The clients I see are individuals or couples. They come from all walks of life, religions, ethnic backgrounds and sexual orientation. While I will occasionally see older teens, most often I work with adults spanning a wide age range, from young adults just starting out to those in their elder years.
Concerns
The specific concerns and aspirations people bring are quite varied:
- Anxiety and/or Panic
- Depression
- Life Transitions
- Meditation methods and obstacles
- Personal growth
- Relationships
- Self-Esteem
- Spirituality
- Stress management
- Trauma
- Work-life balance
At the core, for most people are feelings of distress and a search for solutions. People coming to see me might be experiencing difficult life circumstances, losses, and disappointments. They may feel stuck in difficult patterns of thinking, feeling and acting. Many want to build and improve relationships; they seek to communicate more effectively with key people in their lives at work and other contexts. They want to build intimate personal relationships. Essentially they are seeking ways to live with greater ease, purpose, and vitality.
Approaches
There is no formulaic approach to our work together; each of us is different: at a different phase in life and works at a different pace. But, there are some core ways of being I strive to bring to all my clients which include authenticity, kindness and acceptance. It is clear to me that entering into psychotherapy is a courageous act. Your wisdom, strengths and resources are recognized and encouraged as we explore the hard places in a collaborative and open way, increasingly willing to move towards that which is painful and we have pushed away.
Within those basic ways of relating with my clients, I draw on perspectives from experiential and emotionally-centered therapies, family systems thinking, as well as the cognitive-behavioural therapies, particularly those approaches that incorporate “mindfulness” and compassion such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. The list below summarizes the main approaches that I use.
- Acceptance and Commitment
- Cognitive-Behavioural
- Compassion/Self-care
- Existential-Humanistic
- Family Systems/ Family of origin
- Marital/Relationship
- Mindfulness/Meditation
- Relaxation procedures
As well, my training and experience in the neurosciences informs the work with individuals who would benefit from that perspective ( those who have incurred brain injury or who have a defined condition such as learning disability, e.g.).
An important part of my work is to define and encourage practices, small or large, related to key areas of life that are important to you (such as relationships, work, health, sleep). Self-care practices extend also into how we choose to relate to inner experiences (our thoughts, emotions, memories and so on). We can learn, for example, to recognize when we are unduly self-critical and to practice bringing different attitudes and understanding towards ourselves.
Ultimately, a major direction in therapy for me is to encourage, to help mobilize a process in you through which you are able to “reframe” your experience, that is, view it and understand it from other perspectives. In so doing it becomes possible to become more aware of and less threatened and less compelled by longstanding patterns of thinking, feeling and acting that haven’t worked for your life. You become strengthened, less burdened, more willing to do things that are important to you. You become freer to choose to lead the life you want with love and courage.
Josef Zaide, Ph.D. 