"Stand up straight and realize who you are, that you tower over your circumstances." - Maya Angelou

My Approach To Pyschology

I take a culturally sensitive/competent, developmentally attuned, relational, trauma informed, strength-based and empowering and growth promoting approach to counselling.

I draw on a compassionate, respectful, validating, responsive, positive and empowering integrated counselling framework and approach of which enables me to care for the dignity and worth of all persons by permitting a more thorough understanding of one’s life experiences and challenges through one’s personal frame of reference - i.e., by considering one's particular context and nature of socio-cultural-political influences - as specifically related to one’s life experiences and challenges, one’s adaptation/response to one’s challenges, one’s valued and preferred nature of change(s) and goal(s) sought and the nature of responsive support I may provide. 

I apply an integrated cultural, relational, existential, narrative and solution focused brief therapy counselling framework and approach.

Inevitably, my approach involves compassionate inquiry in supporting one to:

  • Enhance self-awareness and sense of authentic self.
  • Enhance one's insight into personally impacting circumstances and relations (with self and others).
  • Identify strengths and resiliencies and build self-understanding and self-compassion (self-love, self-value, self-worth).
  • lluminate and encourage activation of one's personal and social strengths and resiliencies and invite sense of self-efficacy and hope.
  • lluminate one's ultimate responsibility to make personally informed and valued intentional choices.
  • Support one to live with congruence - with her/his/their authentic self - and intention and to take action as congruent with one’s worldview and socio-cultural circumstances/preferences.

Ultimately, my approach supports enhancing insight, personal growth, self-efficacy, responsibility and intentional choice and action toward personally derived and valued changes for an authentic, purposeful, satisfying and meaningful life.

My approach is goal oriented and includes responsive therapeutic intervention in every session - be it only one session or more.

Professional Therapeutic Relationship

I value respectful, authentic, reflective, collaborative and pro-active psychologist-client interactions, in a cultivated psychological and emotionally safe environment, whereby a client may experience acceptance, sense of value, worth, dignity and comfort to engage in authentic dialogue, to experience meaningful personal and interpersonal connection and to experience purposeful and meaningful empowering support.

 

 

Counselling Population

I very much enjoy collaborating with adults of diverse cultures, worldviews, identities and familial structures, of varied contexts or circumstances and of various challenges.