Question 1

How does therapy work?

Accepted Answer

Therapy can look different depending on which therapist you work with. We all have our own methods and beliefs about what kind of therapy is most effective (referred to as our theoretical orientation). I work from a Humanistic perspective, meaning that my primary focus is on creating a strong working relationship between myself and my clients. I do this because research has shown that one of the best predictors of successful outcomes in therapy is when someone feels like they can trust their therapist and the relationship feels positive and authentic. The main therapy concepts and techniques I most often utilize are Internal Family Systems, Person-Centered, EMDR and some CBT. 
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The therapeutic process can be broken down into three specific stages: Beginning, Middle and Termination (End). In the Beginning stage, I am typically asking a lot of questions and getting to know more about you and what you would like to focus on. During this stage we also make a game plan of how we are going to address some of the challenges you have been facing. In the Middle phase we are actively working on implementing strategies and developing new tools and skills to make change happen. This is the main "working stage of therapy" that often takes the most time. In the termination phase we are fine tuning the strategies we have used, while also creating a roadmap for how to maintain this progress and prevent issues from reoccurring in the future.

Question 2

How is therapy helpful?

Accepted Answer

There aren't many places in life that we have the opportunity to truly understand ourselves or to truly be ourselves. It's not something that they teach you in school, and for many it's not something you learn from your family or other adults while you are growing up. Often as adults we find ourselves in the position of spending an equal amount of time unlearning all of the bad habits and ways of managing our relationships and emotions than we did learning them in the first place.

Therapy allows us to expedite this process. Sharing your thoughts, experiences and emotions with a trained professional can help shed light on who you are and who you want to be. Most importantly, a good therapist can then help provide you with practical tools and skills you need to make meaningful changes in your life.

Question 3

Why should I pay for therapy?

Accepted Answer

Therapy is an investment, and one of the most important investments you can make. Our mental health and our perspectives dramatically affect the way that we operate in the world. If we don’t feel like we have control over our thoughts and feelings, it can be very difficult to feel satisfied in many aspects of our lives.

Investing in taking care of our mental health is an investment in ourselves. It is committing to no longer having to live in constant pain, or to get the same unsatisfying results. Therapy helps us to become the person that we truly want to be.

Question 4

Do you meet with people in person?

Accepted Answer

At this time, I am able to meet in-person on Wednesdays in Long Beach, CA. The rest of my practice is conducted online. I use a HIPAA compliant software called VSee, which is similar to zoom. I have found that it is very convenient for many of the clients I have worked with and just as effective as in-person counseling. 
Sometimes it does require a little bit of creativity, such as if you don’t have confidentiality where you live. In these cases, several people I work with will have sessions in their office at work or in a park nearby.

Question 5

Do you work with women?

Accepted Answer

Yes! While I specialize in working with men, I very much enjoy working with female or female identifying clients and have worked with many in the past with great success. It can be particularly empowering for some women to work with a male therapist as it can serve as a healing experience to work with a man who is sensitive to their thoughts and feelings when they have experienced trauma from men in their lives. 
I regularly work with women to assist them in recovering from trauma, depression, anxiety, life transitions and relational issues.

Question 6

Do you work with couples, families or kids/teenagers?

Accepted Answer

No. Working with couples is a speciality that I do not focus on, however I have several colleagues who love working with couples and are great at it, and I can pass these referrals along to you. I also do not work with families or minors, as I have found that working with individual adults is what I am most passionate about and is the best fit for my personality.

Question 7

How long does therapy typically take?

Accepted Answer

This answer varies from person to person. It’s tough to gauge how long therapy takes for everyone, as I have found that some people recover very quickly (4-8 weeks) while some may need up to a year or two in therapy. 
The average seems to be about 3-6 months in my experience. I’d say for relatively new experiences of depression and anxiety, three months is average. If it is anxiety or depression that has been present for many years, it can take longer. The longest experiences of therapy are typically when there is a complex trauma history, as this takes time to process through thoroughly.

Question 8

How will I know when therapy is over?

Accepted Answer

Therapy is not meant to be an indefinite process. In the first session I have I work collaboratively with you to decide your goals for therapy. Once those goals have been met and maintained for a period of time, then we can look at finishing therapy. Sometimes new goals will arise in our work together and those can extend the process a bit, but as soon as it feels like you have gotten what you want out of therapy, I will work with you on preparing to end our work together.

Question 9

Are there any risks in doing therapy?

Accepted Answer

Therapy can be an intense process. Many people are vocalizing the thoughts and feelings they have been carrying around with them for the first time. In these cases, I like to inform my clients that when you start therapy you may have a mixture of different feelings. Some experience great relief after their first session, and some feel more anxious or down for a period of time. 
These are all normal reactions. 
In time those feelings become more familiar and more manageable. Many fear that if they allow themselves to feel their feelings, they won’t be able to control them anymore. This simply isn’t true. Suppressing our emotions is not an effective way to manage our emotions. Suppressing our emotions has both physiological and mental consequences that can often lead to worse experiences and feelings than the initial feeling itself. 
Expressing our feelings appropriately actually leads to greater mastery of how to properly regulate and control our feelings and is a pivotal reason why therapy is so effective.

Question 10

What are your qualifications?

Accepted Answer

I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. For counseling purposes, this is very similar to a Licensed Clinical Social worker or a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor. I obtained my Master of Science in Counseling from California State University Fullerton in 2018, and my Bachelor or Arts in Psychology from Sonoma State University in 2014. 
I have been practicing therapy since 2017 and have worked in many different settings with a wide variety of clients and clinical issues. After graduate school I  worked with homeless older adults with severe mental illnesses as well as underprivileged children and families, and I currently work in private practice with adults.

Question 11

How often do sessions happen?

Accepted Answer

I mostly meet with clients weekly or every other week. This helps the healing process happen much more quickly than sessions that are farther apart. Many of the skills and exercises that are taught in therapy also take practice, repetition and fine-tuning and weekly therapy helps this process greatly. As you begin to get closer to your goals in therapy and progress is maintained, I collaborate with you to titrate down the frequency of sessions. This typically looks like moving to every other week for a period of time, and if still feels like things are improving we move to once per month with the eventual plan to end therapy.

Restorative Ground Counseling

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