Here are some of our specialties:

• strengthening the bond within couples.
Research shows that when the bond between two people is strained, even if they learn communication and conflict resolution skills, they often don't use them. When there's little trust and goodwill, the smallest events ignite blame and misunderstanding. We can help you understand your painful and repetitive dynamics, and communicate and respond to the needs underneath them. As you feel heard and acknowledged, it's much easier to practice new behavior. 

• parenting more consistently and cooperatively
Children develop their own problem-solving by observing and testing the adults around them. We support you to bring empathy and consistency to your kids' ever-changing behavior, so that they can learn from the consequences of their own choices. We also help you discuss and work through differences in your backgrounds and parenting styles. This reduces friction, and makes parenting easier, and more unified.

• mindfulness of the mind-body connection
The brain and body comprise many channels of experience, from the most primal and survival oriented, to the most abstract and values-driven. Much of our information-processing is preconscious, but you can catch it and work with it. We help you study the signals your body gives you, and observe the related emotions and thoughts. Mindfulness is essential in managing anxiety, understanding yourself more deeply, and making new and more satisfying choices.

• working through trauma
Most of us have experienced moments of overwhelming helplessness, which still express in impulses toward fight, flight, freeze or submission. When these survival responses are triggered, we often behave in ways we wouldn't deliberately choose. We can help you recover the sense of safety and control that was lost in the wake of trauma. We work with traumas as early as perinatal, (for example, difficult birth or adoption trauma) and more recent events, like car accidents and injuries. We also work with the developmental trauma of growing up with family chaos, and childhood sexual abuse.  

• addiction and co-dependency
Once an addiction has been interrupted through treatment, there is an ongoing process of working with the feelings and situations which underlie it. Some addictions lend themselves more easily to abstinence (like cocaine or alcohol), while others require ongoing discernment (food, sex, and spending). We can help you in your own recovery process, or with your co-dependent patterns, (which allow someone else's addiction to de-stabilize you). Our therapy meshes well with twelve step programs, as well as with alternative approaches to recovery.