Our approach to counseling is an integrative approach based on years of experience and training in cognitvie behavioral and family systems therapies. We treat each client as the unique individual they are. Our first priority is to listen and understand. We design the counseling process around our client. The process should be flexible enough to fit the needs of the individual not the individual made to fit a rigid counseling methodology. People come to counseling for a wide vareity of reasons ranging from a commitment to their personal growth to having suffered from years of severe abuse and truama.
From the beginning there is much emphasis on forming a strong relationship. We believe the foundation of the success of counseling in based on the creation of a relationship in which clients feel comfortable, understood and can trust.
We believe each person is formed in the context of the family system they grew up in. The nature of support and interactions in this system created enduring beliefs, behaviors and emotional patterns that may have worked in the past but are no longer effective and have become self-limiting. These patterns can result in behaviors and skills that become so well developed and comfortable that they are relied upon as adults in situations and relationships in which they are no longer effective.
Understanding these patterns provides an understanding of what needs to be changed and what the process of counseling should be. This often involves identifying and changing self-defeating long held beliefs, behaviors and emotional patterns of interacting. New understanding and behaviors can be developed that help balance the strengths a person already has. This can provide people with a new and better quality of life.
The counseling process may involve, when appropriate and possible, working with the client and their family or their spouse. Working with the family is almost always appropriate when working with children and adolescents. Involving family can also be helpful in cases of treating severe mental illness.
