Individual Therapy

About Individual Therapy

The following covers the basics of individual therapy that I provide. Of course, you are welcome to contact me anytime to talk about your specific hopes and goals for therapy.

Individual Therapy Uses

Individual therapy can help with various concerns, challenges, and barriers. It can also help with more general senses of a lack of contentment or malaise. Here are some of the more common reasons people come in for individual therapy:

Individual psychotherapy can be beneficial for various reasons, tailored to each person’s unique circumstances and needs. Here are some common reasons why individuals seek therapy:

1. Emotional concerns: Addressing emotional conditions like anxiety and depression. These challenges can present in myriad ways, from more intense feelings that come and go to milder but pervasive states of being.

2. Emotional-behavioral concerns: Some emotional concerns include a behavioral component, such as insomnia, compulsions, or panic attacks. Individual therapy can address both the emotional and behavioral components.

2. Relationship or Social Challenges: Individual therapy can help people manage specific occurrences, such as navigating through a breakup or work conflict, and more general barriers, such as social anxiety or fears of intimacy. It can also help with a more general lack of confidence and connection.

3. Grief and Loss: Individual therapy can be very helpful if you are coping with the death of a loved one, dealing with loss, or navigating the stages of grief. Therapy gives you a chance to grieve safely and comfortably, with guidance that navigates the process.

4. Stress Management: Therapy can help you learn new techniques for managing stress, anxiety, or overwhelming life situations. You’ll feel more able to cope with and handle work, home, and social challenges.

5. Self-Exploration and Growth: Individual therapy is not always about challenges and barriers. Many clients come seeking personal development, enhancing self-awareness, and fostering self-improvement. Some are looking to explore existential concerns.

6. Life Transitions: Adjusting to major life changes such as career shifts, relocation, retirement, or identity exploration is a common pathway in individual therapy. These times often produce stress and uncertainty, which individual therapy can unpack.

7. Improving Self-Esteem: Individual therapy is often used for longstanding and stuck general goals, such as building self-confidence and self-worth. Educational, social, and occupational goals related to these issues can be set.

8. Parenting Challenges: Seeking guidance and support in navigating parenting issues and challenges.

Individual therapy offers a safe and confidential space to explore their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. It provides tools, strategies, and support to cope with challenges, improve mental health, and enhance overall well-being. The list above provides a general overview, but we can discuss how individual therapy could benefit you and help you reach your goals.

Individual Psychotherapy Techniques

Individual therapy encompasses various techniques tailored to a person’s needs. My practice is integrative, meaning that instead of focusing on one individual therapy approach, I borrow from many approaches and braid them together for the most effective course of treatment to help you meet your goals. Here are some of my more commonly used individual therapy techniques:

1. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): This type of individual psychotherapy focuses on identifying and changing negative thought patterns and behaviors contributing to distress and lack of contentment. CBT is a relatively fast and scientifically proven method of reducing anxiety and improving mood. It requires some homework on your part.

2. Mindfulness-Based Techniques: Mindfulness encourages present-moment awareness, using exercises to manage stress and improve thought patterns. Mindfulness is not usually a primary focus of treatment but rather a way to boost you and make other treatments, including CBT, more effective and powerful.

3. Psychodynamic Therapy: This form of individual therapy explores unconscious thoughts and past experiences to understand present behavior and feelings. Psychodynamic individual psychotherapy often takes a little longer than other approaches, but the results can be deep and meaningful, with significant present-day positive effects.

4. Humanistic Therapy: This form of individual therapy surrounds almost every technique I use. It emphasizes personal growth, self-actualization, and understanding your unique experience. Humanistic individual therapy is optimistic, focusing on strength and potential. It is more solution-focused than focusing extensively on problems.

5. Existential Therapy: This is for clients experiencing a general malaise and lack of contentment, even when things go reasonably well. Existential therapy helps clients explore the meaning and purpose of life and confront existential challenges.

6. Narrative Therapy: I also frequently borrow from this type of treatment. It focuses on the stories we construct about our lives and how they shape our identities. Through therapy, clients learn how to challenge and change narratives that are not hopeful and optimistic and then how to pursue more positive paths.

7. Exposure Therapy: For clients looking for help with phobias, fears of flying, and fears of public speaking, I provide this approach, which involves gradual and controlled exposure to anxiety-inducing situations to reduce fear and anxiety.

8. Gestalt Therapy: This type of individual therapy focuses on your present-moment experience and emphasizes personal responsibility. Gestalt therapy is optimistic, assuming that you have the tools to find happiness already on board.