Individual Counseling

I work with individuals using a combination of Internal Family Systems and Emotion Focused Individual Therapy. But what does that mean in the room?

I find people are often stuck because they are having an emotional experience (or trying not to have one), and they are dealing with the feelings in a way that is causing them difficulties in other ways in their lives. If we can work with the feelings directly then they won’t have to do the thing that is causing them difficulties, or they can do that thing only when needed or necessary. They have choices.

Alternatively, I work with people who have different parts of themselves battling it out for how to handle something. One part might be trying to avoid it, and another part might be loud and critical of the avoiding. One part might be pushing for change and other parts are scared or overwhelmed by how to do that. If we can hear out both parts, often we can help them learn to work together in a way that feels better for everyone.

Additionally, there are a lot of messages out in the world that people might get telling them to be different. This can cause a lot of pain and suffering, especially if the ones closest to us are also sending that message. I will work to help people identify those messages, block the messages that are possible to block (often the ones inside of us), and how to cope with the rest.

I know, I am making it sound simple. I doubt that it feels that way. I am breaking it down to make it easier to understand. That is part of my job. However, the process is much messier and less linear than this.

Ultimately, if it was this simple, everyone could figure it all out by themselves and no one would need to come to therapy. Being a human is hard and often complicated. What I am really offering is to be a person to be with you, so you aren’t alone in your hardest stuff. I just also happen to have some maps, so we can figure how to get out when you feel lost.