Who I Serve

Individuals, couples, teens and families in need of support and guidance in order to navigate, overcome and find their way through…
 
​Anxiety
Depression
Attention Issues
Hyperactivity Issues
Self Esteem
Grief/Loss
Relational Challenges
Family Dynamics
Parenting
Trauma
Conflict resolution
Academic/Vocational challenges
Addictions
Intimacy/Sexuality
Stress Reduction
Existential/Spiritual emergency
Life transitions
Cultivating Embodiment
Cross Cultural Integration

How I work

 I strive to create an environment of understanding, acceptance and empathy. I look for the strengths and qualities of individuals trying to develop their gifts as human beings.  Using various experiential interventions, relational skill building techniques, embodiment practices, breathing exercises, meditation, art and movement I create opportunities for people to have strong insights, realizations and new experiences toward finding alternative behaviors and healthier skills to meet their needs and challenges. I create a space that fosters and expands awareness so that clients can see and feel their life path more clearly, finding the energy, freedom and courage to make deeper and more life enhancing choices. I focus on relationship, encounter and contact. You can expect  gentleness, support and challenge.
 

Therapeutic Modalities 

My theoretical orientation is informed by the following therapeutic modalities:
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Gestalt therapy
The goal of Gestalt therapy is to enable the client to become more fully and creatively alive through experiential engagement with what is occurring in the present moment. The therapist invites clients to engage in activities and experiments that are aimed to resolve blocks and unfinished business that may be diminishing life satisfaction, fulfillment and growth. This therapeutic modality is highly effective in helping clients to become aware, take responsibility and make choices that lead to a more whole and integrated sense of being. Therapeutic experiments often involve inviting clients to embody end experience different parts of themselves toward enacting situations of their lives in order to increase awareness and resolve issues. 
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More about Gestalt:

Gestalt Institute of the Rockies 
www.gestaltoftherockies.com

Functional Family Therapy (FFT)
FFT is a well-established evidence based approach to help families and teenagers to overcome conflict and  behavioral problems. Although classic FFT happens in an agency context, I use important elements from this approach in my practice such as understanding the “noble intent” underneath seemingly harmful and negative behavior, finding and highlighting the strengths and the relational process in family dynamics and effectively changing behavior through skill building practice and training.

Motivational Interviewing (MI)
MI is a therapeutic modality that helps clients engage with intrinsic motivations. Its interesting combination of goal oriented and client centered style supports resolving ambivalence end eliciting behavior change. In my clinical experience MI deeply communicates respect, emphasizes reflective listening, creates as sense of safety and alliance and help clients look at their own resources and aspirations for successfully creating the changes they want to experience in their lives.

Client Centered approach
Also called Person Centered Therapy or the Rogerian Approach, developed by Carl Rogers, this is the very foundation of my clinical work. The practice of the therapist in this model is to cultivate acceptance, congruence and unconditional positive regard in relationship to clients. Those attitudes support a subtle but profound sense of freedom, opening and possibility in clients which helps them to get in touch with their own inner resources, finding a sense of self love and acceptance for their present situation, paradoxically helping them to change and grow.

Wilderness Therapy 
​Opening and relating to the natural world can be a deep source of healing and transformation. My work is highly informed by my experience using rock climbing and the outdoors as therapeutic tools as well as working as a psychotherapist in the Peruvian Amazonian jungle. I like to take clients to natural settings and frequently will suggest activities that create a more permeable and fluid connection with the outside environment to work on skills designed to awaken a sense of aliveness, belonging, empowerment and balance.