WHAT IS PSYCHOTHERAPY ?
THE PROCESS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY
I work from a psychodynamic framework. I believe none of us is just one person, but rather a dynamic mix of all the life experiences that have brought us this far. Sometimes those different histories conflict with each other and slow our progress through life. For instance, rationally we may know that we are capable of a more advanced job but a browbeaten child within finds it difficult to stand up for the recognition we deserve. Or maybe you possess a great love inside but a lonely core makes you feel unworthy of an intimate relationship.
As we grow up, we must make compromises with our family, our friends and our community. Especially the compromises made in early childhood, can lead to beliefs about ourselves that alienate us from our true selves. Almost every one of us comes to adulthood believing we are a very different person than the version of ourselves that will bring us peace and liveliness.
Through our weekly therapy sessions together, I will support you as you work to understand these inner selves and discern which compromises you have made may be holding you back from a more satisfying life. At times, it may feel like you are toiling blind, working to challenge life-long assumptions of your own true character built upon compromises made in early childhood.
I have selected the M.C. Escher lithograph 'Drawing Hands' as a visual metaphor for my practice because in psychotherapy, we are both the tool for change and the object being worked upon. Only after we have 'drawn' in ourselves a new awareness, might we be able to understand what the next stage will be. "Ah, now I see."
I am a member of the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario, have completed the CTP program for training in psychotherapy and have graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto. I have also worked for over twenty years as a social worker in the community, addressing issues of addiction, mental health, homelessness and poverty.
" The True Self is the position from which comes the spontaneous gesture
and the personal idea. Only the True Self can be creative
and only the True Self can feel real. Whereas the existence of a False Self results in a feeling unreal or a sense of futility."
- D.W. Winnicott.