Individual, Couple, Family and Group Therapy

INDIVIDUAL THERAPY

I have been in private practice since 1978. As in every profession or trade, new concepts, ideas, methodologies and insights are made all the time. I feel honored to have learned so many diversified techniques over the years from some of the finest contributors in my profession. I always tell my clients that if you only have one golf club, you will play a shitty game of golf. Having a collection of so many old and new applications of treatment has allowed me to find innovative ways to help individuals, couples and families effect positive change in their lives.

People come to see me because they want change in their lives. They recognize patterns of behavior that have caused pain to them and others. As Socrates once said, “a life unexamined, is not a life worth living.” Individual psychotherapy offers the client an opportunity to examine their thoughts, feelings, behaviors and the consequences. It allows clients to understand how these patterns became an unconscious choice and at the same time provides alternative choices that are more productive and viable. Without exploration and personal examination, one continues to do “what comes naturally”, which is not necessarily healthy.

Not everyone responds the same way to each approach. Therefore, I offer several approaches to treatment that will ultimately lead to desired outcome goals. We all know that people are different. Content is different in everyone’s life. Responses are unique; minds are unique; perceptions are unique. Therefore, the treatment has to have enough diversity to accommodate not only the similarities, but the differences in individuals as well. Usually sessions scheduled once a week anywhere from six months to several years is effective for change. I do not believe in brief therapy for serious disorders. Quite often it takes years of laborious work to reprocess and retrain our brains. Fortunately, I have many techniques that serve short-term therapy well, like EMDR and NLP (see highlighted titles). However, more often, it is time that will effect change. Therapy is expensive. Therapy is painful and painstaking. Many clients leave just when they are about to have a break-through. Many leave as they approach the difficult issues. So to enter therapy and expect an immediate resolution to a long term problem is unrealistic. However, if one commits to the time, energy and effort, and is willing to face new challenges, be open-minded to perpetual possibilities, can sustain some emotional pain and can tolerate confrontation, then positive results can be obtained. The fees for individual, couple or family therapy are $200.00 per session.

ENCOUNTER-CENTERED COUPLE THERAPY

I have exciting news I want to share with all of you about my future intentions beginning January, 2012. I am launching a two day couple’s Intensive to help couples (one couple at a time) “CROSS THE BRIDGE” and restore their relationship/marriage. I am thrilled about this new beginning in my career at this time of my life as I feel I have embarked upon a wonderful and powerful healing technology to employ with couples who want to repair the relational space that has become polluted over the course of time.

I have accrued many different certifications and attended dozens of workshops from many contributors in the field of couple counseling. I am presently embarking on a three year Master Course with Hedy Schleifer, (www.hedyyumi.com), who has created a fresh and innovative methodology, called Encounter-Centered Couple Therapy that synthesizes the work of many contributors including John Bradshaw, CREATING AND MAINTAINING HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS, Harville Hendrix, IMAGO, Lori Gordon, PAIRS, (PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS FOR INTIMATE RELATIOHSHIP SKILLS) and the philosophy of Martin Buber as well as many others. Hedy Schliefer, the founder of TIKKUN, (a Hebrew word that means repair), is a renowned international couple’s counselor who delivers couple workshops all over the world. The two day Intensive I will structure as the main core modality of my practice, delivers the results most couple’s cannot achieve in years with traditional counseling. The only requirement to engage in this process is that BOTH parties say, “YES” (having a sense of good will) to move their relationship/marriage forward.

It was Martin Buber, the Jewish philosopher who said that we are wired for connection. When we disconnect, we go into crisis. It is then, that the relational space in which the couple lives with their children becomes polluted. This two day Intensive is designed to help couples go deep into each other’s world by Crossing the Bridge to their partner’s neighborhood and seeing perhaps, for the first time, their partner’s essence and authentic self that they may never have known before. It teaches presence, encounter and connection in a way that really works. The couple learns how to exchange their survival roles for their authentic selves so that they no longer are stuck in their unhealthy dynamic of existence. I have witnessed many transformations that were never before able to be accomplished through other therapeutic interventions. Although the costs are steep, ($3500.00) for the two days, it is a lot cheaper that the cost of a divorce and more importantly, can save the couple and their children from multiple heartaches and suffering.

