Personal Style

I believe the best approach to successful therapy is being an active listener.

The client has the potential to find the answers, and it is our job to provide the environment and context in which they can discover what they may already know, many times buried in their subconscious. I also believe that action often precedes, not only follows, a return to emotional health. I encourage my clients to gradually take the risks involved to promote personal growth. I also believe in experiential therapy and have found that vehicles such as poetry, art, and music can offer much in the way of insight into a client’s intrinsic needs. I believe the best approach to successful therapy is being an active listener.

Order/Disorder Concept

I reject the pain/pleasure paradigm as the key driving factor in determining our behavior. Higher cognitive development is brought forth in an adjunct paradigm based on meaning and values, an order/disorder concept. It is in taking the next step to promote order in one’s life that ultimately leads to the achievement of symptom relief and the potential for repeatable, or perhaps sustained serenity. It may be a difficult challenge, but one that can be met if we can stay conscious in the present moment of the alternatives that face us in each situation.

I also believe that ultimate health can be found not in the pursuit of more happiness but rather in living in a state of joy no matter what the circumstances might be. Joy is enduring, a state of being that provides both resilience and compassion for others in one’s life.