As a psychologist and certified coach, I help clients “build the life of their dreams”. Sometimes this means helping you transcend the challenges that hold you back, whether it be self-doubt, procrastination, overwhelm or poor planning.
I am a Certified Empowerment Coach and I have helped many clients achieve their goals and to create lives they love. Life Coaching is not psychotherapy so no insurance is accepted for this service and it is done by phone. Life Coaching focuses upon taking a client to the next level of success in their lives, whether it be at work, in a creative project or goal or in a relationship. It is goal oriented and as a life coach I act as a guide to keep my client accountable for taking consistent action. Life Coaching is done with clients who are already functioning well in their lives. If they are in too much distress, are diagnosable or not functioning well than they would be more appropriate candidates for psychotherapy.
Life Coaching is usually done weekly by phone but sometimes I may agree to bi-weekly coaching if that person just needs a little support.
My coaching specialty is dating. I often work with Dating Coaching clients around creating and implementing a dating action plan, to grow beyond social anxiety, to examine limiting beliefs, to address self-esteem issues and to be authentic and to examine their choices in mates.
As a psychologist and certified coach, I help clients build the life of their dreams. Sometimes this means helping you transcend the challenges that hold you back, whether it be self-doubt, procrastination, overwhelm or poor planning. Together we break down the goal into manageable steps and begin to move towards it, helping to align your thoughts, feelings, and actions with what you most want.
Here are some the topics that can be covered:
Anxiety / Stress Management
Many clients have come in because suddenly they have trouble focusing, sleeping and sometimes they wake up in the morning with a feeling of dread. They often fear things that could happen in the future, like a job loss, breakup, loss of a loved one, et cetera and they have lost the ability to stay centered and happy in the present.
As a psychotherapist, part of our work is to provide cognitive tools to help them stop catastrophizing and overgeneralizing with fear-based thoughts and to learn how to be present and to problem-solve, based on facts and reality. We examine how thought patterns trigger anxiety and sometimes bodily responses of panic attacks. Then tools are learned that can intervene in this cycle to help regulate the anxiety and stress.
Clients learn to manage their thinking and their lives with a greater sense of control, centeredness and self-love.
Career Issues
Clients often enter psychotherapy around a variety of career issues. Sometimes there are authority issues with a boss or unpleasant co-worker and the client has to learn to manage their feelings and identify triggers. They also may benefit from learning to communicate appropriately and set boundaries. Sometimes they need help deciding whether to look for a new job.
In other situations clients have career goals and want help achieving the next level of success which often means working through various internal or external obstacles.
Clients sometimes enter therapy when they want to make a career change and are trying to figure out what that path would be.
The therapist helps them to work through internal and external obstacles so as to create ‘conditions for success’ in the course of work they choose.
Creative Goals
Most people have creative goals and dreams. This is a way of joining inner and outer worlds, leaving a legacy and putting messages out into the world. Some clients want to write books, produce music, sing, start a side business or many other creative pursuits. Therapy can help clients get really clear about their vision, internal and external obstacles and give them a place to problem-solve and develop new insight about how best to proceed.
Sometimes issues like perfectionism, low self-esteem and procrastination impede the creative flow. Becoming more aware of dynamic issues that stop you allow you to express your true self in the world.
Decision Making
Some clients come in with issues about trusting themselves and decision-making. These issues can range from feeling like they can’t pick out a blouse to not being sure what job to take or what partner to choose. These clients have not learned to understand their own core needs, values and vision. Through therapy they can learn to weigh the pros and cons of decisions, tolerate making mistakes and begin to trust themselves more.
Life Purpose
Some clients come to therapy to find a core meaning in their lives. Perhaps they have a job, a significant other and friends but they are searching for a deeper connection to why they are here. Sometimes this is a spiritual connection, a creative talent or a new career path. These clients sense that there is something more they are longing to do or be but this is the first time they have stopped to explore it and to heed that inner calling.
Therapy helps them to hear their inner voice and to develop their Higher Self in the midst of general business and responsibilities and to begin to take steps to deciphering and taking action on their life purpose.
Perfectionism
This is a common issue in NYC which is full of high achievers. While perfectionism may aid work success it can make for exhaustion, poor self-esteem and unhappiness in one’s personal life. Perfectionists tend to look at what needs to be improved and rarely give themselves credit for their own strengths and successes.
Therapy helps increase self-esteem and brings attention to this cognitive style that often perpetuates unhappiness. Over time the client is better able to maintain positive self-talk, to appreciate his or her accomplishments and to perform optimally with the occasional mistake and still be happy. Ideally one’s sense of self-worth is more globally based and more unconditional than just being tied to work accomplishments.
Time Management, Procrastination & Disorganization
Clients often complain of feeling disorganized, overwhelmed and lacking in time. Sometimes stress or procrastination is the culprit and other times there are dynamic issues afoot that cause them to sabotage their pursuits. Therapy is a place for them to examine their pattern of self sabotage, understand it and put some new and more effective patterns into effect over time. Sometimes this can involve outside resources like delegating some work to a virtual assistant or organizer, but unless the client is ready to make this shift, he or she will sabotage it.
Work - Life Balance
This is a common issue in Manhattan when most people work and are very busy. Sometimes other life areas are neglected like one’s relationship with oneself, or with a partner, their emotional needs, their health or family. Therapy can be a place to sort out one’s needs, values and desires and to make choices that procure a better work-life balance.