Services

 

Alice specializes in individual psychotherapy and couple and family therapy.

 

Presenting Problems:
Clients often enter therapy when outer events have created internal stress  or interpersonal problems. Precipitating factors may include illness, life stage issues, someone entering or leaving the family (through birth, coming of age, marriage, divorce, or death),  job loss or economic hardship.

 

Alice has expertise treating:
Anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, trauma, relationship issues, pre-marital concerns, parent-child conflict, affairs, divorce and co-parenting issues, work- related problems, aging issues, illness, chronic pain, loss and grief.

 

There is no one-size-fits-all therapy, for each individual is unique. The ideal therapist-client relationship provides a container within which clients feel safe discussing concerns and examining painful or uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. Alice’s warm, personable manner engenders feelings of trust and mutual respect so that sne and the client become allies in healing. Alice does not give advice; rather,she helps clients tap into their own inner wisdom. Her positive attitude and gentle sense of humor encourage clients to explore their problems non-judgmentally in order to discover creative solutions for growth and change.

 

 

The word psychotherapy is derived from the ancient Greek words psyche (meaning “soul”) and terapia (meaning “healing”). Thus, psychotherapy is “soul healing”. Alice’s approach to therapy ranges from brief, solution-focused therapy, to a more cognitive approach, to insight-oriented psychotherapy.

SOLUTION-BASED THERAPY helps clients develop a plan to deal with specific problems and learn specific skills to help them attain their goals. Some clients may be able to identify desired results but get “stuck” in self-defeating thoughts or feelings that hinder their progress. COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL THERAPY (CBT) can help clients identify irrational beliefs underlying thoughts and feelings, test the veracity of the beliefs, and develop more positive though patterns which can lead to change. JUNGIAN PSYCHOTHERAPY, based on the tenets of C.G. Jung, helps clients gain insight into the origins of their problems and explore repetitive patterns as well as conscious and unconscious factors that may hinder their growth. Jung believed that, within each individual lies an innate wisdom that can inform their healing and lead to wholeness. Clients may gain access to that wisdom through symptoms and dreams that rise up from the unconscious. In fact, a client’s problems may actually be the psyche’s signal that something is amiss. The prescription for change is often contained within the symptom or neurosis. When clients find meaning to suffering, they may release old views, change unhealthy behaviors, and be healed of their suffering. “There is no birth of consciousness without pain”. (C.G. Jung)

Couples therapy helps clients improve communication and problem-solving skills. As clients identify and work through conflict, they often discover that patterns and perspectives established in early life have led to misunderstanding or unmet needs in their current situation. When clients understand themselves and their partner more fully, they are usually more amenable to change.

Family therapy is based on the belief that a family is a system with its own rules, values, and established patterns. An individual may present in therapy with problems that are actually symptoms of dysfunction within the family-at-large. Families tend to repeat patterns within and across generations. Whether one individual or the entire family participates in therapy, the entire system will benefit, for a change in one part affects the whole. In family therapy, clients learn principles of triangulation, differentiation, and projection and develop healthier patterns of communication and interaction.

Alice administers psychological tests as an adjunct to therapy. The Taylor-Johnson Temperament Analysis assesses personal adjustment and interpersonal styles in individuals, couples, or families. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 is used to assess personality structure and to identify mental disorders. Alice frequently uses the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator with individuals, couples, families, businesses and academic institutions. The MBTI is a psychometric instrument designed to measure psychological preferences and indicates how clients perceive the world and make decisions. Clients not only understand themselves better, but they learn to communicate more effectively with other psychological types. The MBTI can also help clients identify and utilize their unique talents in vocational and educational settings.