Personal growth and empowerment are key factors in successful psychotherapy. Creating an environment for one to develop a stronger sense of self is a personal goal of mine as a therapist. As one’s sense of self increase, other aspects of one’s life fall into place.

Some of the benefits of therapy include:

• Relief from depression
• Decrease in stress and anxiety
• Better relationships
• Stronger, more appropriate boundary setting
• Asking and receiving needs previously unacknowledged

Working from an emotionally focused persepctive, we look at unresolved feelings and negative relating skills that we developed in childhood or past relatonships. Often we recognize ways in which our pain is repeated in present day relationships and activities–sometimes we are unaware of how we repeat with others what was learned long ago. Some people shut down emotions altogether, while others act out their emotions in destructive ways. Usually we blame the other people in our lives for the repetitive pain. No matter where we are, however, the emotion or lack of emotion is ours, and only we can stop the repetition. This pain pattern is the leading cause of poor choices and dysfunctional relationships or withdrawal from healthy relating.