In my practice I am amazed at the courage people show.  As someone who has been in therapy a good part of my adult life and one who has stopped therapy to only start again, I realize how terrifying the whole process can be.  Truly one of the hardest parts of therapy is making that first phone call or sending that email asking for services. Also, what if you don’t get a call back?  – eek!! –

It can be incredibly challenging to find someone whose schedule aligns with yours, someone who takes your insurance, and, on top of all that, someone who is a good fit, can help you identify your goals and help you work toward them.

Not to mention, actually showing up for therapy is hard.  To sit across from another human and let them truly see who you are…it is terrifying!  It takes an immense amount of courage to be able to show up in this way.  The therapy space is one where clients courageously show up to attend to their own needs and explore patterns that they may have developed over time with gentle curiosity, so that they may be able to change.

My hope is that within that space I can meet clients with unconditional positive regard.  This was a term developed by Carl Rogers, a humanist psychologist.  With unconditional positive regard my intention is to show support, acceptance and love for a client, no matter what they say or do, placing no condition on acceptance.

As a client courageously shows up for therapy, I respect them immensely as a human being with their own free will and also believing that they are doing the best she can. By trying to practice unconditional positive regard, I see each my client as inherently human and inherently lovable.

I firmly believe that every person was born with the potential to develop in positive and loving ways.  Within the space of therapy, I strongly believe that if clients have the courage to show up there is a chance for them to feel welcomed, understood, and accepted.  I really am lucky to do what I do and see clients show a tremendous amount of courage in their lives.  It helps remind me that I can be brave and continue to walk on with gentle curiousity.

“This process of the good life is not, I am convinced, a life for the faint-hearted.  It involves the stretching and growing of becoming more and more of one’s potentialities.  It involved the courage to be.  It means launching oneself fully into the stream of life.” -Carl Rogers.