Client Focus

Compassion-Focused Therapy, also referred to as CFT, can be particularly helpful for individuals who struggle with mood disorders, anxiety, or feelings of shame and self-criticism which often stem from early experiences of abuse or neglect. CFT uses exercises such as role-playing, visualization, meditation, and gratitude-related exercises. CFT can help clients cultivate self-compassion, regulate their emotions, and foster a sense of safety and comfort.

Culturally sensitive therapists understand that people from different backgrounds have different values, practices, beliefs, and experiences. They are sensitive to those differences when working with individuals and families in therapy. They also strive for cultural competence, which begins with an understanding of their own culture and awareness of how culture influences the relationship with the client. Culturally competent therapists will strive to understand and address issues concerning age, race, sexuality, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, religion, and gender in a client’s life experience.

An eclectic approach to therapy draws on various aspects of multiple theoretical approaches and therapy techniques to create a more customized and multidimensional approach. Using this approach, therapists work with their clients to create a treatment plan specific to the client's identified problems and needs rather than according to a specific theory. It is also sometimes referred to as multi-modal or integrative therapy.

Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) is an approach to therapy that helps clients identify their emotions, learn to explore and experience them, to understand them and then to manage them. Emotionally Focused Therapy embraces the idea that emotions can be changed, first by arriving at or 'living' the maladaptive emotion (e.g. loss, fear or shame) in session, and then learning to transform it. Emotionally Focused Therapy for couples seeks to break the negative emotion cycles within relationships, emphasizing the importance of the attachment bond between couples, and how nurturing of the attachment bonds and an empathetic understanding of each others emotions can break the cycles.

“Positive psychology is the scientific study of what makes life most worth living” from Christopher Peterson, 2008, What is Positive Psychology, and What Is It Not?

Positive Psychology was founded by Martin Seligman to offer an optimistic and resilient approach to combatting depression and a sense of helplessness. By focusing on our strengths rather than our weaknesses, our perspective shifts and mood lifts.