Specialty Areas
Addiction
On the surface, addictions seem to be about substances like alcohol or behaviors like sex. But at its core, addiction is really much more about ineffectively dealing with life—avoidance coping. The addiction I work with most frequently is Internet pornography. This addiction can take over a person's life and leave them depressed, isolated, sexually objectifying people, distant from their partners, unproductive, and potentially involved in risky or dangerous behaviors. Fortunately, porn addictions can be treated. It takes time, knowledge, motivation, specific action steps, being able to handle and prevent relapses, and healthier approach to sex and life. Why not set yourself free from the prison of addiction?
Anger Management
Some people are surprised to learn anger can be a valuable emotion. Anger can tell us when we need to address an issue. Anger can also give us the energy to right a wrong, stand up for something, and persist in conflict resolution. However, it can also become our worst enemy. It can destroy intimate relationships, put at risk our work lives, and lead to dangerous road rage. Anger, as it turns out, has more than one face. Researchers have identified different types of anger including passive aggressiveness, sarcasm, cold anger, hostility, and outright aggression. Anger can be successfully managed by admitting it is a problem, identifying your triggers, dampening its initial arousal, changing your self-talk, and learning to appropriately assert yourself in constructive problem solving. There is no need to let anger ruin your life.
Anxiety
Although anxiety is not the most common mood disorder (that honor goes to depression), it is the mood disorder therapists are most frequently asked to treat. Anxiety can present itself as a constant state of worry (Generalized Anxiety Disorder), as a socially triggered state (Social Anxiety), as an intense panic attack, or as one of an almost endless array of phobias. Whatever its form, anxiety is a painful experience that often deeply and dramatically limits our lives. Though there may be countless reasons for anxiety to surface, it is important to note that anxious people reliably do two things: they overestimate the risks involved in thier situation while underestimating themselves and their resources. There are many treatment approaches for anxiety including recognizing and tolerating ambiguity, exposure therapy, restructuring the perception of danger, and learning ways to physically and mentally calm oneself. Anxiety doesn’t have to run your life.
Depression
By its very nature, depression is debilitating. It is characterized by a sense of hopelessness. Every depressed person has their own unique symptom profile that can include a depressed mood (feeling sad, blue, dark, negative, or overwhelmed); decreased pleasure in formerly pleasurable activities (anhedonia); significant weight loss or weight gain; insomnia or hypersomnia; loss of energy; feelings of worthlessness; inability to concentrate or make decisions; and suicidal ideation. Most depression is not biologically based, but has its roots in treatable psychological and social factors. For these reasons, it is better to view depression as a changeable condition rather than a disease to be passively treated by medication alone. Depression lifts as people develop an internal locus of control and future orientation; refine their attributional style (how they explain life around and within themselves); enhance positive expectancy; decrease cognitive distortions, over-responsibility, and perfectionism; and develop appropriate assertiveness and healthy relationships. There is a way out of depression.
Hypnotherapy
Hypnosis is not really a standalone therapy, but a clinical tool that can be used to make strategic differences in a wide variety of psychological conditions including addiction, anger management, anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and sleep problems. Hypnosis can also be used to enhance your life by addressing such things as bad habits, communication, health issues, weight loss, motivation, job skills, sports performance, and personal development. Using hypnosis helps us to break through the surface barriers of the conscious mind and absorb things at a deeper level, at the level where ideas and attitudes are formed (subconscious mind). Hypnosis is not magical; but it has been empirically shown to make powerful differences in people’s lives. It is more of a skill and mindset you seek to actively cultivate, than something you allow to passively happen to you. Perhaps hypnosis can make a difference in your life.
Mindfulness
There are many ways of defining mindfulness such as an awareness of present experience with acceptance (Ronald Siegel), being attuned to the events that are taking place in the present moment in a way that is the least judgmental and the most objective as possible (Bruno Cayoun), and a style of meditation that involves developing a nonjudgmental, present-focused awareness (Mark Tyrell). A study published in the journal Psychiatry Research (2001) showed that an 8 week mindfulness program resulted in measurable brain changes. That is, the parts of the participants’ brains associated with emotional regulation, learning, and memory all became more developed. Personally, I am partial to Mindfulness-Integrated Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, because it integrates western science and eastern wisdom to moderate psychological distress. It is a powerful therapeutic combination!
