Therapy

Couples and Marriage Counseling

David is one of only a few therapists in Western New York trained in Emotion Focused Couple Therapy (EFT). This is the most effective therapy for couples that David has ever used, and the research on this method shows a 70% to 80% success rate with positive benefits continuing over a 3 year follow-up with couples. Similar positive results were obtained in a study completed in Toronto where one person in the couple has also been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

This is the first method of couple therapy that is based on a theory of adult love relationships. Susan Johnson, PhD developed this method, and David encourages the couples he sees to get and read her book, Hold Me Tight.

Many of the couples David has worked with using EFT have been in couples therapy before, and said that EFT was very helpful and made a real difference in their relationships. To learn more about EFT go to the website for the International Centre for Emotionally Focused Therapy.

 

Adult and Adolescent Psychotherapy

David sees adults and adolescents for individual psychotherapy. What makes working with David so effective is the variety of ways he helps people learn to soothe themselves when they get distressed.

When you learn to slow yourself down, you can then identify your early warning signs that you are moving toward behaving in ways that create suffering in your daily life. You will learn to tune into your reactive states, then use soothing skills right in the moment to interrupt acting on your urges. This process is what supports us to include our feelings effectively in daily life.

We are at our best when we can center ourselves, and act from our wisdom. Slowing down, knowing your vulnerable reactions to stress, and soothing yourself, opens you up to facing the sources of your distress. This is the middle phase of therapy.

Sometimes part of what makes us reactive are the ways we learned to cope with stress and not getting our needs met while we were growing up. Traumatic experiences also frequently play a part in the sources of our suffering. We all have developed habitual ways of coping; some of these ways constrict us in being responsive to our own needs, and to the needs of those we care about.

Successful therapy can make a difference in the quality of your daily life. Your family and friends will likely notice differences in you, and you will feel freer to go after your dreams, hopes, and desires. David is trained in Gestalt Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), and is experienced working with addictions.

 


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