Integrating spirituality into the counseling process can create this kind of healing movement. We invite you to bring your faith, doubts, emotions and the wisdom of your body into our work together.

This is a sample exercise that I may do with a client around anxiety. It incorporates EMDR and Internal Family Systems to help you identify and work with the family system that exists within your own mind.

Are we remembering them in the present or reliving them in the past? Remembering creates healing and movement, reliving perpetuates rumination and stagnation.

When was the last time you were completely in tune with your body? It is magical. Your thoughts and feelings don’t stick around, they only made passing appearances as your whole being is engrossed in the present moment.

Our understanding of who we are in relationship to the world and other people develops out of the attachment we have to our parent(s) or primary caregiver(s) as children. Parents are often doing the best they can and that can still not be enough sometimes.

I wanted to share some common symptoms and problems that are often (not always of course) present with males who come into my office:

• They have problems with anxiety and stress, and they internalize and absorb this stress

• They can’t get out of their head / their mind spins in circles

• They are more often than not analyzing / thinking / evaluating future tasks or past problems

• They have become increasingly more angry and irritable and notice that they snap at small, trivial things more than they used to

There is so much pressure on you, as a parent, to be perfect. You've seen the judgmental look of a passerby as you wrangle your child into the car. You know the guilt that comes after reacting in anger to your child's innocent (but annoying) plea for attention. 

As a child, you tell yourself the story that preserves your sense of safety: my parents are good and have it all under control. Safety is a primitive, inherent need you have and your growth as a child depends on it. You're completely dependent on your parents and if they weren't good enough and couldn't provide this sense of safety, the fear would capsize your child self and stunt your emotional and interpersonal development.