Our counselors provide therapy in Providence, RI

My go-to approach for helping in individuals in therapy is an eclectic perspective, consisting of cognitive behavioral therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy, and narrative work. I find that the best therapeutic approach is recognizing that there is no “one type fits all” treatment and that every client deserves treatment that is unique to them. I will often integrate a more holistic and mindfulness-based perspective with clients to help incorporate mind/body experiences, which aim to guide and encourage the clients to deepen their insight around their behaviors and how they navigate the world around them.

I encourage and support clients in practicing skills such as:

• Thought catching: Includes identifying and assessing automatic negative thoughts and behaviors, which we are often unaware of, as they are part of our default settings in reacting to specific thoughts, feelings, and events.
• Observing, not absorbing: A philosophy-based skill that helps clients to navigate overwhelming thoughts and feelings by incorporating mindfulness skills such as placing one hand to your heart and one hand to your belly and reminding your body and mind where it is in space and time, often times prompting it out of a state of fight, flight or freeze.

I know a client is making meaningful progress in individual therapy when clients begin to share successful moments where they found themselves struggling but were able to either use a skill or explore the (past) difficult moment with curious compassion. Clients begin to identify how they plan on integrating skills to better navigate the situation in the future and demonstrate a deeper understanding of what thought/feeling/behavior got in the way of them managing the situation in a way that they would have preferred.

Clients can supplement their time in individual therapy by practicing the skills explored and cultivated in therapy on a more day-to-day basis. Coping skills and insight are most powerful when integrated into daily systems that already serve and promote individuals' success. If you only practice skills in the moment of the crisis, they often don't work and lead to deeper feelings of frustration and anxiety.

To prepare for your first individual therapy session, you can wonder about the version of yourself you would like to be. Is it someone who is more calm and patient? Someone who is less easily triggered by difficult people in their life? What about someone who feels more assured and confident in their decisions? We don't move mountains in therapy, but we begin to build skills and insight that cultivate feelings of confidence and compassion for who we are as people, exploring all the amazing, cool, and quirky characteristics that make us who we are.