What Type of Therapy do I do?

When I think about the type of therapy I do my thoughts first go to the Core Values I wrote for our Pastoral Counseling Center back in 2001. I wrote then that the foundation of a helpful and meaningful psychotherapy experience is the relationship between the patient and the therapist. Today, as a psychoanalytic therapist who integrates neuroscience into psychoanalytic treatment (neuropsychoanalysis), I continue to provide a safe, secure, and confidential relationship where healing, insight, and self awareness can occur..................... In addition to establishing a deep therapeutic relationship with my patients, I am a "try to understand yourself" therapist. (The technical name for this orientation to treatment is neuropsychoanalytic therapy.) I try to help patients understand themselves. To understand what makes them tick. To see how their childhood experiences have continued to influence them today. To see what unhelpful patterns they are continuing to repeat. To discover if there were painful traumas in their past that need to be explored and worked through........ The reason for this type of insight is that without knowing who we are and why we have come to be that way, we cannot find the will to make changes in our lives toward a happier and healthier existence. This type of self awareness therapy takes time. Such time is required for real personality growth and change. Patients did not get the way they are overnight. It took a life time to get this way. So it will take sufficient time to make the changes they desire........ Childhood experiences remain with us always. My therapy approach seeks to discover these various difficult childhood experiences. The outward symptoms of these unresolved childhood conflicts will be felt today as unpleasant feelings such as anxiety, depression and anger. But it is what lies beneath these surface symptoms and feelings that needs to be healed. And what lies beyond the surface is unmet basic emotional needs. A solid relationship with the patient plus time to work through the blocks to meeting these emotional needs, is what eventually leads to healing, insight, and change........ If you are interested in this type of therapy or would like to talk with me further about my approach then contact me through the Comments Section here on my blog.