The foundation of my approach is rooted in depth psychotherapy. This sets the container within which everything unfolds.

Put very simply, depth psychotherapy proceeds from an acknowledgement of the presence and role of the unconscious in the therapeutic encounter. The unconscious refers to parts of ourselves of which we typically remain unaware, yet influence our behaviors, motivations, habits, perceptions or reactions. Psychotherapy can be an aid toward making conscious what is unconscious.

Attending to dreams and fantasies can be a means of approaching the unconscious.

I do not follow a systematic, manualized approach to psychotherapy. These approaches have their value and place, but I work differently.

My approach is always initially nondirective. We make space for what feels most relevant here and now, and mutually responding to what wants to emerge in our sessions.

Depth psychotherapy also emphasizes the importance of the relationship between us.

As C.G. Jung famously remarked: “The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.”

Attending to what comes up between us, then, can potentially be a helpful guide for understanding patterns and processes that occur outside of therapy.

As things unfold, I may introduce the other approaches listed below, if appropriate.

The term “mindfulness” is used a lot these days, not always with clear or consistent meanings.

I will share here what I mean when I use the term.

Simply put, mindfulness entails developing the complementary capacities of attention (deliberately choosing where you place your focus) and awareness (maintaining a general receptivity to whatever is happening in your experience just as it is, neither latching onto certain parts as being “good” nor rejecting other parts as “bad”).

We may take some time to attend to mindfulness during our sessions, if appropriate.

Mindfulness is a helpful foundation for the two additional approaches listed below.

The word “somatic” is derived from the Greek word sōma, simply meaning “body.”

It is safe to say that the body does not lie.

It is also the case, however, that the body “speaks” in a language that many of us have forgotten to “hear.”

This is no personal fault, but rather reflects a longstanding trend in modern cultures. Fortunately, cultural trends are increasingly beginning to turn back to the soma.

My approach to somatic work entails “listening” to what the soma has to “say” (that is, sensing and feeling toward a richer connection with the nonverbal layers of somatic-emotional experience).

My conception of the body also extends beyond the way it is generally thought of in modern culture. It also includes what I would call the “energy body.”

You don’t need to literally think of this as an invisible body of energy, though you certainly may if that suits you—indeed, many wisdom traditions have thought of the energy body in such terms.

However, you may also simply think of the energy body as a particular way of experiencing the body that opens up for us when we bring a certain kind of attention to it—an attention that is gentle, expansive, sensitive to subtleties, and supplemented by imagination in various ways.

If appropriate, I may introduce somatic and energy body awareness into the therapeutic process. This can be a helpful foundation for the final approach listed below.

What is the meaning of “imaginal”?

The term has a wide variety of meanings in different contexts.

Considering the context of psychotherapy, I would emphasize three features of the imaginal:

1. Not everything that arises in the imagination is purely “made up” or “unreal”

2. Sometimes what arises in the imagination has its own autonomy and intelligence, independent of our conscious purposes and intentions

3. The autonomy and intelligence of the imagination can produce imagery that is deeply meaningful, both to the process of healing and toward unfolding your innate potential (and, indeed, the processes of healing and becoming are intimately interwoven)