Although I have developed a specialty with children and adolescents, my graduate school training was devoted to psychotherapy with adults.  I am still grateful for the strong philosophical foundation I received at USC.  The program I attended was rooted in a humanistic and existential orientation.

The humanistic component that I utilize is often referred to as a “client-centered” model.  This means that my clients and I are on an equal footing - I may have particular knowledge, but I am not an expert on anyone else’s life.  My expertise is in connecting with my clients in their experiences, providing a safe place to process difficult feelings, guiding them to greater clarity on why they do what they do, and offering an objective opinion of how they come across.

I have found the existential component of my training to be useful with almost every adult client.  The premise is that people struggle to create meaning in their lives.  I cannot tell people what meaning their life should have, but I can help them explore how to create the meaning that they have decided upon.  This framework tends to operate well within most religious and philosophical perspectives.

When applying an existential perspective to psychotherapy, a key issue is “responsibility.”  In my experience, many of my clients take responsibility for matters completely beyond their control (parents’ divorces, traumas and abuses, physical characteristics, etc.), and not enough responsibility for matters within their control (destructive relationship dynamics, bad habits, negative thinking, etc.).  I work to reverse this trend.  The idea is to grieve and accept that which is beyond our control, and then act with maturity and accountability with what is within our sphere of choice.