Individual Psychotherapy
Making the decision to begin psychotherapy is a courageous step toward change. For therapy to be effective, the therapeutic relationship should gradually develop like the foundation of any healthy relationship, with elements of safety, mutual respect and trust.
Deborah’s style is direct, supportive, interactive, and collaborative. Her approach combines practical guidance, education, and problem solving. Concerns are addressed from a holistic perspective, as functioning is improved when we are both emotionally and physically balanced. While empathetically listening to each person’s experience, Deborah encourages self-awareness and taking responsibility for the individual’s role in perpetuating negative life patterns. Deborah can assist you in developing insight into the root cause of unwanted behavioral, emotional, and relationship patterns and finding new ways to manage various situations.
Deborah will develop an integrated form of treatment that is tailored to individual needs, drawing from a variety of theoretical perspectives, including psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral, relational, existential, and family systems models. Therapy can be short term or long term, depending upon your preference and needs.
Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress. Our fight or flight system operates to save our lives. Yet, when anxiety becomes dysregulated and out of control, it can actually feel like it is taking away your life. You don’t leave the house for fear of having a panic attack. You go to the Emergency Room because you feel like you are dying. You fear social interactions and avoid them whenever possible. You feel extreme unease and apprehension about a variety of situations and you are unable to reassure yourself. You have countless checking rituals that take up hours of your day.
Anxiety is rampant in our culture and the most common mental health condition. It affects approximately 40 million American adults a year (or about 18% of the U.S. population) causing them to be filled with fear and uncertainty. It is very common for it to present with one or more other mental health conditions, such as chemical dependence or Bipolar Disorder, and physical problems, such as cardiovascular disease, hypothyroid, sleep disorders, and hormonal imbalances.
Fortunately, with the right treatment people with anxiety disorders are able to lead a happy, productive life.
Deborah creates an anxiety management treatment plan catered to your individual situation. Therapies that can help with recovery from anxiety include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), and Psychodynamic therapy.
Trauma Recovery
Traumatic experience can overwhelm our mental protective “shield.” In such times, our typical ways of thinking and feeling, as well as ordinary ways of coping with stress, are rendered inadequate and we automatically resort to extreme modes of coping that, over time, can lead to a myriad of emotional, social and interpersonal difficulties. If these difficulties are severe enough, they could lead to symptoms collectively known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
There are some common reactions to a traumatic experience that you might be able to identify with:
- Recurrent and intrusive recollections of the trauma
- Paralyzing fear, anxiety and/or depression
- Consuming feelings of self-blame
- Attempts to avoid thoughts and feelings associated with the trauma
- A markedly diminished interest in significant activities
- Frequent irritability or outbursts of anger
- Disturbing nightmares, and/or flashbacks
- Feeling emotionally numb, disconnected or estranged from others
- Efforts to suppress thoughts about your trauma with alcohol, drugs or sexual acting out
- Hyper-vigilance and feeling easily startled
The goal of trauma recovery is to give a survivor the feeling that they have control over their life again. Deborah helps to create a safe space that encourages a person to open up and share details of their life story. With a combination of mindfulness techniques, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) strategies, wellness coaching, and psychodynamic therapy, a trauma survivor can learn to lead a fulfilled, stable, and healthy life.
Relationship Issues
Many people feel trapped in relationships because they are fearful of being alone or feel responsible for the other person’s happiness. For many people, the reason for excessive reliance upon another is codependency. Following are excerpts from a list of codependent characteristics compiled by Melody Beattie, author of Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself:
- Think and feel responsible for other people—for other people’s feelings, thoughts, actions, choices, wants, needs, well-being, lack of well-being and ultimate destiny.
- Feel compelled—almost forced—to help that person solve the problem, such as offering unwanted advice, giving rapid-fire series of suggestions, or fixing feelings.
- Find themselves saying yes when they mean no, doing things they don’t really want to be doing, doing more than their fair share of the work, and doing things other people are capable of doing for themselves.
- Find it easier to feel and express anger about injustices done to others, rather than injustices done to themselves.
- Find themselves attracted to needy people.
- Feel angry, victimized, unappreciated and used.
- Come from troubled, repressed, or dysfunctional families.
- Blame themselves for everything.
- Reject compliments or praise.
- Think they’re not quite good enough.
Learning to balance self-care with relationships can enhance personal wellness and help you attract others who are your emotional equals.
Life Coaching
If you are reading this, you are searching for something more, such as inspiration, a deeper meaning, love and passion, and authenticity. Life coaching can help you build self-confidence, set goals, manage life transitions, organize priorities, make decisions, increase motivation, develop leadership skills, enhance relationships, and avoid procrastination.
Life coaching can be combined with individual therapy to help you progress through the areas in life where you feel stuck. Sessions include a combination of listening to your needs and priorities, identifying roadblocks that have been holding you back, goal planning, and guidance through concrete steps that will create needed change.
The following are examples of areas where life coaching can be useful:
- Planning education, business, career, and life goals
- Confronting fears
- Balancing personal and work life
- Finding the ideal partner / love/ relationship
- Communicating assertively, powerfully, and diplomatically
- Adjusting to life after divorce
- Fulfilling personal and emotional needs
- Making a life transition, such as going away to college, starting a family, and retirement