Practice Description
For over twenty years I have focused my professional energies on helping families and relationship partners find positive and productive solutions for a host of relationship issues. I have worked with countless couples, and families both in the context of a small private practice, as a senior clinician and treatment team member in a community mental health center, and as a clinical administrator for a private not-for-profit psychiatric residential treatment center for children and adolescents. Also as a Clinical Fellow and Approved Supervisor in the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, I have provided supervision for clinicians working toward licensure in Virginia and I have provided consultation to licensed professionals seeking to hone their skills in working with couples and families.
My approach is to talk with prospective clients to get a better sense of their situation and needs. Then I would outline how I would approach the relationship issue(s) that the client-unit(couple or family)is experiencing. I would then determine together with the client whether their particular problem and my approach seem well matched. If so we would then set some goals together, develop a plan to achieve those goals, and begin working immediately to reach them.
Since relationships only change if the parties in the relationship are open to change, I work with clients like a coach and process consultant to identify where changes need to be made and how to make them and I provide support as clients do the challenging work of enacting these changes right in the therapy sessions.
If however, based on our collaborative assessment of the clients situation, it is clear that the client would be better served by another professional who might take a different approach or work in a setting that would better meet the clients' needs, then I would provide basic information about other professionals and services in the community to assist clients in finding the help they are looking for.
I may suggest that clients get involved in additional or adjunctive counseling or a support group as part of your work with me. If another health care person is working with the client, I may request a release of information from the client so that I can communicate freely with that person about the client's care.
I am away from the office several times in the year for vacations or to attend professional meetings. If I am not taking and responding to phone messages during those times I will have someone cover my practice. I try to inform clients well in advance of any anticipated absences.