Locations:
307 South B Street: San Mateo, CA 94401
10 El Camino Real, San Carlos, CA 94070
Therapeutic Techniques
In my practice, I use a variety of therapeutic techniques to help you achieve the results you desire.
Family Systems
I work with children and parents individually or as a group to improve communication and strengthen relationships. I view problems within the family as the result not of particular members' behaviors, but of the family's group dynamic. The family is a complex system with its own language, roles, rules, beliefs, needs and patterns. I can help a parent understand how their own childhood family operated, their role in that system, and how that experience has shaped their role in the current family.
Marriage and Family Therapy
I meet with families or couples both together and individually to help improve communication skills, build on the positive aspects of relationships, and repair harmful or negative aspects.
Art Therapy
The symbolic nature of art can be very powerful in a therapeutic setting. I use art therapy with both children and adults (who are open to it) to treat a wide range of emotional issues including anxiety, depression, family and relationship problems, abuse and domestic violence, and trauma and loss. The creative process is healing and life-enhancing. Imagery can unearth an emotion otherwise difficult to express and can also be a way to explore internal beliefs and values. Your creative expressions can be springboards to help you gain personal insight, improve your judgment, cope with stress, and work through traumatic experiences.
Narrative Therapy
Narrative Therapy embraces the idea that stories actually shape our behaviors and our lives and that we become the stories we tell about ourselves. There are helpful narratives we can choose to embrace as well as unhelpful ones. You are the expert of your own narrative.
Person-Centered Therapy
Person-centered therapy allows you to take more of a lead in discussions so that, in the process, you will discover your own solutions. My job is to be a compassionate facilitator, listening without judgment and acknowledging your experience without moving the conversation in another direction. I am there to encourage and support you and to guide the therapeutic process without interrupting or interfering with your process of self-discovery.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive-behavioral therapy stresses the role of thinking in how we feel and what we do. It is based on the belief that thoughts, rather than people or events, cause our negative feelings. I can assist you in identifying, testing the reality of, and correcting dysfunctional beliefs underlying your thinking. I can help you modify those thoughts and the behaviors that flow from them. CBT is a structured collaboration that often calls for homework assignments. CBT has been clinically proven to help in a relatively short amount of time with a wide range of disorders, including depression and anxiety.