“What can I expect?” is an important question that often gets asked when beginning therapy and there is no simple answer. I hope that working together will help you develop a deeper comprehension of your relational patterns and to have a more coherent, integrated, mindful sense of self, along with an understanding of your relational world, what is feeling bad, and how it could feel better. We will also work to understand your trauma history and responses to feelings of danger and threat, and also why they show up in your relationships and interactions and how they may lead, for example, to familiar patterns of self-protection and disengagement.

We will explore what happens within your subjective experience: what may “trigger” the need to build walls, react, anger, struggle, feel shame, turn to substances, and maybe, withdraw and disconnect from relationships - and these feelings can arise despite how a part of you, a vulnerable part, that is hurting, yearns for deeper connection and to be fully seen and understood by those around you.

We will also spend time exploring and understanding your primary attachment relationships and trauma and how they provided a blueprint, essentially a lense, through which to make sense and meaning of who you are - to understand how familiar aspects of your past experiences show up and impact your present life.