Are you stressed, feeling tired, can't keep up with your daily responsibilities, or are emotional for no reason? Our modern life is very stressful. Let me help you find tools to help you cope with life and create a richer more fulfilling life.
St. Catherine of Sienna said "If we are who God created us to be we will set the world on fire."
How many of us are living as God created us to be and setting the world on fire? So many things get in the way. Sometimes we need someone to help us walk on this journey and discern God's will for our lives. A good Catholic therapist is trained to help you do just that.
I specialize in using DBT and come from a framework of Affirmation therapy as described below.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) is a form of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) that looks at how our thought and behavior patterns effect our emotions. Dialectical thinking, similar to its role in philosophy, is introduced as an alternative to intense, polarized emotions. Rather than reacting to events as either perfect or unbearable, clients are encouraged to recognize multiple viewpoints and bring them "into dialogue." Mindfulness is taught as a method for becoming aware of one's actual, realistic experience in the moment, and separating it from fears about the future or rumination about the past.
DBT is a way of looking at life and situations that helps us to have less emotional suffering and better relationships. Four key areas are taught: Mindfulness, Interpersonal Effectiveness, Emotional Regulation, and Distress Tolerance. DBT is effective in dealing with issues such as: anxiety, depression, borderline personality disorder, trauma, learning balance in life, stress management, pain management, unhealthy relationships and learning to build a life worth living. DBT skills can be taught in individual sessions but are more effectively learned in a group setting.
Affirmation Therapy
Affirmation Therapy is based on Drs. Conrad Baars and Anna Terruwe's theories that all humans need the love of other human beings in order to reveal our goodness to us and that one's ability to love is set free when that person sees himself or herself as good, worthwhile, and lovable. If a person has not been affirmed they are limited in their capacity to love themselves and others.
Affirmation therapy is a way of "being" with and for a client as opposed to "doing" something for the client. It is about revealing the goodness of the client to the client through the relationship with the therapist. This then allows for emotional, intellectual, and spiritual growth to occur.
The therapist teaches the client about the emotional life and provides opportunities for the client to express his or her emotions in an appropriate way. The therapist will also teach the client about irrational beliefs that get in the way of fully accepting oneself. Affirmation Therapy is also based on an understanding of the emotional life in the Christian anthropology of St. Thomas Aquinas.
