Registered Associate Marriage & Family Therapist #118339 Supervised by Lisa Jellison MFC 46430 LPCC 820
TherapisT & ALLY
I’m an associate marriage and family therapist with a masters in Integral Counseling Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies. I work with individuals and couples. My style is best described as integrative and experiential. I rarely work in one modality, but rather combine approaches based on the client’s unique makeup and life experiences. I take a gentle approach with my clients and work at their pace, because I want you to feel supported as you take the courageous steps towards personal growth.
During some of our sessions, you may feel stuck and not in the mood for face-to-face talk therapy. I love these kinds of problems because we can work with experiential techniques to help you explore yourself from a new perspective, apart from the patterns and habits employed by your psyche. Some examples of experiential techniques we may use in our work together include:
Parts work: have conversations with neglected parts of yourself and bring these parts in as welcomed allies. Have conversations with living or passed loved ones to relay unexpressed feelings.
Jungian dreamwork: explore a recent or recurring dream, to see what your unconscious (or the collective unconscious) needs to share with you.
Free association with imagery: explore parts of your unconscious that need to speak but can’t seem to find an opening.
A huge part of what informs my work as a therapist is my relationship with creativity. I’ve always been interested in the unconscious and how once we learn to access our unconscious, we can ignite our creativity.
With my background in comedy, creative writing, and graphic design, I like to approach therapy with a storyteller’s perspective. Together we seek to understand what is your story, how was it formed, better yet who wrote it and who are the main characters? Did you write your story using your true authentic voice, or were many of the details designed to protect yourself or find love and acceptance? Maybe it needs a rewrite, or a plot change, and as its hero, you need to reclaim ownership of the narrative? After all, it’s your life and you decide the terms. Or maybe the point is to drop the story altogether and view it with a fresh perspective; perhaps perfectionism and ambition have created a picture that feels too repetitive. If you find the narrative has landed you in a state of rigidity, and you’re lacking creativity and aliveness, the best move may be to throw it away and start writing anew!
WHAT IS AN ALLY?
ally: To enter into an alliance, unite
Will I come to your next family dinner to defend you when an argument breaks out and old wounds get triggered? Not likely, but I’ll be here to support you in discovering and exploring your own truth about what and why it happened. I won’t tell you what you should or shouldn’t do, because it’s not my life, and like most humans who are bogged down with social pressures and the voices of past relationships, you’re already probably coming in with an enormous amount of “shoulds” in your life…many of which don’t align with your truth. Like an anvil, they weigh you down, but for some reason you can’t figure out why you’re unable to let these saboteurs go and listen to your own inner wisdom when it comes to your life. I’ll be your ally—not your drill sergeant—as you learn to understand yourself from a new perspective and grow at your own pace. Sure I’ll give a loving nudge every now and then, but mostly this is a collaborative relationship that we construct together to move in the best way possible for your wellness. We go at your speed so you can flip the script on your life.
