Archive for counseling
Recovering from Rape: Surviving the “after-shock”
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Rape is more than simply a trauma; it is a life long ordeal with continual distress. The forced sex takes away control, forces extreme violation, causes physical pains, and creates severe emotional trauma. Recovering from such a traumatic incident can be challenging and life altering. Some people find themselves reaching out to others for support and comfort. Others may hold things in, shut down, numb-out, or even become self destructive. All of which are ways in which the body is saying, “I am hurting. I need to feel safe. I need to heal.” Read More→
Premarital Counseling: The Importance to Building a SOLID Foundation
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Premarital counseling is a preventative tool, a way to maintain a healthy connection in the relationship and create a lasting commitment through effective communication. Relationships are an investment: the more you put into it, the more it will grow and mature. The more it grows and matures, the more you get out of it. Because statistics show that nearly 50% of marriages end in divorce (US Census Bureau, February 2002), premarital counseling can help couples avoid becoming part of that percentage. Read More→
Who I Am: Get To Know Your Relationship Expert & Therapist
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I am a wife, a therapist, an adventure junky, a joker, a writer, a social butterfly, a motorcycle lover, a runner, and a busy bee.
I was once told that I wasn’t going to make it into graduate school and I wouldn’t be able to have a thriving private practice. I like challenges, so I took that challenge and proved them wrong. I am passionate and willing to take a risk for my life goals, dreams, and aspirations. My life long dream was to have a private practice….and I got it! Not only did I achieve my goal, but I bypassed my expectations.
I could tell you about the boring stuff…like being a Marriage Therapist in San Diego, and give you the “psycho-babble” jargon, but I would prefer to have you know ME, the person behind the scenes.
I sit in this brown swivel chair in my office, absorbing as much information as I can when I am with my clients. My goal is to really understand their world. My mind gets filled with movie images as they walk me through their lives, catching me up to speed. My heart dives in, and off we go. I don’t take sides…and I WON’T take sides. And I won’t pick who is “right” and who is “wrong;” couples already do enough of that. I don’t need to keep them stuck in that rut. So I try to take the couples out of their destructive ways of communicating, and into a new lens of the bond…creating a safe, secure bond. Read More→
Does Counseling Work?: How therapy be helpful for relationships
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Many people step in to the therapy questioning if therapy will be helpful. My rule of thumb…you won’t know until you give it a fair shot.
I feel as if the therapy is an extremely effective tool with helping clients get through various struggles. As a therapist, I am not stuck in the middle of the storm feeling every emotion and being reactive. I get the chance to see the whole picture, without being activated or biased.
Some of the many issues that being people in to therapy is for jealousy, infidelity, anger, addiction, anxiety, etc. These issues are merely a symptom of a larger problem. Counseling helps uncover the underlying issue, and find new ways to cope. Most people grow up learning to use one or two “coping techniques,” such as bottling up the emotion, or putting on the “smiling mask” and pretend everything is okay. These coping behaviors are extremely helpful in our early years; however, in relationships, the coping techniques are less effective. Read More→
conflicting couples, affairs, communication struggles, etc.