Individual & Couples Therapy

The Clinical Process

My work with individuals, couples, and families revolves around looking at challenges from a broader family systems perspective. This involves constructing a family diagram that functions as a kind of emotional and physical map of the facts of the larger family system. The increased awareness of “what is” in the family can yield clearer insight into each client’s own functioning in the midst of those facts and can lead to greater overall objectivity and thoughtfulness by each client. A more curious stance of looking at “what is” in the family system rather than what “should be” or “could have been”, can in time lead to less energy being invested in the tendency we all have to blame ourselves or others for past or present circumstances. With less emotional energy being invested in blaming self or others, each individual is able to invest more energy in identifying thoughtful choices for how he or she would like to move forward in pursuing a life course that is less vulnerable to the actions or reactions of others and more reflective of an increasing self definition.

Some examples of questions that might be explored include:

• What has changed recently within the family system?
• How do I respond to family members’ moods or behaviors?
• What are my expectations of others and what are the expectations that I perceive others have of me?
• How long can I be in the presence of important others before I become reactive?
• What are the primary relationship triangles I see within the family and how do I function within those triangles?
• Under what situations do I tend to become emotionally or physically unavailable to myself or others?
• What are the beliefs and principles around which I anchor the decisions I make for myself?