I absolutely love my work.  There is no greater privilege than working with people and helping them find their way through pain.  I am humbled every day by the stories that my clients are willing to share with me.

What I don't love about the world of therapy however, are some of the "expectations" that come with traditional psychology - like diagnoses.  And so, forgive me the indulgence of getting on my soap box to say:

If we work together, you'll find that I choose not to contract with insurance companies.  This can be frustrating for some, because it can be helpful to have an insurance policy that will cover most (or all) of the bill for therapy services.  However, in order for therapy to be billable, I would have to diagnose you - or label you - according to traditional psychology in order to convince your insurance company that your "condition" must be treated.  

Because my framework dictates that people are not their "conditions," I have trouble calling you "disordered" when most often, that is not the case.  All the way from "Reactive Attachment Disorder" to disorders of anxiety, depression, and personality, the behaviors that result from feelings (some conscious, others not) are natural by-products of prior trauma and pain.  It's normal to react when your heart or spirit is wounded; Just like we bleed and break when we are injured physically, the heart/soul bleeds and breaks when we are injured emotionally.  Sometimes the wound is deep or severe, other times it's more superficial.  The point, though, is that the wound is natural.  There is nothing "disordered" about it.  So, my integrity as a clinician rests, in part, in my refusal to engage in "name calling" for the sake of making your wound billable.

There are cases where medical conditions require that a doctor diagnose for the purposes of traditional medications.  I take a conservative approach to suggesting collaboration with a doctor for mental health reasons because of some of the recent trends in western psychiatric medicine; but for some people, in some seasons of life (or with certain medical conditions), medications can be very helpful.  (Sidenote, if this is a route you want to explore, please contact me for an excellent referral to a holistic psychiatrist here in Colorado.)