People seek counseling for many different reasons.  Some are looking for relief from a specific mental illness.  Others want a venue for personal growth or improved relationships.  To help a wide variety of people deal with a wide range of issues, the field of psychotherapy has developed many different theoretical orientations.  This array can be confusing to anyone who has not studied psychology in depth.

My own orientation is eclectic, drawing from a variety of psychotherapeutic orientations.  Exactly how I work depends on the goals and needs of each particular client I work with.  Here I offer a description of the basic principles behind all my work.  I think this is the best way to help you identify if I might be the type of counselor you are looking for.

Basic Principles of Counseling

People are Inherently Good

With this premise I choose to identify each person as the part of him or her self that is trying to do their best, seek win-win solutions, and live gracefully in a sometimes difficult world.  Despite any dysfunctional patterns we may have picked up along the way, it is this goodness inside that remains who we really are at our core.  Any way in which we have hurt others, hurt ourselves, or shrunken from our potential can be understood as coming from some way in which we ourselves have been hurt, neglected, or suffered.  As we heal ourselves we increase our ability to drop dysfunctional patterns and let our good intention manifest more clearly.

Each Person is the Ultimate Authority of Their Own Experience

Each person has an inner voice that speaks their truth.  Others (therapists) may have hunches about what is true for you, but only you can decide is their theories fit your experience.  When a therapist becomes attached to his theory he may push it in a way that just increases his client’s experience of distress.  Alternatively, when a therapist keeps sincerely trying to understand his client as a unique individual, his client is free to continue the healing process of self-discovery.

Reality is in the Present Moment

Each moment offers a fresh look at how we feel and what meanings we are creating out of our circumstances.  It is true that understanding our past can be helpful in identifying the nature of the dysfunctional patterns that still affect us.  But it is the stories about our past that we continue to tell ourselves in the present that most affect how we currently feel.  By becoming mindful of our present experience we can best identify what choices might help us improve our lives.

The Mind and Body are Connected

Emotions are a combination of body sensation and mental interpretation.  Understanding our emotions, thus, requires both paying attention to our awareness of our bodies and to the meanings our mind creates for us.  Slowing down helps focus this awareness.  Therapists can be helpful by encouraging clients both to really feel their bodies, and to carefully track the thought processes that result in distress.