My Approach to Treatment

At various times during our lives, as increasing demands are made upon us, we may need help in dealing with problems that seem beyond our control. These difficulties may affect our self esteem, and impact our personal, social and professional lives leaving us feeling frustrated, angry, sad and overwhelmed. Sometimes, we may experience depression, because of challenging life issues, have difficulty in getting along with others, or have difficulty in concentrating, making decisions, sleeping or carrying out our usual activities. It is at times like these, when it is difficult to handle these challenges on our own, when we might not or can't always talk to our friends and our family that it becomes very important to seek out the services of a competent licensed clinical psychologist who understands you and speaks your language.

As a clinical psychologist, my role is to assess, diagnose and treat a full range of emotional, behavioral, cognitive and interpersonal problems. Through working actively in a partnership with you, my role is to help you better understand your problems and find ways to resolve them. My job is to enable you to talk openly and confidentially about your concerns and feelings. It is crucial that you and I work well together. You need to feel comfortable, respected and understood in what often can be a very difficult situation to even begin to discuss. In return, you need to feel that you can trust me, and be honest about your concerns. Briefly, my goal is to help you find practical solutions to your difficulties. This is in part accomplished through building on your existing strengths and helping you to find more adaptive coping strategies. In many cases, you and I would work together within a focused short-term therapeutic relationship to identify your treatment goals and to enable you to attain these. My treatment focus is eclectic. I attempt to use techniques that work and are specific to your defined areas of difficulty while being goal-oriented and acknowledging that short-term (often 6-8 sessions) treatment can be very effective. This often includes cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) as well as other solution-focused techniques. I work with individuals, couples and families from both the religious and non-religious communities. My job, from our first session, is to prepare you to complete therapy, while enabling you to develop techniques that will encourage psychological well-being, and positive feelings and thoughts while nurturing interpersonal relationships that will last long after we have said good-bye.

Children have their own special needs and can not be seen as just "little adults". Young children especially deal with their concerns quite differently from older children and adults and they too must be heard in the way that they can best communicate. Sometimes we work on issues through the use of art, games, other forms of play or simply through talking. Depending on what is in the best interests of the child, meetings with the parents may include or preclude the child.

In addition to the treatment described above, I also see many adults and children for bereavement counseling. Dealing with a loss and moving on takes time and while I can't take away the pain of the loss, I can "walk the walk" with someone for as long as they need, while we address and work on issues to enable them to move forward.

I am very much committed to providing conscientious, competent and professional care for my clients and would be happy to address any questions or concerns.