Monday - Saturday 11 AM - 8 PM
Whether you are facing a challenge individually or within a family, we will tackle them together. We believe in empowering our clients with the skills that will enable them to operate at higher levels of independence.
One in ten individuals can use psychotherapeutic services on any given day. My approach is to problem solve with the client on issues of contemporary concern. The past is only used as a way of understanding the present. Clients need help with “here and now” issues. It is a natural and safe procedure with no side effects. Contrary to popular myths, the client is fully conscious and aware throughout the hypnotic procedure. Progressive relaxation teaches the client to tense and relax various muscle groups so as to relieve tension and stress.
Systematic desensitization is a treatment for phobias that is highly successful. The client is taught to relax and then is exposed to the feared objects in increasing forms of intensity. The anxiety to the feared object is thus extinguished.
My treatment approach is to identify the entire family unit as the client. Similar to marital therapy, treatment consists of problem resolution and conflict resolution. In most families, boundaries are a major concern. Each member learns to respect the individuality of the other. Also family myths are a concern. One member is falsely identified as the problem source or another member is inaccurately labeled by the rest of the family. Many parents unconsciously recreate the conflicts they had in their families of origin.
Communication may also need to be addressed. Those who talk the most may need to learn to listen more, and the ones that tend to listen the most will learn to speak up.
All marital couples have problems and we encourage the participation of marital therapy rather be passive when these problems begin to get out of hand. Couples learn how to communicate with each other with more respect and concern. They learn how to be more positive in approaching each other’s grievances and how to work as a team. The primary goals of marriage counseling are conflict resolution and the promotion of cooperation.
Family therapy involves the interaction between the psychotherapist and a couple, marital couple, or family to improve the interaction of each member with the other.
Structural family therapy is another form developed by Dr. Minuchin in which the therapist embeds him/herself in the family in order to better understand it. It is also a form of family systems therapy in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Strategic family therapy involves the study of strategic patterns of interaction within the family. The therapist is active as a problem solver to help the family function more effectively and efficiently as a unit.
Family therapy is particularly important in helping each of its members to recognize irrational patterns that may affect not only each other but future relationships involving each of its members with others. Its importance is to foster the healthy development of children and the well-being of couples. One of the instances in which family therapy is most effective is to work with the concept of “bullying”. Its origins and the observations of dysfunction within the family of origin. One or more of the family members exercises its power through attempting to arbitrarily invoke its agenda on others. A group approach pointing out this pattern in the family is much more powerful than an individual therapy where there are only two parties involved.
Family-systems therapy is a form of therapy which works to understand group dynamics and how each member of the family affects the other. It is present-oriented.
Contextual family therapy functions to foster a dialogue among family members. It focuses on the fairness of each member to the other and to develop a true understanding of each of its members. It helps each of the members “walk in the shoes” of the other members.
