415-419-3560 (USA)+41 (0) 76 565 43 65 (Switzerland)
Areas of Special Training
Addicitions and Chemical Dependency
I have for the last ten years specialized in working with all kinds of Addicitions, Chemical Dependency and Issues of Recovery particularly with women. I have developed an innnovative and comprehensive way of working with people who are in all stages of addiction and recovery from within my private practice- this invloves the development of a comprehensive treatment plan with clients and often involves family, friends and loved ones. Harm Reduction means that we work together to find managable and realiztic recovery goals that can work for you. The goal is always towards lessening self harm..and increasing self regulation through slef care.
Trauma
Addiction and trauma more often than not go hand in hand. Addictions are often a valiant attempt that we make to regulate a nervous system that is imbalanced due to some kind of traumatic expereince. To treat addiction without addressing the possiblity of trauma is to overlook a major underlying cause of addiciton. My approach is to aid you as my client in understanding the connection between trauma and your addictions. Together we co-create inspiring and innovative ways of you reminaing sober by looking very clearly at what you were using drugs/alcohol or other self harming behaivors to do. What state are YOU trying to reach. In deepening an understanding of the state you are trying to reach gives us so much more ability to work successfully on your recovery.
Creative Arts Therapy
There are many ways to work - and the more embodied ..the more powerful. I have been an actor, a dancer, and a huge fan of all things creative since my early years. It is the way that I came to be a Pyschotherapist in the first place. It is my belief and expereince that when we start to use the arts we start to engage with our stuck patterns in a new and different way. Through visual art, drama, dance, music...any medium that can give us expression ,we can experience new parts of our selves, and often times resolve internal issues. Being able to find new ways to approach "old" problems is invalueable. Moving awayf from just talking about an event, to having a new experience is a powerful way to see things change both inside you, in your relationships and int he world around you.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is "paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally." (Jon Kabat Zinn)
A mindful approach in psychotherapy can help clients to notice and appreciate each moment as it happens, to regulate emotion, and to expand awareness and aliveness. The mindfulness-based approaches we use aim to help our clients to reduce anxiety and depression, to become more interpersonally effective, and to reduce the impact of stress. Careful observation of thoughts, emotions, behaviors and sensations helps to move the brain towards new, preferred patterns. Mindfulness skills and concepts have long been used in an effort to alleviate suffering and to lessen the sting of life's difficulties, especially those that may be self-imposed.
