FAQs
How do I know therapy is right for me?
1
If you want to improve your experience of life, therapy might be right for you. Perhaps you are working through the lingering effects of a difficult childhood. Perhaps you have experienced something traumatic or upsetting. Or, possibly, you simply have a sense that something is not quite right. A relationship, a career, an artistic or creative pursuit— something you care about isn’t working the way you wish it would. Maybe you feel an ambiguous sense of longing or discontent that you don’t quite understand. There are so many legitimate reasons to enter therapy. Learning your heart and mind, healing what hinders you— these are gifts that flow into every facet of your life.
Is talk therapy enough, or do I need something else?
2
Perhaps you’ve heard that “talk therapy” isn’t sufficient for addressing deep wounds and producing real change. Advancements in neuroscience and therapeutic technologies made in the last decade have fundamentally reshaped our understanding of emotional health and recovering from trauma, in particular. It’s true that modalities such as EMDR approach trauma healing in a different way from traditional talk therapy— through intentional body-based processing.
Yet, a nuance that people often miss is this important point: good talk therapy is never just talking. There is an experiential, embodied, somatic component of effective therapy, even and sometimes especially “talk therapy.” A skilled experiential or psychodynamic therapist uses language and meaning-making to guide clients through a contained, embodied healing experience that regulates and restores the nervous system in much the same manner as EMDR or similar somatic modalities.
When working with trauma, I often layer talk therapy with EMDR techniques to assist processing and desensitization in the most enduring and client-appropriate way possible.
What does “depth-oriented” mean?
3
My practice seeks to understand and integrate the roots of client issues, rather than merely tending to symptom reduction. I am skeptical of pat solutions, generalizations, and uncomplicated diagnostic categories. I find that many good candidates for therapy are wary of beginning due to a misconception that the therapist’s role is solely to comfort or to validate negative emotion; and wisely, they’re not up for that. Therapy that moves people into sustainable change necessarily involves challenge— confrontation with our complex and unique shadow, with all of the layered parts of self that influence our day-to-day experience. Depth-oriented therapy guides clients to the joyous freedom that arises when we understand our center.
How does sliding scale work? Am I eligible?
4
I offer a limited number of reduced-fee spots for clients experiencing genuine financial hardship. If you are interested in discussing this option, I’d be happy to discuss availability with you during our consultation call.
Noontide is an old word for midday or high noon. It’s the hour when the sun is highest, shadows are at their shortest, and the world is illuminated most fully. It suggests clarity, stillness, and an unhurried presence, qualities I bring to my clients and to all of the important relationships in my life.