My approach is integrative, combining therapeutic models including CBT, ACT, Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT), Motivational Interviewing (MI), clinical hypnotherapy, and EMDR with the foundational orientations of relational, humanistic, existential, and transpersonal psychology.
I draw from the clinical frameworks including: Positive Psychology, Health Psychology, Trauma-Informed Care, Attachment-Informed, Mindfulness-Based, Somatic, Psychospiritual, Strengths-Based, Multicultural, Relational, and Integral/Holistic approaches.
Through mindfulness, meditation, gratitude, visualization, compassion practices, relaxation training, and meaning-making exercises, I support clients in healing, building resilience, deepening self-awareness, and living a more authentic and meaningful life.
Before transitioning into counseling, I spent 12 years working with clients through mind-body approaches. Since 2008, I have trained in clinical hypnotherapy, somatic therapies, dynamic body balancing, meditation, Chinese QiGong, energy work, craniosacral therapy, trauma release approaches, and other integrative methods that continue to inform my work today. I integrate these experiences with contemporary evidence-based psychotherapy to support the connection between mind, body, emotions, relationships, meaning, and personal growth.
Acceptance and Commitment (ACT)
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is an action-oriented approach that stems from traditional behavior therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy. Clients learn to stop avoiding, denying, and struggling with their inner emotions and, instead, accept that these deeper feelings are appropriate responses to certain situations that should not prevent them from moving forward in their lives. With this understanding, clients begin to accept their hardships and commit to making necessary changes in their behavior, regardless of what is going on in their lives and how they feel about it.
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
Cognitive-behavioral therapy stresses the role of thinking in how we feel and what we do. It is based on the belief that thoughts, rather than people or events, cause our negative feelings. The therapist assists the client in identifying, testing the reality of, and correcting dysfunctional beliefs underlying his or her thinking. The therapist then helps the client modify those thoughts and the behaviors that flow from them. CBT is a structured collaboration between therapist and client and often calls for homework assignments. CBT has been clinically proven to help clients in a relatively short amount of time with a wide range of disorders, including depression and anxiety.
Mindfulness-Based (MBCT)
For clients with chronic pain, hypertension, heart disease, cancer, and other health issues such as anxiety and depression, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, or MBCT, is a two-part therapy that aims to reduce stress, manage pain, and embrace the freedom to respond to situations by choice. MCBT blends two disciplines–cognitive therapy and mindfulness. Mindfulness helps by reflecting on moments and thoughts without passing judgment. MBCT clients pay close attention to their feelings to reach an objective mindset, thus viewing and combating life’s unpleasant occurrences.
Person-Centered
Person-centered therapy uses a non-authoritative approach that allows clients to take more of a lead in discussions so that, in the process, they will discover their own solutions. The therapist acts as a compassionate facilitator, listening without judgment and acknowledging the client’s experience without moving the conversation in another direction. The therapist is there to encourage and support the client and to guide the therapeutic process without interrupting or interfering with the client’s process of self-discovery.
Integrative
Integrative therapy refers to therapy in which elements from different types of therapy may be used. Therapists ‘integrate’ two or more therapeutic styles (e.g. Cognitive and Family Systems) to bring about a personalized and practical approach to healing.
Integrative therapy (with a small ‘i’) may also refer to the process of ‘integrating’ the personality by taking disowned or unresolved aspects of the self and making them part of a cohesive personality whole. It reduces the use of defense mechanisms that inhibit spontaneity and allows flexibility in solving emotional problems.
Compassion Focused
Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT) may assist individuals who struggle with mood disorders, anxiety, or feelings of shame and self-criticism, often stemming from early experiences of abuse or neglect. Through exercises like role-playing, visualization, meditation, and activities that promote gratitude for everyday life, CFT teaches clients about the mind-body connection and guides them in practicing awareness of their thoughts and bodily sensations. This helps clients cultivate self-compassion and compassion for others, which can help regulate their emotions and foster a sense of safety, self-acceptance, and comfort.
CFT and Spirituality
Many of CFT’s ideas overlap with spiritual traditions:
Loving-kindness practices
Self-compassion
Interconnection
Forgiveness
Humility
Service
Compassion toward suffering
A psychospiritual framing:
“Can we learn to relate to ourselves as a sacred being worthy of care, even while imperfect and suffering?”
Common CFT Techniques
- Compassionate Breathing
A grounding exercise using slow breathing while cultivating feelings of warmth and safety.
