Depth Psychotherapy: A Quick Introduction

It starts with a conversation between two people.

We live in a time when listening, and being fully heard, are increasingly rare experiences. So much so that we are in danger of losing a truly timeless dimension of our humanity. Depth work first allows us to have that timeless experience of being heard and seen, as we are, without judgement, with care and empathy.

Often, or even usually, people find my office when something stops working. It may be a crisis -- an illness, trouble in a relationship, the loss of a loved one, a work transition, or simply a way of understanding oneself. It may show up in a panic attack, struggling to find motivation, or thoughts or memories that just won't go away.

Our English word psychotherapy comes from two Greek roots: therapeuin, which means to attend to or care for, and psyche, which means breath or soul. In our era, soul often has religious connotations; I use it to express the whole of who we are, which has dimensions that are beyond our everyday awareness but are deeply rooted in our minds, bodies, hearts. Psychotherapy involves listening to the whole of who you are, what is emerging from your history, and your own specific trajectory into the future.

We start with what is happening right now in your life. We look into the past for important context -- and signs of what matters most in your life. We may look at dreams, if you remember them, and we may look at the ways you imagine, for signs of what is happening outside of your everyday awareness. We value logic and reason, but we also value feeling, intuition, creativity.

The conversation lasts only as long as it is useful and generative for you. We work to relieve suffering, but we also work to make suffering meaningful, to learn from it. And most importantly, we work to deepen your knowledge of yourself and your capacity to differentiate who you actually are from who you've been told you are supposed to be.