Sometimes we need help to find a new perspective

Whatever your unique struggle, I can help you find light in the darkness.  We can journey together to uncover areas of yourself and your strength that have been lost or never found.  Together we will find the tools to restore hope for the future, and bring love and joy back into your life.

Find Hope

We can benefit greatly when another perspective can help us find new hope in a seemingly hopeless situation.

Restore Love

Sometimes feelings of love are a distant memory and communication has been lost. Relationship repair may seem out of reach.

Experience Joy

Depression and anxiety can rob you of Joy and make life and relationships difficult.

Couple and Family Therapy

You’ve learned how to negotiate, fight better, change bad behaviors, even laugh more.  Why haven’t they brought the change you really want in your marriage?

Marriages cannot be built or repaired with clever techniques. To have a fulfilling, enduring marriage, you must replace what is often missing at the core:  

In addition to private couple counseling I teach a workshop times a year.  The next one will be held on Nov 1st, 2nd, 2013. Follow this link for more information:

Childhood Trauma and PTSD

The effects of childhood abuse and other types of trauma, can remain with you as an adult, and hinder your ability to function in life and relationships.  It is often difficult to accept the fact that your present difficulties may be related to something thing that happened in the past, even in childhood many years ago.

Research has overwhelmingly supported the relationship between childhood, or single event trauma, with subsequent difficulties in adulthood, which often surface after long periods of dormancy.

Another unrecognized factor leading to hindrances in adult functioning is childhood neglect and abandonment.  You may not have experienced outright abuse in your childhood, but you may have simply been neglected, supported, and without someone to advocate for you as launched into adulthood.  You may have experienced blatant or subtle abandonment.  All these can lead to a chronic, low level of depression and anxiety, or other problems such as addiction, obesity, and work related functioning.

Struggling with Anxiety or Depression

A certain level of Anxiety and Depression are normal for most everyone and can wax and wane throughout the lifespan.  But sometimes Anxiety or Depression can become overwhelming and hinder your ability to function in work and relationships.  That is when it is time to get help.

Anxiety and Depression have multiple causes and experiencing them, even being overwhelmed by them does have to be an indication that you are crazy or have a serious mental illness.  When treated early and appropriately, Anxiety and Depression can be resolved.

Freedom from Addiction

Are you struggling with persistent problems related to addictions?  Do you need help beyond the 12-Steps?  Evidence shows that 12 step programs are consistently the most effective addiction recovery programs over the past 80 years. However, when your addiction is complicated by depression, anxiety, childhood trauma, or mental illness, research has shown that recovery success in greatly improved when these are addressed in individual, couple or family counseling.

My years of experience with inpatient and outpatient addiction programs informs my work with clients in a private practice setting.

Adults living with ADD and ADHD

Surviving childhood was tough, but now your ADD, ADHD, symptoms are interfering with your school, your work, and relationships with your partner, children and friends.

There is so much new research and help available for adults with ADD and ADHD.  If you have never been formally diagnosed, I can provide screening and diagnosis as well as ongoing treatment and referrals to other helpful resources.

Most importantly, I can help you navigate and resolve some of the difficulties that arise with interpersonal relationships as a result of adult lasting ADD and ADHD.

EMDR

PTSD, depression, and anxiety are not “all in the mind”, they are all in the brain, and EMDR is thought to activate particular areas of the brain that have been overwhelmed by years of childhood abuse, neglect and abandonment, or a single event trauma such as a car accident or natural disaster.

I find EMDR to be an irreplaceable tool in my work with clients, but not to the exclusion of the therapy relationship and other very helpful modalities which I embrace and practice. EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, a method originally develeped to treat Trauma, which has now been studied and validated as an effective treatment for Anxiety and Depression, addiction, eating disorders and other mental illnesses and conditions.  It used by the Veterans Association and the Department of Defense therapists to treat combat stress and PTSD.  It is also used by police departments and fire departments to help employees cope with work related distress and trauma.

Your City:

My office is centrally located in West Linn, just off of 205, and easily accessible to residents of Wilsonville, Canby, Oregon City, Tualatin, Lake Oswego, Lake Grove, Happy Valley, Gladstone.  I belong to family counselors west linn or.