Practice Philosophy

Psychotherapy is a reciprocal dance.  For over fifty years I have been learning about me and you, and from you about how to be and not to be, and how to extend myself to you to further your being.  There is no one psychotherapy work formula for me or for you. The art of the work is to know you as deeply as possible, to engage in a dialogue about you, your life and hopes, and to interact in a manner that fosters trust and a healing of the wounds of lost trust. There are methodologies that assist and substances that support growth, change and an alleviation of suffering. In commencing the work of psychotherapy together, I dedicate myself to you and attempt to provide in myriad ways based on my personal history, and from being a psychotherapist this long, with my own synthesis of the learning and the methods I have absorbed, with the reflection of this back to you.  I try for  knowing you, for respect and recognize that confrontation and acceptance are both aspects of the path. I practice the interpersonal method known as Non-Violent Communication, think systemically, about your milieu and culture, think in psychodynamic psychotherapy, Selves work, Gestalt, psychopharmacology, alternative medicines, and medicine. I have been a dedicated physician and have  followed my practice in my own creative way. Being a father has been the heart of my life and I have known the awfulness of the loss of a child.   To be a therapist is to be a traumatologist, searching with you for the ways you have been hurt and sculpted by your history.

There are no expectations of you other than to show up, spend the time and work out the fee. Yet to not have greater expectations is to miss the point that we are in constant flux and change and that there are better directions, more enlightening ways, greater freedom for mind, highs that transcend, and love that softens and also excites. Psychotherapy at its best assists in the exploration of possibilities and the development of heartful sensitivity.  It is interactional at its core and the relationship between us is a source for awareness and change, for enhancing the ability to communicate feelings of all sorts, practicing this in a safe harbor.

VALUES AND TECHNIQUES
Psychotherapy is not a science despite claims to that effect. In essence, it is a complex of many views of the countless students of mind and behavior.  Each practitioner of psychotherapy has accessed only a small number of the components of this vast complex. There are methods such as psychoanalytic psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, object relations psychotherapy, gestalt psychotherapy, radical therapy, etc., etc.  There are techniques such as role playing, psychodrama, EMDR, abreaction, Ericksonian hypnosis—to name a bare bones few.  Each has adherents and its vogue.  Of all the studies of mind, the 2500 yearlong reflection on mind, an ethics for life, and mindfulness of the Buddhist meditative schools is the most detailed, descriptive, and applicable for a psychotherapy that should lead somewhere. Ultimately that somewhere should be better, happier, with less suffering, greater awareness, and relationship connection.  My own evolving practice is of a non-religious secular Buddhism. 

Those who view therapy as value-less and its practitioners as neutral beings fail to recognize historical, cultural, personal and philosophical determinants.  Psychotherapists are human beings who practice within a personal history and have views, methods, and hang-ups, which should not intrude as prejudice or guidance for their people.  In choosing a psychotherapist for yourself, these are consideration-as well as availability, compassion, strength, intelligence and independence—a psychotherapist must not have a personal need for a relationship with you.  That is the ethical stance—not needing you for any form of personal gain. That is for the psychotherapist to take care of outside of their work.

Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy is a new and exciting treatment modality and I am pleased to be a pioneer in making this work available.  Much like MDMA Assisted Psychotherapy, but legal and available now, KAP is truly a breakthrough path for many people who struggle.  It is truly gratifying to be in a position to bring this into the world, to train other practitioners in its application, and to feel the power of this work.

I practice in many formats, including brief individual and problem solving therapies, long-term analytic individual, couples, and family therapies. I do my own form of transformative psychodynamic psychotherapy evolved over time and experience with many teachers and with so many precious people who have come into my practice.  I have been a consultant/facilitator for communes, and a variety of businesses. I am expert in psychopharmacology and continue to enjoy being a physician and a practitioner of complementary medicine in a selective fashion. Having run alternative, Laingian oriented facilities for those in altered states of mind and having been a part of the Spiritual Emergency Network at its inception, I continue to work with individuals and their families who are in emotional crisis.  I love teaching mindfulness meditation and doing guided, imaginative trance work. Because of my personal experience with cancer and grief and having lost my oldest son Noah to leukemia when he was sixteen, I offer myself to those who are struggling with critical illness, dying and loss.  I am interested in assisting those with illness in accessing the best possible care and in handling the stress and personal/family aspects of illness.