Women have specific needs which can benefit from therapy. Therapy is a safe space in which to better hear your own voice and your own truth and to find your own strength.
I will partner with you as a witness on your journey of discovery. Some of the reasons women come to therapy include:
Personal Empowerment for Women
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us….” – Marianne Williamson
Do you feel that you fight the same battles over and over in personal relationships or in the workplace? Do you have a tendency to sell yourself short or to depreciate yourself at every turn? Do you tend to minimize your strengths and accentuate your shortcomings? Through the process of gentle guidance in therapy you can begin to transform feelings of low self-esteem, toxic shame and victimization into empowerment. You can gain assertiveness skills and overcome self-defeating patterns.
Women and Co-Dependency
Are you in a relationship with someone who is addicted to a substance or another self-destructive behavior? Is your life lacking balance due to your preoccupation with your loved one’s crises and drama? Has the addiction begun to overshadow your own precious life? Therapy offers a safe refuge from the storm and the opportunity to restore sanity to your life..
Self-Esteem
Our feelings and beliefs about ourselves begin to be embedded from the messages we get in early childhood and continue to be shaped throughout the life cycle. The judgments and expectations of important people in our lives — as well as powerful yet subtle messages from society — have a dramatic impact on how we feel and think about ourselves as women. Often these messages can become toxic, limiting stumbling blocks which interfere in our progress in life. Through therapy you can learn to tell yourself the truth, to cancel toxic programming from the past and feel better about yourself.
Women in Transitions
Are you recently single, widowed or divorced, making a significant move, career or life change? Are you possibly experiencing “empty nest syndrome”? Coming to therapy to talk about your life changes and stresses can help you begin to overcome the scattered feelings, sense of limbo and disconnect that can accompany these changes.
Loss and Bereavement
Understanding and normalizing the experience of grief and loss can be enhanced through therapy. You may have heard of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s Five Stages of Grief: Denial, bargaining, anger, depression, and acceptance. Did you know that you can experience all of these stages in any order, multiple times over — even in the course of one day? In therapy we can explore where you are in the grief process and help you begin to integrate the loss — or losses.
It’s true that there is not one right way to grieve. The wonderful thing is that you don’t have to bear your burden of grief alone.
Sexual Abuse and Incest
Sexual abuse and incest occur with alarming frequency in our society. Only in the last 20-30 years have these issues been given the attention and validation they deserve. With greater awareness by mental health professionals and the advent of the internet and peer support, more and more women and men who have had these experiences are reaching out for help.
Overcoming the taboo and the toxic shame and blame of this kind of experience can reveal your true strength as a human being. At the same time, lingering effects of the emotional trauma must be worked through. In therapy I can help you identify and begin to resolve the fall-out from the devastation and helplessness you may be feeling.
I am skilled and knowledgeable about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and I want you to know that the help you so richly deserve is available.