Integral Therapy

I graduated from California Institute of Integral Studies with a Masters in Integral Counseling Psychology. Therefore, I take an integral approach. What this means to me, though, is that your therapy experience with me be a blend of different modalities, tools & skillsets tailored to your specific needs in any moment. My knowledge and wisdom is institutional & ancestral. I follow my intuition around what medicine to bring forward in our work together.

Integral psychotherapy proposes that all insights on life contain partial truths and that weaving together a range of cultural, psychological, socioeconomic, biological, spiritual, and behavioral perspectives can offer hope for healing, increased mindfulness, and social and cultural evolution. Integral approach draws from several theoretical orientations, leaning heavily on theories of transpersonal psychology. An integral approach embraces an attitude towards that affirms the inherent value of each individual. It is a unifying psychotherapy that responds appropriately and effectively to the person at the affective, behavioral, cognitive, and physiological levels of functioning, and addresses as well the spiritual dimension of life. Integral refers to the process of integrating the personality: taking disowned, unaware, or unresolved aspects of the self and making them part of a cohesive self. It is the process of making whole.

This style of Freud's "talking cure" is more than words. We explore places in your body that have messages for you, like a constant tension in your chest, or stomach pangs when you think of someone. Perhaps your heart-strings are attached to people in ways that deserve attention and reconsideration. We also look at those thoughts that keep circling, those patterns of cognition that trip you up, and even those deep, core beliefs that may no longer be true. Bringing soul into therapy is a way of connecting with the larger human experience, seeing ourselves as unique while sharing in the collective. Spirit is the lens that shows us there is more to the world than meets the eye. Here we examine questions of meaning and purpose.

Integral Psychotherapy involves the application of Ken Wilber’s AQAL model in the world of psychotherapy. The result is a meta-orientation – a way to connect the central ideas and interventions of the world’s major approaches to psychotherapy. The goal of Integral Psychotherapy is to help us move beyond the limits of postmodern thinking into a truly comprehensive, holistic understanding of mental health and well-being.

I first read Ken Wilber when I was in high school in the 1980s and his way of looking at the world had profound effect on my young mind. It remains one of the most complete and integrated systems of knowledge that exists, that I know about anyway. In many ways it is essentially a rigorously holistic approach to human change and can be a great way to illuminate blind spots on one's own roadmap to positive, lasting change.

Grief Counseling consists of 50-minute, one-on-one sessions that help you work through your concerns. In addition to listening, I will share thoughts when it's helpful and provide guidance based on my training and experience as a grief counselor.

Use a psychopharmacological approach.

Integral therapy, similar to holistic therapy, is a therapeutic practice that takes an integrative approach and looks at the connections between a client’s mind, body and spirit. Like other types of mindfulness-based therapy, integral therapy is designed to help a client’s attention focus on the present moment and achieve clarity. Integral therapists use multiple approaches to addresses issues and encourage self-awareness and self-acceptance in clients.

Use a psychopharmacological approach.

I'm an integral therapist, and I believe because we are a whole organism with many data points and infinite relationship to the world around us, that our healing, improvements, and growth also come from the many strands of life around us. To that end, I bring together psychological approaches, sociological data, and human-centered care to provide a holistic, unique form of service.