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Couples Counseling

Discernment Counseling for Couples

Individual Counseling

Divorce Adjustment/Recovery

Trauma

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Couples counseling: As a couple's therapist, I help the pair identify patterns within their relationship that is unhelpful and contributes to disconnection. To provide more insight about the defense mechanisms that each partner uses and why, I like to dive into how the family history of each person worked in the past and present. Once we begin to understand why we react the way we do and become familiar with the triggers that set off our most painful feelings and fears, I believe that we are then able to relate and interact with our loved one with more honesty, openness and love. 

 

Discernment counseling:  If you or your spouse are considering divorce but are not completely sure that’s the best path, you are in a tough spot. Discernment Counseling is designed for situations just like the one you are experiencing. It’s a chance to slow down, take a breath and look at your options for your relationship.

The goal is for you to gain clarity and confidence about a direction based on a deeper understanding of your relationship and its possibilities for the future. The counselor emphasizes the importance of each of you seeing your own contributions to the problems and the possible solutions. This will be useful in future relationships even if this one ends. Mandy will help you decide whether to try to restore your marriage to health, move toward divorce or take a time out and decide later.

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**Discernment Counseling is short term--a maximum of five counseling sessions.

The first session is usually 2 hours and the subsequent sessions are about 90 minutes.

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Discernment Counseling is not Suited for these situations:

 

• When one spouse has already made a very final decision to divorce 

• When one spouse is coercing the other to participate

• When there is danger of domestic violence

 

Individual counseling: I believe that working with the various parts and beliefs that we have about ourselves and the world around us is very important in living our best life. In individual therapy, I work with people to identify places where pain and false beliefs have contributed to loss of connection with loved ones and, perhaps most importantly, with the Self. So often childhood wounds lead to chronic shame, poor self-image, anxiety, depression and fear of further abandonment, to name a few. Along with a lot of compassion and empathy I offer very practical exercises and techniques to challenge false, unhelpful beliefs and regain an accurate sense of Self.

 

Divorce adjustment & recovery: Because of my own experience and journey through divorce, I have a deep understanding of the process of letting go. Regardless of where you stand in ending the relationship, old wounds tend to reopen with the new wounds at the death of a partnership. Feelings like shame, guilt and worry often mix together with relief and hopefulness to create a very confusing combo of emotions that can be hard to navigate. I will give you the space and time to process these aspects of loss while also helping you uncover who you are and how you want to show up in the world going forward.

 

Trauma: My trauma work focuses on abandonment wounds and shame that usually starts in childhood and progresses through life. If left unaddressed, these subtle and powerful forms of trauma can affect our relationships, careers and our personal feelings of worth. In my sessions, we uncover the sources of these traumas and how they are wreaking havoc in life without us even really realizing it. I also use many different exercises, coping strategies, emotional regulation techniques and behavior focused work to use inside and outside of the office. 

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