Our counselors provide therapy in Austin, TX

When working with people in individual therapy, I focus on fitting my approach to the individual. I find that most people benefit from developing a mindfulness practice to become more aware of their thinking and increase their ability to direct their thinking instead of letting it direct them, as well as strategies to examine and change thinking patterns that lead to distress. These skills can then be used in combination with other skills and methods to address the specific needs of the client such as issues with negative thinking, emotional reactivity, conflict in relationships, and coping with life stressors.

I often teach the following tools in individual counseling;

• Mindfulness meditation or mindful activity, involves learning to notice when the mind drifts, letting go of thinking, and returning focus to a predetermined word, phrase, image action, or sensory experience.
• Cognitive reframing is used to explore alternative perspectives.
• Cognitive challenging helps clients question their thoughts and beliefs in order to uncover patterns of thinking that are no longer helpful.
• Cognitive distraction gives clients the ability to move away from intrusive and unwanted thoughts.
• Sensation labeling is a mindfulness technique that assists with disrupting unwanted thinking by focusing on sensory input.
• Strategies for grief processing are used to observe, accept, experience, and release the chaos of emotions that accompany an experience of loss.
• Mental shield imagery develops skills in managing mirror neurons to reduce emotional reactivity to other people's emotions.
• Thinking strategies help individuals address catastrophic thinking and increase confidence in dealing with undesired outcomes should they arise.
• Positive communication skills such as reflective listening, “I” statements, nonviolent communications, and positive behavior support can decrease conflict and increase skills in collaboration.
• Motivation skills reduce procrastination and avoidance.
• Strategies for gaining acceptance of mistakes and letting go of shame and guilt.
• Strategies to manage time and tasks in order to reduce overwhelm and procrastination.
• Imagery and relaxation strategies for pain management and reduction of medical anxiety.
• Sleep hygiene practices to reduce insomnia.

I check in with clients about their progress with their goals and the improvements they are seeing in their symptoms every session. Meaningful progress is evident as the list of progress and successes gets longer and the list of challenges gets shorter.

Clients' efforts to implement the skills they are learning and the goals that they set between sessions are essential to making progress in therapy.

Clients can prepare for therapy by thinking about what they want to achieve, in addition to what it is they want to move away from.