I integrate many different research-based methods to help my clients optimize functioning under ordinary and extraordinary circumstances. The over-arching thrust of my approach, however, is called Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT).
Not every client or couple wants or likes the focus of CBT – an exploration of perceptions, attitudes, beliefs, feelings and behavior with the expectation of making adjustments, as needed, in order to achieve desired results.
In CBT clients accept responsibility for change, rather than blaming others. To do that, clients need enough inner strength to accept the possibility that they may be “wrong” with respect to how they think about their problems and what they do in response to their difficulties.
Successful Cognitive Behavior Therapy depends on a client’s willingness to consider that habitual patterns of perception and behavior that were learned early in life may no longer be appropriate or accurate in the moment-to-moment reality of today’s circumstances. If and when a client acknowledges that possibility, the discovery of new ways of communicating needs and managing conflict can begin. Intense and negative emotion becomes unnecessary and self-confidence increases.