Since 2002, I’ve been counseling youth and young adults, with a focus on trauma, depression, substance use, behavioral addictions, suicidality, and variety of other issues. These days, I meet with:
Teens of All Genders. Most of my teen clients are addressing trauma, depression, substance use, oppositional behavior, or LGBTQ+ topics. I also have significant experience with anxiety, behavioral addictions, gender dysphoria, impulsivity, and most other presenting concerns. I frequently meet with adopted teens and autistic youth.
Emerging Adult Males. The term emerging adult refers to someone who’s no longer a teen, but not yet fully adulting. Most of my emerging adult clients are addressing trauma, depression, substance use, behavioral addictions, and life transitions. I also have significant experience helping with existential themes, intrusive thoughts, stuckness, and more.
Pre-Teen Boys. I regularly meet with eleven and twelve year old boys seeking support specifically for trauma related issues — especially sexual abuse and relational trauma — as well as substance use, adoption related concerns, or oppositional behavior.
MY APPROACH
Change is a process, not an event. My goal is to help you or your teen successfully navigate that process. We’ll do this by making choices about what to change, identifying what to leave behind, and developing the insight to move forward.
Numerous studies show that a strong therapeutic alliance — which we can define as the connection between therapist and client — is essential for positive counseling outcomes. This is especially true with teens and emerging adults. With this in mind, I’m very relationship-oriented. Initial sessions focus on developing a strong alliance and most of the clinical work I do is one-on-one.
Beyond this relationship-oriented foundation, I’m pretty pragmatic. That means I use a variety of clinical strategies with the goal of helping you or your teen get unstuck. These include motivational interviewing, existential approaches, narrative therapy, and parts work.
Motivational Interviewing. Many people are extremely ambivalent about the process of change, especially teens and emerging adults. This is true even for those who want to attend counseling. Motivational interviewing is an evidence-based approach that focuses on resolving this ambivalence, identifying genuine reasons for making change, and supporting the process of doing something new.
Existential Approaches. Existential psychotherapy addresses pointlessness, stuckness, and The Big Questions — topics which are especially relevant to those dealing with depression, trauma, and substance-related concerns. Existential approaches help us identify these concerns, explore them, and develop practical strategies for managing — and even embracing — them.
Narrative Therapy. The stories we tell about ourselves define how we act, think, and feel. They determine how we interpret the information of our lives, how we interact with the world, and how we make sense of our past, present, and future. Narrative therapy encourages us to revisit these stories — exploring if they are useful or lead to stuckness, and re-authoring the parts that no longer serve us.
Parts Work. We all have different “parts” of our Self — such as Protectors, Critics, Rebels, and Self-Bullies. These parts help us navigate trauma, depression, anxiety, and other difficulties. However, in their effort to keep us safe, sometimes they’re demanding, stubborn, or argumentative. Parts work acknowledged all our parts and explores strategies for letting them retire from their work.
CONSISTENT, PREDICTABLE, AND IN-PERSON
I very much believe that truly effective counseling must be consistent, predictable, and in-person. To help assure the most useful therapeutic experience possible, I only schedule sessions on a weekly recurring basis and all appointments are in-person.
In addition, I strongly believe that teens and emerging adults — especially those in counseling for trauma, depression, substance use, behavioral addictions, and/or impulsivity — will absolutely have the best possible outcomes when sessions are held in-person.
It seems to me that therapy — at least effective therapy — is a liminal space. We intentionally come to a set-aside place, where we are neither here nor there, in order to focus specifically on some sort of transition. Meaningful liminal spaces simply can’t be created online.
Weekly in-person sessions aren’t what everyone wants, and there are many therapists willing hold sessions online or with less frequency. However, for the clients I meet with who are seeking services for the concerns I focus on, I absolutely believe the best possible treatment outcomes will come from consistent, predictable, in-person sessions.