LONG Description
Loneliness is a trickster. It can disguise itself as depression or anxiety. It can get us to sabotage our relationships and jobs, make unwise decisions, neglect our health and safety, turn to substances or food, choose isolation, lose faith in the future. It can decimate our self-esteem, without which we cannot give to others...and then we're caught in a vicious circle. Sheltering in Place and Social Distancing doesn't help matters. Maybe once it was loss, maybe it was grief. Maybe it was trauma, maybe it was betrayal. Maybe it was being at the top. Maybe it was illness, maybe it was misfortune. Maybe it was being different, maybe it was oppression. Maybe it was distance, maybe it was age. But now, maybe it's loneliness. And who wants to admit to that? Owning loneliness may be the last taboo. Coming out of the loneliness closet can feel like a big risk when you want everyone, including yourself, to think you're doing just fine. This in spite of the fact that loneliness was an increasingly common condition even before we all became impacted by COVID-19. You deserve to feel lovable, valued, attached...close. To know that you matter, that the world wants what you have to give. That someone knows the real you, that your life has dignity, purpose, meaning. It's your birthright. As humans, we're wired to genuinely connect with each other. You can outwit the trickster, you can get loneliness to turn you loose. Just give yourself permission to look at what loneliness is trying to tell you and be willing to do some work. Research confirms my experience about what makes therapy effective and satisfying for both client and therapist: it's the "fit" between the two. For that reason, I curate my clientele, and I encourage you to shop around. When you first call, we'll conduct an extended phone screen free of charge. If we both think we have a potential fit, I'll email my Informed Consent documents for your review, and we'll meet via video conferencing for an intake session. During that conversation, if either of us feels the fit is not optimal, the intake session is also free; if we both think we're a good fit, we move forward. For the foreseeable future I'll be alternating weekly video sessions with weekly telephone sessions, and conducting no office sessions. This framework is designed to provide optimum opportunities for internal reflection (phone) and interpersonal exchange (video) while keeping us all safe. I've been helping high-functioning people stay that way since 1989. From 2007 to 2017, it was a wide variety of good people (nationalities, races, generations) in a wide variety of places (outside the bubbles of both NorCal and the USA) who were facing a wide variety of challenges (deployment to war, for instance, with all the loneliness and risk that entails). Maybe, just maybe, it's loneliness. If you'd like to talk about it all, please call. I'm ready when you are.