My Approach and Theoretical Framework to Counseling
I strive for a collaborative approach to counseling with a framework constructed from humanism, existentialism, and attachment theory. I help clients to increase meaning by honoring their lived experience, identifying and honing their strengths, and moving towards resonance in their life. I use behavioral and somatic interventions when they can help decrease suffering in the present or help better attune to self. A narrative approach helps to increase attention to the present moment, reframe stories, and to experience increased freedom through humor, creativity, and my innate belief in the capacity to grow.
Personal History and Dominant Narratives
Dominant narratives in our families and in the greater collective can impact the way we choose to live our lives even when those stories do not resonate with our lived experience. Our past experiences can inform the way we show up in our lives and in the present moment. Sometimes past experiences can cause us to feel conflict in current relationships; struggle to communicate emotions effectively; trust that others will be able to meet our needs; cause us to utilize coping mechanisms that hinder us rather than help us.
Grief and Loss
Grief is an inevitable part of life that is often unacknowledged and unaddressed at a collective level. Grief is often connected to early attachment wounds and the aftermath of living through traumatic events. People often walk through the world with feelings of grief and loss that leave them invisibly fragmented. Dominant culture does not make space for relating to the depth of the human experience or the non-linear process of grief. We may not always be conscious of why we suffer, but there is often a deeper thread to the experience.
Being Human
When emotions are not tended to, they can remain in the body and cause suffering. When aspects of our lives feel out of balance, anxiety and depression symptoms can show up as indicators. We regain balance in our lives by listening to our inner knowledge and by discovering ways to tend to ourselves. We can feel alone while also striving for connection. We can experience the freedom to choose what we want for our lives while also being responsible for our choices. We can experience meaninglessness while seeking meaning.
Diet Culture
I help people who are wanting to divest from diet culture. When we worship small bodies and equate smallness to health and moral virtue, we promote weight loss as a means of attaining higher value, which demonizes certain ways of eating while elevating others. This oppresses people who don't match up with supposed pictures of health, which disproportionately harms everyone in historically marginalized groups: women, femmes, trans people, people in larger bodies, people of color, and people with disabilities. You do not have to follow any sort of official diet to be caught up in the culture of dieting.