People decide to come to therapy for a wide variety of reasons including coping with major life challenges, relationship issues, processing unresolved childhood trauma, and dealing with depression or anxiety. Some people may be seeking personal growth and greater self-awareness. A client and therapist may work together for as few as five or six sessions or as long as several years, depending on the client’s unique needs and personal goals for therapy.
At Phillip Cleaver therapy I offer:
Individuals
With individual therapy, we work one-on-one, in a safe, nonjudgmental, and loving space. We explore your feelings, beliefs, experiences, and behaviors, work through challenging memories, and identify aspects of your life you would like to change. We identify your personal goals for therapy and work toward the desired changes you would like to make.
Couples
First, let me clear up the misconception that couples therapy is only for couples “in trouble.” While this may be the case, it’s not always so. Couples counseling is great for people who would like to strengthen their relationship especially in the areas of communication and mutual goal setting. The other reasons why couples come to counseling may include: partners feeling disrespected, unheard, misunderstood or are experiencing power struggles and recovering from infidelity. Therapy can be an effective way to openly and honestly share your feelings instead of suppressing them. When partners repeatedly use the common coping mechanism of conflict avoidance, communication suffers, resentment builds, and repairs to the relationship may seem impossible. We will set goals unique to your relationship and I will attempt to help you navigate ways to accomplish your goals. Successful therapy depends on each partner’s motivation and dedication to the process of therapy.
Families
Almost all families have unpleasant experiences from time to time which can cause conflict, disagreements, hurt feelings, and general misunderstanding. Family therapy is a wonderful opportunity to explore the stressors and develop coping mechanisms. The stressor may not go away but it is possible to learn how to work through the stressors in a more positive, helpful way. It is most helpful if all members of your household attend therapy to gain insight on how the family experiences and stressors impact everyone. Family members may include grandparents, parents, children, step-children, foster children, aunts, uncles, boyfriends, girlfriends, and more. I really like the analogy of a family system as a mobile. When all members of the family system are present and doing their part, the mobile moves freely, but when one or more person gets out of balance, the entire mobile collapses. The goal of the therapy is to help family members identify how specific behaviors affect others, learn new ways of relating to each other, resolve conflicts, and open lines of communication between all family members.