The Therapeutic Process

What makes therapy so interesting is that each new case presents new challenges and new opportunities to improve someone’s life. The best part about being a therapist is that I have the opportunity to collaborate with my clients to assist them in making the changes they need to improve daily living. This is done using a variety of approaches. Most often, I find using Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) combined with Mindfulness to be most effective. Other times, using a more psychodynamic approach is warranted, it all depends on the individual’s needs.

We often get stuck in unproductive, and sometimes harmful thinking patterns. It can be difficult to get off that pathway, literally. As we repeat those patterns, we are are strengthening the neuronal pathways in our brain making it easier and faster to experience the negative thoughts. Mindfulness teaches us the importance of staying present in the here and now and helps us recognize that we often DO have control over our thinking. Once we understand that we have control over that thinking, CBT is used to change the thinking to be more beneficial to us. As we practice the new way of thinking, we are building stronger neuronal pathways while our brain prunes the old pathways of negative thought patterns.

This style is used to treat children, adolescents, and adults. It is a style, not a protocol. Therefore, there are many techniques within that style that can be altered to best fit the needs of each individual client. In other words, I would not use the same approach for a 6 year old that I would for an adult. But I would use CBT and Mindfulness for both clients, if that’s what they need.