Adults seek therapy for a variety of life situations, including unresolved family of origin concerns, current problems with partners or children, painful or unsatisfying relationships, anxiety, depression, feelings of emptiness, eating disorders, early or adult trauma, struggles with alcohol or other substances, and a spectrum of other issues. Each clinician’s approach evolves as they get to know the unique thoughts, feelings, behaviors, yearnings of the person in the room with them.
Through a relationship of mutual trust and respect between client and clinician, the client’s life can be opened to “more” – more life, more love, more thought, more reflection, more feeling, more choice, more fun. In embracing more, there also can be less — less symptoms, less conflict, less hurt, less discomfort.
All of us are bodies, minds, spirits, and come from particular cultural backgrounds. Each of these elements mutually influences the others. Our therapists and counselors attend to all of them.
Symptoms can indeed be relieved through a successful psychotherapy. Even more however, clients profit from understanding the origins of their symptoms and developing more effective coping skills.
Often, a person enters psychotherapy with experiences of themselves and others, symptoms, conflicts, questions that have been in the making for some time. Exploration of what brought them to therapy, understanding of the origin of these issues, and integrating new ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving can take some time. We are committed to working with someone for as long as it takes.
Psychoanalysis incorporates all that is described above. It offers a particularly deep dive into the client’s past, present, and future hopes. Psychoanalysis involves more frequent sessions devoted to exploration of conscious and unconscious experiences, feelings, memories, thoughts, and relational patterns that affect the client’s life.