Traditional talk therapy involves the therapist and the client sitting down, face-to-face and talking through whatever is going on within your internal and external world.There are many therapeutic techniques that used within the traditional talk therapy model. Below are some very simplistic descriptions and examples of the talk therapy models I most commonly use:

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): CBT looks at the ways your thinking and behavior play into your emotional and relationship problems. It then challenges the thoughts and behaviors that are distorted (not based on reality) and teaches you what thoughts and behaviors you can use to replace the distortions. An example is believing that everything always goes wrong, which leads to feeling hopeless and depressed. By challenging this distortion, people learn to see that many things go well, which will help alleviate the hopelessness and depression.

Psychodynamic Therapy (PT): PT involves examining the patterns in one’s life, finding when and how the dynamics began and uses that awareness to consciously choose alternatives to those patterns. An example would be someone learning that he or she is repeatedly dating people who are emotionally unavailable because he or she was raised by an emotionally unavailable parent and that he or she has been unconsciously reenacting that relationship. That knowledge can then be used to identify the red flags connected to this dynamic and consciously break the pattern by choosing not to pursue emotionally unavailable people.

Rogerian Therapy (RT): RT is more of a therapeutic philosophy than a specific technique. It is based on the belief that people need to be accepted to heal and that a therapist’s primary job is to value and accept the client for exactly who they are.

Gestalt Therapy (GT): Gestalt therapy focuses on what is occurring in the present and is based on understanding a person within their environment . In GT people develop an awareness of their feelings, reactions, and thoughts in a present situation, in the belief that people have the ability to solve their own problems if they are aware of what is happening. An example of a GT therapeutic intervention would be a person imagining a person from their life is in the room and saying all he or she wishes to say in order to discover what emotions and thoughts he or she may have been unaware of having about that person.

Play is the natural language of childhood. It is how they are meant to process and learn. I have a multitude of tools for use in play therapy, including a sandtray with figurines, a variety of art supplies, puppets, therapeutic games and books. I also frequently incorporate the mind-body therapies I use within the play.
I see children as young as 5 for general therapy, but will see children as young as two for the purpose of treating an identified trauma, using specific techniques and with the parent’s assistance.

My first two years out of graduate school, I worked at Spartanburg Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission. Through this process I learned many traditional techniques for treating substance abuse problems, as well as obtaining my certification in addictions counseling. This gives me experience and perspective that aids in treating people pursuing counseling for their own addictive behavior or to deal with the impact of a loved one’s addictive behavior. I have also learned that many of the Mind-Body techniques I employee are very effective in helping with the treatment of addiction issues.

Most people who come to therapy have or use to have a spiritual belief system. Some people find that their spiritual belief system is an essential positive aspect of themselves and their lives. Others have much unresolved hurt and anger from a former spiritual institution. Psychospiritual Therapy strives to help those who have felt harmed by a spiritual institution heal and find a spiritual path that will enrich their lives if they wish. It also utilizes whatever spiritual beliefs and practices the client identifies as positive and helpful to aid in the therapeutic process. Psychospiritual therapy does not endorse or counter any specific belief systems, it simply uses the spiritual life of the client to amplify and direct the client’s work.