Frequently Asked Questions
What kind of therapy do you provide?
I care about providing psychotherapy and counseling that is compassionate, respectful, and adds to the quality and richness of my clients’ lives. I also consider it vitally important to provide therapy that is supported by scientific methods of evaluation. There are hundreds of types of therapy to choose from, but only a small collection have been evaluated scientifically and shown to be helpful. Most of these tried-and-true methods belong to cognitive and behavioral traditions in psychology. My specialty, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), comes from these traditions. ACT has generated scientific support for a variety of psychological challenges and disorders.
How do I know if I need therapy?
As I see it, there are two ways to answer this question. One is through a careful and extensive analysis of symptoms and behaviors conducted by a professional. Another method boils down to this: If you are unsatisfied with yourself or your life, and you’ve been trying to change that but have been unsuccessful, and you don’t know what else to do and are feeling stuck, then therapy may be helpful to you. This may mean that you qualify for a psychological disorder, or it may mean that you are just experiencing some of the normal difficulties of being alive. Life can be hard! If you think this fits with your experience, contact me and let’s see what we can do to change your life. I want to help.
What kind of problems can you work with?
Here are some common ones:
-Relationship difficulties
-Depression
-Anxiety, panic attacks, OCD
-Substance abuse, chemical dependency and other addictive-compulsive behaviors
-Chronic pain, chronic illness
-Life Crises
-Sexual Identity Concerns
-Female and Male sexual abuse/assault/rape survivors
-Sexual addiction
-Career counseling
-Domestic violence
-Affirmative gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender psychotherapy
-Anger management
-Sleep disorders
-Post-traumatic stress disorder
-Hallucinations or delusions
-Sexual dysfunction
-Gambling
-Dysfunctional family issues
-Codependency
You’re a psychologist resident? What does that mean?
Psychologists are required to receive extensive training involving many years of education and experience – even after finishing school! I have a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and have been practicing psychotherapy for many years, but technically I cannot call myself a psychologist until I have obtained a license. That is partially the purpose of my current position – to fulfill certain requirements for the state of Oregon to earn that license. For my clients, this basically means that my work is supervised by a licensed psychologist (or, in my case, two of them), which helps to ensure that I am doing my job appropriately and competently. It also means that I cannot accept insurance for my services, which is perhaps a drawback. On the other hand, I can offer substantially more affordable therapy in comparison to most licensed psychologists, which may be viewed as a benefit of my services.