Having been in private practice for nearly 35 years, this process has produced a new and vital energy in me, (at the ripe young age of 72), that is prompting me to incorporate this as my niche in private practice and to introduce this to our community. It will become my life’s work.

COUPLE AND FAMILY THERAPY
Now, in the autumn years of my life and work, I have engaged in a three year Master Class with Hedy Schleifer, MA, a skilled master in couple’s work. For years I have used all the skills, tools and resources I have learned over more than thirty four years, but never have a found a technology more effective than the work Hedy has created to help couple’s clean up the polluted relational space in couple’s lives to create the most positive outcomes I have ever seen. These outcomes provide couples with a formula that works and one they can use at home without a therapist once they learn how to use it. This technology has proven successful all over the world and Hedy has now decided to teach it to experienced therapists who are interested in working with couples.

I have attended workshops with Hedy and have involved myself along with my couples in weekends of repair and resolution. The results have been astounding and the best part is that is lasts. Visit Hedy’s website @ www.Hedy/Yumi.com to learn more about this wonderful philosophy and therapeutic modality. In the meantime, please consider visiting me for working out the issues in your relationship with state of the arts technology in marital counseling!

Quite often it is necessary to see a spouse or significant other in order that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing. Couples therapy can often help individuals work through issues that cannot be resolved in Individual Therapy. As a PAIRS leader, (see highlighted title), I employ the methods and models of treatment I learned many years ago to assist couples to work through their differences and cultivate healthy intimacy.
The same is true with families. The dynamics in families are often hidden when only one family member is in treatment. It is necessary to observe how the family works in motion. Family Therapy allows the therapist an opportunity to see constructs that would ordinarily be missed in Individual sessions. Observing patterns of communication and the dynamics of interaction provides the therapist with insight for making suggestions that allows growth and change in the family system.
The fees for individual, couple or family therapy are $200.00 per session.

GROUP THERAPY
Perhaps my most favorite approach to therapy is the utilization of the group process. Group acts like a microcosm of the world. It offers a laboratory setting whereby clients can receive feedback from others regarding their dynamics, thought processes, communication style, perception and other remarkable constituents in personality development. Group mobilizes change and growth faster than any other modality. It works on the principle that one horse pulls a thousand pounds; two pull three thousand pounds. By giving and receiving non-shaming, non-judgmental feedback, we learn to make changes in our perception and behavior that bring about the results we want in our lives. Ostensibly, we carry over into our personal lives the positive changes we make in the group process.
I require a six month commitment to group therapy. There are policies and procedures that ensure positive outcomes that are explained in the beginning of the process and are reinforced throughout the experience. The cost of group is $75.00 per session.

CERTIFIED PAIRS LEADER
Psycho-educational programs for the learning and development of . . .
Practical Applications of Intimate Relationship Skills

PAIRS
Founded by Lori Gordon, PhD, PAIRS (Practical Application of Intimate Relationship Skills), provides opportunities for change and growth in couples. PAIRS teach couples how to move their relationship forward to better communication that results in better understanding. The tools provided by a PAIRS LEADER helps facilitate couples through their conflicts and gives each partner a better understanding of the needs and wounds of one other.
Often our history complicates our present and dictates our future. By learning how to discharge the anger, hurt and fears of our childhood, we can clear a new path for love and commitment in our present relationships. Simple exercises and ground rules for FAIR FIGHTING help couples deal respectfully and effectively with one another. It teaches them to honor the pain and shame each brings to a relationship, unwittingly. It offers new ways to deal with old issues. It builds tolerance and intimacy that results in a deeper love for one another.
Based on the contributions of many psychologists and psychotherapists, PAIRS synthesizes the work of expert clinicians who have developed their own theories and ideas that have each been a part of a whole system of techniques. PAIRS is the collaboration of all these combined.
Having been a PAIRS LEADER since 1997, I feel confident that this model can effectuate positive change in couples who are willing to commit to the process.