Common Issues I Work With

A lot of my work is focused on helping people to cope with adjustments to life changes, and relationship issues. Some assume that you must have symptoms severe enough to meet the criteria for a mental health diagnosis in order to participate in counseling.  In reality, there are many times when a person just needs counseling in order to deal with a specific life circumstance. By working through that issue in counseling, those same skills can then be used to navigate other bumps that occur in life.

Much of my counseling work has focused on relationship concerns of all types. I work to help people change what they can in their relationships through couples therapy and individual therapy.

Relationships with friends, family members, and professional colleagues have been a common focus in the therapy that I provide. This includes a focus on setting boundaries and managing one’s expectations of others.  While we will not include having your extended family or colleagues attend the counseling sessions, I have found that a lot of the work to change relationships can occur through participation in individual counseling. The people causing you distress may not have interest in changing things, but we can work on what you can do to change your role in the relationship.

Some of the concerns that I have worked with a lot over the years include: Social anxiety, general anxiety, grief, managing the college years, deciding whether to pursue a college degree or another path, career exploration, work-stress, adulting, parenting young adults, dealing with loneliness and social isolation, relationship breakups, difficult relationship dynamics, family of origin issues, trauma history, sadness, long-standing mild depression, anger management, emotional regulation, and meaning-making in life.

I find it to be personally fulfilling and a distinct honor to be a part of a chapter of so many people’s lives through my work as a psychologist.  I love helping people to write the script of what they want the next chapter of their lives to be. I know that most don’t feel a sense of complete freedom in writing that next chapter since so much of the story of their lives is handed down to them through family history, life circumstances, and health factors. I love helping people figure out what in their lives they do have control over and helping them to use that to create the kind of life that they find meaningful and fulfilling.