FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q: What is psychotherapy?
A: Psychotherapy is a type of counseling that involves examining underlying psychological motives for chosen behavior, which may ultimately help the client to understand his or herself.
Q: What is family therapy?A: Family therapy involves two or more members of a family who work together in counseling to resolve struggles currently impacting the family.
Q: What is couple’s therapy?A: Couple’s therapy involves two people who are involved in an intimate relationship with each other who work together in therapy to resolve struggles currently impacting the relationship. The couple may be composed of a man and a woman, two men, or two women, and the couple may be living together or apart, and they may be married, unmarried, separated, or divorced.
Q: What can therapy do for me?
A: The therapy process can be a life enriching experience. The rewards that can come from therapy include deepened insight and understanding into for yourself and your loved ones, increased compassion, a deeper felt sense of self, expanded personal empowerment, more fulfilling relationships, forgiveness, and tranquility. Please visit my Counseling and Psychotherapy page for information on my approach to therapy.
Q: How do I know if a therapist is right for me?A: A therapist who is right for you will feel right to you. You will feel at ease talking to your therapist, and you will feel understood and validated. You will also feel safe to tell your therapist personal issues that you need to discuss. You may also feel comfortable with a particular therapist because of preferences you have based on gender, culture, languages spoken, type of training, location, cost, or anything that is important to you. No one therapist is right for everyone, and finding a therapist with whom you feel comfortable is essential.
Q: What is depression?A: A way to describe depression is a persistent experience of despair, sadness, apathy, or hopelessness that interferes with one’s enjoyment of life, appetite, ability to sleep, or ability to function well in relationships or work.
Q: What is anxiety?A: Anxiety can be described as a persistent sense of nervousness, concern, worry, or angst that interferes with one’s enjoyment of life, appetite, ability to sleep, or ability to function well in relationships or work.
Q: How do I know if anger is a problem for me?A: A good way to know if anger is a problem for you is to ask yourself if anger seems to be causing issues in an important area of your life. Anger in you is your personal signal that something is not as you want it.
Q: What is sexual trauma?A: Sexual trauma is intense emotional distress that does not easily subside over the course of weeks, months, or possibly years that is due to having been forcibly raped or assaulted by a stranger or a person known to you, or coerced into unwanted sexual activity by a stranger or a person known to you, any of which may have occurred as a child or an adult.
Q: What is physical trauma?A: Physical trauma is intense emotional distress that does not easily subside over the course of weeks, months, or possibly years that is due to having been physically violated, such as (but not limited to) by a beating or threat of being beaten by a stranger or a person known to you, any of which may have occurred as a child or an adult.
Q: What is grief?A: Grief is the word to describe a variety of emotions that occur when one experiences a significant loss. Such emotions include sadness, heartache, anguish, anger, rage, denial, depression, despair, and acceptance. The loss may be related to a relationship, a person who died, a traumatic event, the loss of a highly valued object, or a life transition. Grief may result from a loss that happens abruptly and is not foreseen, or one that was well planned.
Q: What are some common issues faced by parents?A: Issues faced by parents can be very broad, and they are all normal reactions to the intense life changes that parenting creates. Parenting issues may begin as early as pregnancy or while awaiting adoption. Some examples are: Transitioning from childlessness to parenthood, stepping out of a career to care for a small child, working while parenting, single-parenting, issues around parenting as a gay or lesbian parent or parents, differing parenting styles within a couple, co-parenting post divorce or separation, transitioning into a blended family, loss of intimacy after having a child, tantrums and crying, education, discipline, teenage rebellion and separation, teenage sexuality, violence, drug and alcohol use, childhood depression and anxiety, social pressures on parents, social pressures on children, guilt, shame, and so much more. Parenting is the hardest and most important job you will ever do. Please visit my Parenting page for resources.
Q: What are some common issues for people facing divorce or separation?A: Common issues for people facing divorce or separation from a significant partner include grief, sadness, loneliness, feelings of displacement, feelings of worthlessness, fear, anxiety, depression, anger, short-term and long-term parenting with your ex, helping children through their feelings of grief and loss due to the divorce, or separation, and new relationships. Separation is a tremendous life change that has far-reaching affects on everyone involved, and also one that can potentially create tremendous positive changes.
Q: How does my relationship with my ex affect our children?A: Just as a married or co-habitating couple’s relationship impacts children, so does a divorced or separated couple’s relationship, and potentially even more if there is considerable conflict. Children generally experience a significant amount of fear when their parents or parental figures separate or divorce. However, children can come through divorce exceedingly well when separating or divorcing parents are able to work cooperatively as parents, placing the importance of their children’s well-being at the forefront, despite the dissolution of their relationship. What’s more is that parents who are able to do this can experience a great sense of pride in their parenting, and improved self-esteem.
Q: What are some common issues for blended families?A: Common issues for blended families include conflicts of cultures or family norms, miscommunications, feelings of not belonging, fearfulness of loss, resentment, anger, and grief for how things were prior to blending. Blending families is a tremendous life transition, and one that can create possibilities for wonderful family transformations to occur.
Q: What are some common issues for people struggling with fertility?A: People struggling with fertility can experience feelings of powerlessness and inadequacy, fear, anxiety, and depression. People struggling with fertility may experience intense new self-awareness and self-understanding as they explore parenting options and the significance of these major decisions in their lives.