Individual Psychotherapy

Wouldn’t it be great to have the life you really want?

There’s an entire shelf dedicated to self-help books on your bookcase.

Podcasts and meditation apps have taken over your phone.

You’ve done yoga and consider yourself a pretty self-aware human being.

But you still don’t feel like you’re where you want to be.

It’s been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again expecting different results.

Yet we can’t seem to stop repeating the same patterns, because they are wired into our systems. So how do we break through?

The first step is to be courageous enough to pause and willing enough to really see the problem.

The very act of accurately naming our pain helps to dissolve it.

We need a mirror to help us see our own pain and a guide who knows the methods that can best lead us out.

I believe in the power of mindfulness to aid us in seeing our painful patterns.

I have been a mindfulness practitioner for over 20 years and have had deeply transformative experiences on silent retreats in the desert with enlightened master teacher Ruth Denison.

“When the mind hears the truth, the mind rests” – Ruth Denison

It just doesn’t get any deeper than that for me. So here’s the truth about psychotherapy:

At its simplest, psychotherapy can be pared down to the truism that the mind can exist in either healthy or unhealthy states.

A therapist helps us choose healthy states, more of the time.

I do not believe in pathologizing people, but rather in seeing them as being in unhealthy mind states.

We also have the capacity to exist in healthy states, which are rooted in love, generosity, and mindfulness.

I can help you learn how to pause and choose healthier states, which will produce better responses. This process is also termed in traditional psychology as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

On a cushion we can more easily steady the mind to notice how our thought processes affect our feelings and actions.

But real life is full and vivid – it is not so easy to notice how the events of the day affect our negative self-talk, our resulting feelings, and the actions we might take to self-medicate as a result.

In therapy, we can put this together for you.

Together, we can work to deconstruct your negative patterns and replace them with new, healthier patterns.

You were courageous enough to get this far.

Now follow through with that healthy choice to create new patterns in your life by calling (415) 450-9644 for your free initial consultation.