Are we a good fit?
I’m not the right therapist for everyone. It’s important for anyone seeking therapy to have transparency and know what they can expect. Check out the information below to get a feel for whether what I’m offering is right for you.
You're curious about how your past shapes your present. You're naturally introspective, or you're willing to become more introspective in order to understand yourself more deeply.
You’re seeking a deeper understanding of your life. You want to identify your unmet needs and actively practice ways to better meet them so you can be more authentic, connected, and satisfied in your life.
You want a therapist who will do more than validate, who won’t just nod and say “I’m sorry that happened to you.”
You want your therapist to be real with you, challenge your thinking when it’s called for, and help you face uncomfortable truths that are important to your growth.
You don’t want to be in therapy forever. You want someone alongside you as you do this work, but you believe in therapy as a tool, not a lifestyle. Your goal is to end therapy and carry what you’ve learned forward on your own.
You’re realistic about change. You expect it to take effort and to happen over time. You don’t expect a quick fix, or to be able to achieve change while also avoiding discomfort.
You’re done wishing things—or people—would just be different, and you’re ready to work with the reality you have in front of you and shape it into a new one.
You’re prepared to take time to actively reflect in your everyday life on a regular and consistent basis outside of therapy sessions.
You want collaborative, not prescriptive, therapy. You know you bring as much to the table as I do and that your ideas, desires, and input are critical to the process.
We’ll probably be a good fit if:
You need someone to vent to, but you’re not sure you want to try new actions outside the therapy room. You’re not really willing to surprise others in your life by behaving differently than they’ve come to expect, and don’t want to disrupt your existing relationship dynamics.
You can’t commit to weekly sessions.
You’re looking exclusively for symptom relief without exploring emotional meaning. You’re not open to the idea that the road to relief will involve examining past experiences and relationships, or exploring strong emotions like anger, fear, or sadness. You want someone to guide you around, not through, that forest.
You want prescriptive, not collaborative, therapy.
You view therapy as passive: something that is done to you rather than something you do for yourself. You believe you are broken and are seeking someone who can “fix” you.
You’re seeking therapy at the insistence of another person in your life. Your primary motivation for engaging with treatment is to appease them or avoid an unwanted consequence.
Your expectation of therapy is that I’ll offer generic advice and you’ll hear me out, maybe take a couple of things you like, and leave the rest. You’re not really sure you’ll get anything out of it at all, but you might as well check it out.
You are actively suicidal, experiencing strong urges to act on a desire to harm yourself. I’m a solo practitioner in a part-time private practice, a setup that doesn’t allow me to provide the level of attention and care required in these cases. If you are experiencing this right now, please call 988 or 911, or seek care at the nearest Emergency Room or Behavioral Health Urgent Care.
You have a substance use disorder, OCD, or psychosis. These are not my specialities and I refer clients to specialized clinicians for help with these challenges.
