kind of conversation in which we orient ourselves toward helping you see, hear, feel and understand yourself more deeply.  Meeting once or twice weekly, we begin a conversation, and develop a relationship, that evolves from discussing everyday problems and concerns to slowly recognizing and identifying emotional patterns, recurrent relationship difficulties, unnoticed fears and anxieties, losses, traumas and emotional blocks.  Deepening awareness comes not only from noticing, acknowledging and discussing the problems that are “out there” in a person’s life but from increasing attention to how these difficulties arise and become manifest in the therapy relationship itself.  For instance, in what ways are familiar relational patterns beginning to emerge in the therapy relationship and how are certain feelings being avoided or turned away from?  With careful, thoughtful and sensitive attention we work together to link your past with your present, your emotional experiences “out there” with your emotional discoveries “in here” and how your ways of maintaining emotional comfort, security and safety may in unexpected ways be hampering and limiting you in relationships, career and efforts at intimacy.  
 

Psychoanalysis

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Similar to psychotherapy in many ways, psychoanalysis is an opportunity to become deeply familiar with yourself.  The important difference between the two is the heightened frequency of psychoanalysis, where we typically meet 3-5 times per week.  This increased frequency of meeting, and the emotional support and continuity that it allows, invites your unconscious mental/emotional life to gradually become increasingly “visible” to you and become part of our ongoing conversations.  This gradual, deepening awareness of yourself occurs through our collaborative exploration of your dreams, “stray thoughts”, passing moods, states of mind that otherwise slip past without much notice, attention to somatic symptoms and careful attention to often overlooked fantasies, thoughts and emotional reactions.  Ongoing, sustained reflection on your thoughts and feelings as they emerge in the analytic hour brings to light anxieties, fears, desires and concerns that are otherwise overlooked or of whose presence you are only dimly aware.  The inner “freedom” that comes with this more conscious awareness of your emotional life brings with it a parallel increase in freedom for greater intimacy in relationships, less anxiously repetitive patterns of feeling and thinking, decreased levels of distress and greater enjoyment in everyday life, and heightened capacities to harness your mental and emotional resources towards important life goals (for instance, in your relationships, family life, and career).
 

Consultation/Supervision

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A significant part of my time is committed to consulting and supervising other mental health professionals.  I enjoy helping other analytically oriented therapists develop and deepen their clinical work, expand their clinical skills and extend their knowledge base.  We can work individually or in small groups depending on your preference.  I have extensive experience teaching and supervising at several local psychoanalytic institutes and training programs, and I bring all of this experience to my private supervision and consulting work with you.