Portland Counseling Services

 

I offer professional counseling services including individual therapy, couples therapy, premarital counseling, coaching, discernment and consultation. I can help you work out and solve issues of self, relationships, anxiety, depression, trauma, co-dependecy and self-esteem. 

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If you are LGBTQIA, if we differ in age, ethnicity, gender, spiritual practices or abilities; there is space for you here. 

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Individual Therapy:

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The theories of mindfulness, schema polarity, cognitive-behavioral, transpersonal, narrative, and achievement motivation are used to increase your awareness of how your beliefs inform your thoughts, feelings and behavior.

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You will become aware of how your beliefs – acquired long ago – use the past to predict the future. With this awareness, mindfulness, intention and accountability become the tools you can use to change your mindset.

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When the mindset shifts, the heart and mind connect more fully. This shift allows for congruence between your heart and mind that is necessary in cultivating resilience. A framework for personal resilience includes qualities such as: self-knowledge, a sense of hope, healthy coping skills, strong relationships, and a sense of meaning in life. 

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Couples Therapy:

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Using Imago Relationship Therapy as a model, you learn to recognize how each of you co-creates the dynamic between you. You learn what is underneath the blaming, judging, and criticizing of each other. As this awareness increases, your emotional regulation also increases.

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This in turn gives you the ability to be present, to forgive, have compassion, to be intimate, and allow hope to penetrate all aspects of your relationship. When this happens, couples are able to ask for what they want in a way their request can be heard and honored.

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Premarital: 

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Taking the time and making the investment to learn a common language of how to love each other can make sure that “I DO” lasts a lifetime. I can help you cultivate positive communication skills and habits that help you choose a “repair” rather than arguing to be right.

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Pre-marital counseling is eight sessions that cover the foundations of communication and how to negotiate the four partnerships in committed relationships: intimacy, householding, finances, and family. 

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Coaching:

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If you need support and mentoring to improve your ability to thrive, you are facing a life change and are seeking ways to cultivate resilience, coaching may be a service that can help you achieve well-being.

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Coaching can be done on the phone or the internet from the privacy and convenience of your personal space. If you want to put the spark back into your sex life, feel like you are on the same team, and have more fun, I suggest coaching as a way to more effectively support your capacity to change.

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Discernment:

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Discernment is for those couples who need help resolving the ambivalence about staying in their relationship. This is not about working on the relationship. This is helping you and your partner figure out if it is true for each of you to find a way to lean in to repair and preserve the relationship.

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Consultation:

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Consultation is a time-limited arrangement that provides specific problem-solving outcomes and coming up with a plan to negotiate a change in life such as a major illness, a disabling accident, caring for elder parents, changing careers, and retirement. 

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