I offer counseling out of my Portland Oregon office, as well as internationally via phone and Skype, and work with individuals, couples, family members, and groups. I often have sliding scale openings to accommodate limited incomes, but because my work does not include diagnosis or mainstream psychological treatment I don’t accept insurance.
My practice is based in my Master of Arts and Diploma in Process Work, and more than 10 years experience with peer counseling and as a mental health advocate. My own healing inspired a pragmatic approach and a great interest in discovering what works.
My Approach
As a therapist I collaborate with clients to study how their present situation is constantly changing and inherently creative, and I help them discover and learn without imposing a program or interpretation. I believe we are natural beings and all have capacity for growth when we listen to and cultivate ourselves. I look beyond disease and deficit models to understand how even in the most difficult distress, the human mind and spirit already know the right way forward, even if this is for a time obscured or hidden. I help you learn from who you are, not pathologize yourself as sick: I do not prescribe psychological treatments, label with diagnosis, or treat people as disorders.
I listen to people’s stories about themselves — and focus on how our story is expressed, to notice aspects usually overlooked and help bring new energies to bear. My style is dynamic, and I actively involve myself in the work: listening and support are key, and also questioning, experimenting and challenging. I do not program a session but instead use my awareness to follow what emerges. Work with clients may include dialog, role play, meditation, dreamwork, conflict resolution, movement, and drawing, as we explore the growing edges of change. I bring in holistic health and nutrition as additional options to support clients, and have worked with a diverse range of people and circumstances.
Process Work
My interest in Process Work, called Process Oriented Psychology in Europe, began in 1996, and since then I have been deeply involved in this Jungian based, systems- and body-focused method of individual and group facilitation.
Process Work is phenomenological, and takes the content of our subjective awareness as unique and meaningful, rather than proceeding by interpretation and program. Process Work is also ecological, and sees each of us not simply as individuals, but as parts of larger social fields and systems, where we play roles and manifest deeper patterns from our dreams and life myths. Therapy is at essence bringing awareness to our place in the deeper dreaming happening through us.
Process Work is a present moment, mindfulness and somatic therapy, and body experience is intertwined with everything that happens. This combination of dreaming awareness and attention to the body makes Process Work a powerful way to directly access energy for change. You can read more about Process Work here.
Psychosis, Emotional Crisis, and Mental Diversity
I have extensive experience working with “madness” and experiences labeled as psychosis, including bipolar and schizophrenia. I help clients and those close to them understand powerful emotions, voices, paranoia, isolation, manic states, and mental extremes not as symptoms of broken brains but as potentially creative and meaningful parts of ourselves. I do not diagnose people as disorders, offer medical advice, or provide psychological treatment. Instead, I believe in mental diversity: each of us is different, and in a complex human world we are all on a continuum and there is no real standard of “normal.”
Emotional distress is a natural adaptive response to the context and circumstances where people find themselves: what gets called “psychosis” is not a disease or problem within the individual, but a mysterious break in the social relations people are in. Psychosis usually reflects conflict that needs to be addressed, conflict within families, in society, and inside each of us. The breakdown, if responded to with optimism and support, can become a positive and restorative breakthrough. While I am not anti-medical treatment, psychiatric medications, diagnostic labels, and hospitalization often only make problems worse. My work for alternative approaches to psychosis has been widely recognized in the US and internationally, including Newsweek magazine and the New York Times, and I have spoken and taught in more than 9 countries.
Social Oppression, Rank, and Abuse
People come to therapy for many reasons, but share the common experience of powerlessness. What is power? Power exists in institutional contexts, in our relationships, and in our own psychological resources as an experience of control and freedom we are having in the present moment. All emotional struggles are intimately bound with power, social oppression, and rank, and when therapists ignore the power relations surrounding us, they can end up reinforcing the status quo and blocking change.
I help clients reclaim power they may not be aware of, use their power more wisely in the world, and overcome their experiences of low rank and powerlessness. I have worked extensively with individuals facing social and political marginalization, including abuse survivors, queer and transgendered people, homeless, people of color, people diagnosed with severe mental illness, and people struggling with poverty and addiction.
Couples, Relationships, Communication, and Intimacy
When we become close with others we begin to see new sides of ourselves, which can be challenging invitations to learning and growth. Close personal relationships entangle us in dynamics where each side is somehow both ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ — but both are missing the ways their communication impacts the other. Power differences, communication styles, trauma histories, and life myth all show up in the ways we speak and express ourselves, with words and our bodies. Held with awareness and explored more deeply, our intimate conflicts can be powerful vehicles for growth and learning.
I work with couples and people in close relationship to find purpose and meaning in their conflicts and misunderstandings, and discover hidden potentials in why they have come together. In sessions I might hold down a conflict to a single statement to take it deeper, bring in unnoticed body signals and movements, help each side switch roles with the other, and encourage much deeper listening and detailed response to what is said. I am especially interested in how hidden dynamics of power, rank, and woundedness influence our ability to truly connect with each other, and bring in my awareness of social inequality and oppression to understand the complexities of personal relationships.
Medication Education and Coming Off Medications
Since 2001 I have supported hundreds of people to better inform them around the complicated issues of psychiatric medication. While I am not a prescriber and do not offer medical advice, I help educate individuals to make wiser and more confident decisions about their treatment options. I am attentive both to the side effects of psychoactive substances, and to the meanings, fears, and hopes that are involved. While not anti-medication, I have a harm reduction perspective and take a very cautious approach to the risks of pharmacology, including often working with people to reduce and come off medications.
You can learn more about my method in my Harm Reduction Guide to Coming off Psychiatric Drugs.
Family Recovery
When an individual goes through extreme emotional distress the entire family is involved. Parents and siblings, friends and partners feel both powerless and an urgent need to help. I have worked with family members seeking ways forward beyond traditional diagnosis and institutionalization: I approach families as unique shared systems with deep mythic histories and powerful potential for growth.
Often by changing one aspect of the system other aspects can transform: the “identified patient” may only reflect the larger context. Social oppression, trauma, and historical forces also play a powerful role, as families seek new ways of understanding themselves beyond accepted norms. In addition to Process Work, I I am currently studying the Open Dialogue and Dialogic Practice approaches we Dr. Jaakko Seikkula and Dr. Mary Olson at the Mill River Institute. I am also especially inspired by how we are re-inventing family life, as we all learn to define family for ourselves and nurture more authentic social connections and greater personal freedom.
In order to access the greatest potential for change, my work with families includes Family Dialogues with a co-therapist, where with several family members present we share our experiences with the family in a broader dialogue. This “reflective process” can be a powerful way to deepen the family’s awareness of its own resources and ability to grow.
