WHAT YOU MIGHT EXPECT IN COMING TO THERAPY WITH BETH

Coming into Beth's office is less like going to a doctor's office than going to your friend's house for a good heart to heart long conversation.  The space is warm and casual, and people usually find it easy to talk to Beth.  She will listen well to your story, and offer her impressions, which sometimes include perspective, re-framing, maybe some suggestions and giving you a way to hold your situation in a way that will make it easier to consider various options.

Below you'll find her therapeutic approach, which illustrates her philosophy about healing and growth.

THERAPEUTIC ORIENTATION

November 2009

A Holistic Approach  I have been practicing psychotherapy since the mid 1990’s, having finished my Masters Degree in May 1996.  Since then I’ve continued to learn, study, practice, evolve, and integrate from the world of therapeutic thought, even drawing on the wisdom of other modalities and alternative medicines.  I consider my work holistic in that I not only look for a person’s strengths, their life context, and their experience in the world on all levels of the emotional, physical, mental and spiritual planes, allowing me to see way beyond the framework of diagnosis and treatment, but I also draw from the ever widening range of holistic medicine and therapies that offer a breadth of intelligence far beyond what typical psychotherapy understands.

As such, I draw from several categories of current psychotherapies.  These approaches are usually integrated as a foundation for my philosophical belief of healing and growth, as applied to anyone experiencing emotional, existential, spiritual, or mental discontent.  My work is designed to support the client in the process of discovery of each person’s own, internally guided, healing path. 

                Client-Centered Therapy  There are two beliefs from this approach which I find particularly useful in the therapeutic process.  The first is that each of us, as stated above, has within us the inherent ability for growth and healing.  The second is that the client’s greatest success in tapping that ability will come in an atmosphere of unconditional positive regard from the therapist to the client.  In a relationship in which the client can experience realness, caring, and a deeply sensitive, non-judgmental understanding from the therapist, the client has the safety to explore previously unacceptable feelings, thoughts, or emotions, which, once experienced, are released.  This style of therapy asks of the therapist to listen actively and empathically, allowing the client to go where she or he needs to go in a session.  As such, the client mostly directs the session, not me.

                Psychodynamic Theory  To me one of the most reliable aspects of psychodynamic theory is what is called the Repetition Syndrome, suggesting that many of our adult struggles and resistant patterns are not only a repetition of the dynamics established in our early childhoods, but that they are repeating themselves so insistently so that we can finally get it right.  We will get caught on a groove of a particular pattern and repeat it over and over again in different ways, always hoping for a reparative experience that will finally prove that we are okay, lovable, etc.  Following this theory, I am interested in the dynamics set in place in childhood.  But rather than dwell on the past, I use the awareness of these patterns to see if and how they are being replayed in the present, and if so, how we can use that awareness to broaden your choices. 

                Personality/Self Awareness   Odd as it may sound, many of us don’t know ourselves or what we really want, all that well.  There is a growing study of personality styles that I have found can serve us very well in getting to know ourselves more fully.  The better we know ourselves, the more choices we have to create a fulfilling life.  I find study of the Enneagram Personality Styles to sometimes be helpful, as well as occasionally drawing from a person’s astrological reflections, if the client finds that of interest.  There are many other personality theories that I can converse about, but the enneagram and astrology are the two I know best.

                Casual and Engaged Style of Relating  Many clients have told me that they’ve found other therapists to be “too clinical,” and that they appreciate the fact that I converse with them and give feedback, suggestions, homework, exercises, etc.  Some people report having been in therapy with a therapist who said little.  Except for the first session, I’m generally not quiet.  The first session is one where the client typically has a lot of “downloading” to do, and I need to hear their story.  But while I know the client also needs to hear from me, there is significant value in telling one’s story to someone who is really listening well, and even hearing oneself tell it shouldn’t be underestimated in its worth.  You will have not just my undivided attention, but while I’m listening I am putting together a deeper understanding of how your issues intertwine, and learning about you in ways that are intangible, but will help me help you in the long run.

                Eclectic psychotherapy  Eclectic Psychotherapy selects what is valid or useful from all available theories, methods, and practices.  I tend to draw from a myriad of theoretical approaches, a pool which grows all the time as I am always learning, reading, connecting with other colleagues and learning from them, and from my own experience.  As such, I may invite you to explore your dreams, or I may draw from coaching techniques, do cognitive behavioral exercises, practice mindfulness or some form of meditation, do some “sub-personality work,” and the like.  I am not a “technique” kind of therapist, and don’t follow the teachings of any one leader, but thoughtfully integrate from a rich pool of contemporary thought.

                A Note About Medication  Many clients ask how I feel about medication for emotional distress and particularly for mood disorders.  I am neither an advocate nor a nay-sayer about meds.  For some people medication has been a life-saver.  For others it is a long and exacerbating ordeal that may or may not prove in the end to give them any relief at all.  There are certain conditions, such as bipolar disorder, that beg the question most insistently.  For these situations I will recommend a person seek out the help of a medically licensed psychiatrist.  I am neither licensed nor qualified to prescribe medication.  I do, however, fully respect each individual’s right to make the choice to medicate or not, and will openly explore with them what I understand to be the pros and cons of the decision.

                Couples Therapy  Couples work requires an extra set of tools that is unlike individual therapy.  I have been specializing in couples therapy for several years and find that by giving an hour and a half instead of the 50-minute hour, much more can be accomplished each session.  Couples who have tried other therapists before coming to me have told me I’ve identified the crucial issues other therapists haven’t recognized.  It is sometimes hard work for the couple, but worth it, whether the couple is trying to make an important but difficult decision, to get over an affair, to learn how to resolve conflicts, or even “just” to work on communication.   

                 Whatever approach I draw from, I am always open to hearing feedback about what works best for the client.

Beth Strong, MA, LPC
Holistic Psychotherapist & Astrologer
234 Columbine, Suite 300
Denver, Colorado 80206
303-322-4224