Who Do I Help?

Teens – If only adolescence were an easier time of life for all involved—teens themselves, parents, schools, and other community groups working with young people! There is every reason to make the most of this important time of life. Counseling can help transform self-doubt into confidence, worry about appearance or body image into self-acceptance, fear of being judged or rejected by peers into growing the kinds of friendships that suit you, risk-taking behavior due to peer pressure into making wise choices for oneself, stress due to family life into affirmation of self and interpersonal competence. Teens, as much as anyone, deserve to live with hope.

College Students and Other Young Adults – Coming into one’s own as a fully grown adult and reaching for independence while navigating changing relationships with family – these are normal development transitions for college students and people in their 20s. Then there are the challenges of balancing school or work demands with romantic relationships, socializing with friends, knowing oneself, maybe even starting a family – an exciting but sometimes difficult set of competing priorities. When it’s not all coming together as you would like, or if stress, anxiety, or depression is taking the pleasure out of it, a counseling relationship can help you sort through things, cope with any disappointments or difficulties, and build some self-care strategies that can stand you in good stead for the rest of your life.

Individual Adults – More individual adults come to counseling than any of the other subgroups I work with. Some come with a history of prior counseling relationships and some are totally new to the process. Some stay in therapy for just one session and others spend weeks, even years, using a counseling relationship to make the changes they want in their lives. Because of my training in cultural anthropology as well as psychotherapy, I can adapt counseling to the particular experiences and perspectives of diverse cultural backgrounds and have helped clients from a variety of countries. In our work together, I offer a caring, curious, and accepting approach to bolster your confidence in making change.

For more information on the sorts of issues that individual counseling can address, see When is Counseling Useful?  In addition, I work with adults on:

  • managing and reducing anger
  • recovering from trauma (including child sexual abuse)
  • managing depression
  • coping with a personality disorder (including borderline and obsessive compulsive personalities)
  • managing bipolar disorder
  • coping with a family member who is mentally ill
  • other life difficulties

Couples – I welcome couples at any stage in relationship development and at any time of life. Young couples just wanting to work on communication and priorities, married couples facing some loss of sexual spark, cohabiting couples with conflicting life goals, couples from separate cultural backgrounds navigating diverse values and perspectives, older couples finding each other after previous relationships, even couples reuniting after a long separation – these are just some examples of partnerships I have been privileged to work with. I also help couples who are separating but want to work through the logistical complications of finances, co-parenting, employment or extended family matters.

Parents and Co-parents Apart – Talk about therapy in life! Parenting sometimes stretches us to grow more than any other life experience as we cherish our children and yet face the inevitable challenges of guiding them while letting them become themselves. Whether sharing the parent role with a life partner or finding yourself parenting apart, sometimes it can be enormously helpful to be able to talk through the tough times with an experienced and caring listener. There is more than one model for effective parenting and everyone can make the role their own. I especially enjoy helping parents figure out how to honor their own needs without neglecting the needs of their families.

LGBTQ Individuals and Partners – I am an enthusiastic ally for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer community. Whether you are at the point of coming out to family, transitioning in gender identity, forging or ending a romantic relationship, bearing or adopting children, facing institutional, workplace, or other bias, I can provide an affirming therapeutic alliance to help you stay on the life path that suits your nature.

Older Adults – I enjoy supporting people making the transition from active work life to retirement. I am also attuned to the vulnerabilities that can beset older adults in a society that does not value its seniors, making it hard sometimes to find the pleasures in aging. There can be new challenges for couples when one partner retires while the other is still working. Sometimes a lifelong marriage comes to an unexpected end through death or divorce. If you are unhappy in your later years, it can very much affect your overall health. It might be a good time to get some extra support. You deserve to feel better.