Unwanted, unwilled aloneness is inherently traumatizing.
"The person who can quiet the self can see the world clearly, can learn the subject
and master the situation"
David Brooks "Op-Ed"
I provide psychotherapy as one of the major means (certainly not the only one) to work through difficult life circumstances and transitions, unresolved emotional issues, and psychological wounds. Although this working process might feel "worse before it feels better" at times; eventually this work leads to a more gratifying, meaningful, and connected life.
The core of my therapy work is guided by Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Therapy (AEDP). A few characteristics of AEDP:
Interested in reading more?
- Book: Living Like You Mean It: Use the Wisdom and Power of Your Emotions to Get the Life You Really Want
by Ronald J. Frederick, PhD.
- Book: Loving Like You Mean It: Use the Power of Emotional Mindfulness to Transform Your Relationshipsby Ronald J. Frederick, PhD.
- Book: It's Not Always Depression: Working the Change Triangle to Listen to the Body, Discover Core Emotions, and Connect to Your Authentic Self by Hilary Jacobs Hendel
- AEDP Institute website: http://www.aedpinstitute.org
The core of my therapy work is guided by Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Therapy (AEDP). A few characteristics of AEDP:
- Change-focused - AEDP inherits the wisdom from traditional psychodynamic therapy, and incorporates the recent findings of affective neuroscience and developmental/attachment research, in order to initiate changes within a relatively brief period of time.
- Emotional-wisdom - AEDP therapist, empathically attuned, provides a secure base and warm guidance to help a client work through deep pains, isolation, and emotional deadness. Such a process naturally releases the energy of joy and aliveness, as well as the growth of self-love and resilient functioning.
- "Feeling Right" - the effectiveness of the treatment is evaluated based on client's experience of having a therapeutic, healing experience, an experience that "feels right" to their deep, genuine, core sense of self.
Interested in reading more?
- Book: Living Like You Mean It: Use the Wisdom and Power of Your Emotions to Get the Life You Really Want
by Ronald J. Frederick, PhD.
- Book: Loving Like You Mean It: Use the Power of Emotional Mindfulness to Transform Your Relationshipsby Ronald J. Frederick, PhD.
- Book: It's Not Always Depression: Working the Change Triangle to Listen to the Body, Discover Core Emotions, and Connect to Your Authentic Self by Hilary Jacobs Hendel
- AEDP Institute website: http://www.aedpinstitute.org
"Effective working on one's problem is not self torture… One of the chief new principles is that the change process feels good."
(Gendlin, 1981, "Focusing", p. 8)
Other Self-care Tools:
(no financial benefits for me associated with your usage)
Mindfulness & Stress Reduction:
Please be aware that mindfulness doesn't directly lead to emotional transformation and growth; meanwhile it often prepares us for such. It is useful in general for mind management and emotion regulation, and helpful with specific issues such as stress and sleep difficulties.
- Book: Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn
- Audio, Video Streams and handout: these are put together by college counseling center staff, to help college students cope with high academic stress and facilitate growth in emotional regulation.
Guided Mindfulness Meditation Practices Audio (University of Pittsburgh) http://www.studentaffairs.pitt.edu/ccaudiodownloads
Sleep Support Video & Audio (University of Pittsburgh)
http://www.studentaffairs.pitt.edu/counseling/sfzzzz-sleep-support-0
Relaxation Guide, Audio & Handout (Brigham Young University)
https://caps.byu.edu/relaxation-recordings
https://caps.byu.edu/biofeedback-handouts
- Podcasts and Audio Streams: These are both Buddhist centers, but mindfulness figures prominently into the podcast topics as do practice and philosophical questions that have come up in the group.
*Insight Meditation Society (Massachusetts): http://www.dharma.org/resources/audio
*Insight Meditation Center (California): http://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/ (podcast is called Zencast)