Theory of Health

I believe that mental health is connected to every aspect of our lives, encompassing our capacity to meet our physiological, emotional, relational, cultural, and psychospiritual needs as we follow the course of our lives from one life situation to the next.

​

I generally think of mental health in terms of the age-appropriate development of self-awareness and responsibility, a capacity for authentic relationships, and the integration of polarized aspects of the self into a holistic, organic mosaic. Progress along these lines inevitably looks very different at successive life stages, and as long as you are alive, there will always be more ground to cover.

 

I also believe that healing is a process of moving toward wholeness. Because human beings are constantly changing, this wholeness is inevitably a moving target, like a horizon, implying that its pursuit is naturally a lifelong process. In other words, health is not a place you ever finally arrive at, but a mode of being and becoming that we can strive to inhabit. Therapy can help you learn to live from that mode more effectively and consistently.

 

Although this movement toward wholeness may last a lifetime, that does not mean that you should be in therapy indefinitely; only that the path continues after you leave your last session. Therapy is not a place for passive healing, but a means to learn how to heal yourself, a process that entails developing your capacity for self-awareness, taking full responsibility for your life, practicing authenticity in your relationships, patiently learning to love the many parts of yourself that make you who you are, and learning to respond to life from the seat of your inner wisdom.