Psychotherapy
The First Session -- My Approach -- Transpersonal Psychotherapy -- Talk Therapy --
Trauma -- EMDR -- Dreawork -- Hypnosis -- Therapeutic Boundaries

The First Session
Most people are a little nervous when they come to their first therapy session.  My intention is to help you become comfortable sharing important aspects of your life and experience. The first session is about getting to know each other and giving you a chance to decide if I am the right person for you to work with. Like all my session, it will last about 75 minutes, an hour and a quarter.  

I will ask quite a lot of questions: what bring you to therapy; why do you think things are not working; what seems to help or not help?  From there, the conversation may range over a wide variety of topics: relationships, childhood, work situation or even dreams and beliefs.  All and every aspect of your experience is important and relevant.

Toward the end of the session, I give a brief summary of the issues we might work on and how we might work with them.  I often have a sense of how long it takes to resolve specific problems. It is harder to gage the whole duration of psychotherapy as this depends on your changing goals and needs. 

After the session, you may decide to make another appointment or take time to make up your mind. If you decide to continue working with me, I will give you some paperwork to complete before the next session.

My Approach
Psychotherapy is the art and science of human change.  This change happens within the special therapeutic relationship that is designed to be confidential, consistent, respectful, and supportive -- as well as somewhat challenging.   For psychotherapy to work, it is essential that you feel welcome, safe, heard and understood -- not judged or criticized.

In each session you have the space and time to communicate your experience.  My task is to be attentive to your concerns and guide you toward greater understanding of your own patterns of thinking, feeling and acting.  The greater aim is to make sense of who you are and how you can grow into a fuller awareness of yourself.  Genuine transformation arises from within, not imposed from outside.

Transpersonal Psychotherapy
As a Transpersonal Psychotherapist, I am not bound by particular theories or techniques.  I believe that each person is unique and each person requires different therapy.  Our individual inner nature seeks to express itself in the way we lead our lives; we cannot be pigeonholed without constraining our essential nature.  The transpersonal approach accepts and values the spiritual, mysterious and unexplained aspects of our human experience.  It puts no limits on the person we can become.

Talk Therapy
Most of what we do in therapy looks like personal conversation.  Unlike a social situation, that conversation is purposefully directed toward change.  We discuss your recent experiences and examine patterns of thinking and feeling that seem to be stuck or resistant to transformation. 

To resolve whatever is problematic, we may explore aspects of your family of origin and earlier life.  This helps you achieve insight into the roots of current relationships and feelings.  I offer interpretations, perspectives and experiments so you gain greater awareness of how your inner and outer experiences are connected.

Trauma
As we discuss various parts of your life, I look out for particularly difficult or traumatic experiences in your life.  Trauma can take many forms: physical or sexual abuse, illnesses and accidents, neglect or criticism.  If there is an inadequate healing environment, trauma tends to remain unresolved.  It resurfaces as fears and phobias, physical problems, unexplained over-reactions and feelings of mistrust or hopelessness.

EMDR
As we discover potential trauma, whether minor or major, I usually suggest that we try EMDR to uncover the roots of the experience and allow it to resolve naturally.  EMDR was discovered in 1987 by Francine Shapiro while doing therapy with Vietnam veterans.  Since then it has been recognized as possibly the most effective way to work with all sorts of problems, particularly trauma.

EMDR looks simple but has powerful results.  While the client focuses on a difficult experience, the therapist facilitates either a rhythmic movement of the eyes, or simple sounds and sensations that alternate from side to side. I use a small devise to create the rhythmic sounds/sensations through headphones and hand buzzers. 

The client tends to experience a train of thoughts, feelings and sensations associated with the trauma.  These usually progress towards a state of conclusion.  A client may feel somewhat stirred up after the session but these feelings settle down after a night or two of sleep.  It is believed that the EMDR evokes a similar process to that of REM or rapid eye movement that naturally occurs during dream sleep.  This is when we are deeply processing our daytime experiences.

Dreamwork
Dreams have been termed the royal road to the unconscious.  Certainly, they can provide insight into our hidden motivations and deeply held concerns.  I have worked with my own and other people’s dreams for 30 years.  My training is based on the work of the great psychologist, Carl Jung.  While appreciating the symbolic and archetypal aspects of dreams, I also see them as immensely practical, providing a different and useful perspective on life issues.

Not everyone remembers dreams though everyone dreams at least four times a night.  Often during therapy, dreams become more vivid and compelling as your deeper self engages with life issues.  Dream themes come and go as these issues transform, so your dreams provide evidence of changes happening at different levels of consciousness.

Hypnosis
While we tend to think we are most ourselves while we are awake, human beings have many other modes of consciousness.  These include four levels of sleep as well as high arousal, quiet meditation or contemplation, and trance.  Hypnosis is a focused trance in which conscious and unconscious processes are balanced. 

In hypnosis different abilities become available.  You can access information that has been lost from memory, be extraordinarily engaged with imaginative inner experiences and connect to resources of wisdom and confidence.  I make tapes of hypnosis sessions so a client can practice skills of relaxation, anxiety management and self-development at home.   

I have been trained in a number of hypnotic modalities, including those developed by Milton Erickson.  My approach is respectful, non-manipulative and naturalistic.              

Therapeutic Boundaries
A therapist must be concerned only with the greatest welfare of the client.  To that end, therapy is legally regulated in Colorado.  To protect the client: