My Approach
My philosophy of therapy is based on an understanding of family systems. That means I see you, your family, spouse, partner or child as part of an interactive system that effects each member’s behaviors. With this in mind I will take a family history in the form of a genogram, and ask you many questions about the family you are currently part of as well as the family you grew up in. Please be patient with my questions. There are always important reasons why I ask them.
The success of the counseling process will be based to a large degree on how well we can work together. You have the right to ask questions about any procedures used during counseling. If you wish, I will explain my approach and methods in greater detail.
Counseling will seek to meet goals established by all persons involved by the process, usually focused around a specific presenting problem. A major benefit that may be gained from participating in therapy includes a better ability to handle or cope with individual, family, and other interpersonal relationships.
If I am working with your adolescent alone, please expect that I will be requiring yours and your partners participation in the process.
If you are currently involved in a therapy process with another professional, it will be necessary to suspend that therapy for the time we are working together. This is for your benefit, as it will be very difficult for us to accomplish our goals if another therapy process is going on at the same time.
I may not be able to give you an estimate on how long we will be working together. It is possible that as we move forward other issues will be discussed that will need our attention. Please know that I will terminate the therapy process as soon as we are sure that we have accomplished our goals.