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What is Marriage and Family Therapy? "A family's patterns of behavior influences the individual and therefore may need to be a part of the treatment plan. In marriage and family therapy, the unit of treatment isn't just the person - even if only a single person is interviewed - it is the set of relationships in which the person is embedded. Marriage and family therapy is: * Brief * Solution-focused * Specific with attainable therapeutic goals and * Designed with the "end in mind". Marriage and family therapists treat a wide range of serious clinical problems including: depression, marital problems, anxiety, individual psychological problems, and child-parent problems..." (Excerpted from AAMFT Web Site...for more information on this subject and many others go to their Web Site at: www.aamft.org)
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What can I expect in psychotherapy?
Psychotherapy will include the following steps:
* A comprehensive diagnostic and psychiatric evaluation
* Setting goals that you want to accomplish
* Establishing a collaborative treatment plan for accomplishing those goals
* Implementing the plan and regular monitoring of progress towards your goals
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What is your clinical orientation and what strategies do you use?
My clinical orientation is Eclectic in nature including the following:
* Family systems orientation (see above)
* Brief solution-focused therapy and strategies (changing your behavior)
* Cognitive therapy (changing the way you think about issues and problems)
* Process oriented therapy (changing the way you experience and process feelings and emotions)
* Skill building (learning and implementing new skills)
* Bibliotherapy (lots of hand outs and suggested reading...if this works for you)
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What are your beliefs and assumptions about psychotherapy?
I have a philosophy of change and a way of viewing clients that is both respectful and empowering in nature which includes the following beliefs:
* Clients (individuals, couples and families) have the resources to solve their own problems, but need support in finding more effective and satisfactory ways of solving these problems
* The task of psychotherapy is to help clients define clear goals and to take action steps towards their goals
* Clients can make changes in their lives by changing their thinking, emotions and/or behavior
* Small changes in one area of a person's life can lead to larger changes in other areas of their lives
* If one person makes changes as a part of a larger system (couple, family or relationship), this can lead to changes in the larger system as a whole
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Other links with helpful information regarding kids, adolescents, parenting and other general mental health topics and tips:
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