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Doug seeks first to understand, and to help individuals in relationship understand one another. He will help you explore the past for clues to the present, and identify effective tools for crafting your future.
APPOINTMENTS: Please call or email: HOURS & FEES I do not accept insurance, but offer a sliding scale fee based on combined household income, as follows: Income-range / fee per session:
Office hours:
Your gift helps active duty military, first responders, clergy, and educators who could not otherwise afford the lowest sliding scale fee to attend a seminar or counseling session(s) at a reduced out-of-pocket rate.
(Donations are not tax deductible.) |
Treatment Approaches:
ATTACHMENT-BASED Attachment theory explores basic human relational needs, especially as met in parent-child relationships during developmental formation, and influencing later relationships. EMOTIONALLY FOCUSED THERAPY (EFT) EFT helps clients identify their emotions, explore and experience them, understand them, and manage them. The approach believes that emotions can be changed, by first arriving at the maladaptive emotion in session, and then learning to transform it. EFT for couples seeks to break negative emotion cycles within relationships, emphasizing the importance of the attachment bond between couples. Nurturing the attachment bonds and an empathetic understanding of each other's emotions can break the cycles. (adapted from Psychology Today) GOTTMAN Dr. John Gottman (University of Washington) and his team at The Gottman Institute have scientifically researched nearly 4,000 couples over four decades, looking for the secrets to happy relationships and marriages. His findings are distilled in the Institute's courses: The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work, which identifies the six destructive patterns that lead to relationship demise, and the seven principles behind the happy marriages of "master couples," and Bringing Baby Home, which applies the same principles, plus additional material, to the changed dynamics affected by the inclusion of children in the marriage. In addition to leading the above seminars, I apply Gottman Method Couples Therapy, when working with couples. EMDR Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a therapy that can be incorporated alongside other treatment modalities to process memories that, when triggered, bring disturbance and unwanted responses. Originally proven effective with victims of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the technique has also developed for usage with panic attacks, complicated grief, abuse, neglect, flashbacks, phobias, performance anxiety, and other conditions. EMDR works through "bilateral stimulation" of the brain. That is, the left and right hemispheres of the brain are stimulated though non-electric, non-invasive physical movement (originally eye movement), while the patient is guided to focus on unprocessed or maladaptivley processed memories related to unwanted thoughts and reactions. Successful treatment results in less disturbance of the body, mind, and emotions, and a more adaptive way of responding to triggers. PREPARE/ENRICH RELATSIONSHIP ASSESSMENT Prepare/Enrich is an online customized couple assessment tool, developed by Dr. David Olson, that identifies a couple's similarities, differences, strengths, and areas for growth. It is one of the most widely used inventories for to assist couples and counselors in premarital and marital counseling. The results highlight how the two are alike, how they differ, where they have the same or different perspectives, and what (at the time of the assessment) are their relational strengths and growth areas. The results help to tailor and focus the couple's sessions. SYMBIS PREMARITAL RELATIONSHIP ASSESSMENT The SYMBIS (Save Your Marriage Before It Starts) assessment was developed by Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott, authors of the book of the same name. It is designed to help pastors and counselors focus their premarital counseling sessions with couples. The assessment identifies similarities and differences in personality, attachment styles, approach to money, conflict resolution styles, spirituality, and more. |
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