I provide individual and couples psychotherapy online; built on twenty years of experience in clinics and private practice in USA (GA & NC) , Turkey, and online with clients from all over the world.
The process of changing feels good. … The change process we have discovered is natural …and it feels that way in the body… The experience of something emerging from there feels like a relief and a coming alive.”
I offer personal focusing sessions, distinct from a conventional psychotherapy framework where we focus on developing the capacity to hear more of the body (or our embodied living) as a source of solutions, novelty, and wisdom, and work on particular problems .
While I have heard people aptly call focusing “Western Yoga”, and it bears some resemblance to mindfulness practices, this process has very different sources. Focusing was discovered during academic research that looked at what actually led people change in psychotherapy. It pointed to something we all had a capacity for (almost like dancing), but seemed to have little awareness of it as such.
Once it was named, it became something we can develop and engage with creatively.
Although hard to put into words, and you get it once you experience it- we can call it a subtle form of listening deeply to one’s own sense of felt (embodied) meaning and life issues.
The name refers to the experience of something fuzzy becoming clear: like a blurry image coming into sharp focus. Sometimes having guided Focusing sessions provides a person the clarity they wish around a decision or a situation, but more importantly learning the process builds a bridge to a more subtle way of exploring and knowing your own living. If it sounds vague- again, you get it once you do it!
Focusing process has capacity to support decision making, deepening relationships, being able to take action, and even thinking in more precise ways (There is an application of it called Thinking at the Edge that is just for theory building in one’s area of expertise). It encourages and guides people in listening to their bodily sensed meaning and wisdom that often gets passed over as insignificant or confusing. Often these places hold the key to stopping recurring patterns, and making better decisions.
If you would like to chat about Focusing feel free to contact me or check out focusing.org.
In true dialogue, both sides are willing to change.
Thich Nhat Hanh
At times we all need support in having an important conversation or solving a seemingly intractable problem with people important to us. These may be a partner, a siblings, parent, friends, coworkers…
We can have facilitated dialogue meetings, specifically geared to areas in your life where communication has become particularly painful, where getting the support of a third party can shift things. In these meetings the focus is on facilitating conditions for each person to be heard and understood and developing action steps. Often dialogue is generative for all parties, so it is not just a resolving of a problem but generating different insights and possibilities forward.
My practice is informed by person-centered praxis, restorative practices, (especially Dominic Barter’s Restorative Circles) and Imago relationship theory and practice.