Philosophy & Approach

My approach is based on principles informed by psychoanalytic theory. In other words, I believe that an individual’s concerns or difficulties improve (or disappear) when we can arrive at a deeper understanding of the person’s worries, fears or conflicts. Psychotherapy helps the patient to come to a conscious decision about their actions based on their own best interest instead of unconscious needs or conflicts.

Treatment is usually preceded by an evaluation of the presenting issue or concern. In psychotherapy, I help my patients identify critical patterns in their thinking or behaviour, point out alternative interpretations of events, help identify new strategies for problem solving, as well as ask the patient questions to stimulate his/her thinking. I provide the patient with an objective ‘sounding board’. A caring bond helps to nurture the psychological development of the patient.

“The person can absent himself into a secret. Here the secret provides a potential space where an absence is sustained in suspended animation, … , the secret carries a hope that one day the person will be able to emerge out of it, to be found and met, and thus become a whole person, sharing life with others.”

M. Kahn (1978)