Purpose:
Activate parasympathetic nervous system
Reduce threat activation
Build soothing capacity
- Compassionate Imagery
Clients imagine:
A compassionate person
A compassionate animal
A spiritual figure
A wise inner self
A future self offering support
Questions:
What qualities does this being have?
How do they look at you?
What do they want for you?
- Compassionate Letter Writing
Clients write to themselves from a compassionate perspective.
Example:
“Dear Ethan, I know you have been carrying a lot. It makes sense that you feel exhausted. You have survived difficult experiences, and your reactions developed for a reason. Let’s take this one step at a time.”
- Working With the Inner Critic
CFT does not try to destroy the inner critic.
Instead:
“The critic developed to protect you.”
Questions:
What is the critic afraid will happen?
What is it trying to prevent?
Can we appreciate its intention while developing a kinder approach?
- Compassionate Chair Work
Similar to Gestalt or schema therapy:
Parts may include:
The critic
The frightened child
The protector
The compassionate self
Dialogue helps integrate these parts.
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Emotionally Focused Therapy
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) is an approach to therapy that helps clients identify their emotions, learn to explore and experience them, to understand them and then to manage them. Emotionally Focused Therapy embraces the idea that emotions can be changed, first by arriving at or ‘living’ the maladaptive emotion (e.g. loss, fear or shame) in session, and then learning to transform it. Emotionally Focused Therapy for couples seeks to break the negative emotion cycles within relationships, emphasizing the importance of the attachment bond between couples, and how nurturing of the attachment bonds and an empathetic understanding of each others emotions can break the cycles.
Positive Psychology
Unlike traditional psychology that focuses more on the causes and symptoms of mental illnesses and emotional disturbances, positive psychology emphasizes traits, thinking patterns, behaviors, and experiences that are forward-thinking and can help improve the quality of a person’s day-to-day life. These may include optimism, spirituality, hopefulness, happiness, creativity, perseverance, justice, and the practice of free will. It is an exploration of one’s strengths, rather than one’s weaknesses. The goal of positive psychology is not to replace those traditional forms of therapy that center on negative experiences, but instead to expand and give more balance to the therapeutic process.
Somatic
Somatic (from the Greek word ‘somat’, meaning body) psychotherapy bridges the mind-body dichotomy recognizing that emotion, behavior, sensation, impulse, energy, action, gesture, meaning and language all originate in physical experiences. Thinking is not an abstract function but motivates, or is motivated by, physical expression and action. A somatic approach to trauma treatment can be effective by examining how past traumatic experiences cause physical symptoms (e.g. bodily anesthesia or motor inhibitions) which in turn affect emotion regulation, cognition and daily functioning.
Existential
Existential psychotherapy is based on the philosophical belief that human beings are alone in the world, and that this aloneness can only be overcome by creating one’s own meaning, and exercising one’s freedom to choose. The existential therapist encourages clients to face life’s anxieties head on and to start making their own decisions. The therapist will emphasize that, along with having the freedom to carve out meaning, comes the need to take full responsibility for the consequences of one’s decisions. Therapy sessions focus on the client’s present and future rather than their past.
“Healing through meaning, freedom, responsibility, and facing the realities of existence.”
Humanistic
The humanistic method takes a positive view of human nature and emphasizes the uniqueness of the individual. Therapists in this tradition, who are interested in exploring the nature of creativity, love, and self-actualization, help clients realize their potential through change and self-directed growth. Humanistic therapy is also an umbrella term for gestalt, client-centered therapy, and existential therapy.
“Healing through acceptance, authenticity, and the therapeutic relationship.“
Transpersonal
Transpersonal therapy emphasizes the transcendent or spiritual aspects of a client’s development. A transpersonal therapist may help the client cultivate a greater sense of connectedness with others, with nature, and with a higher spirit.
“Healing through connection with something beyond the individual self — spirituality, consciousness, transcendence, and expanded states of awareness.”
An example of the how these frameworks work together:
1- Humanistic – Healing the Wounded Self
Focus:
- Safety
- Attachment
- Self-esteem
- Authentic relationship
We create a relationship where you experience being valued and understood
2 – Existential – Discovering the Authentic Self
Focus:
- Values
- Meaning
- Choice
- Responsibility
What matters deeply to you? What kind of person do you want to become?
3 – Transpersonal – Expanding Beyond the Self
“Is there something larger than my individual story?”
Focus:
- Spirituality
- Consciousness
- Connection
- Transcendence
“I feel disconnected from everything.”
“What experiences have helped you feel connected to something greater?”