The most important factors of psychotherapy, based on research and consistent with my education, training and experience, are kindness, ethics, knowledge and skill. Together, they form the basis of an active, productive therapeutic alliance. That alliance forms our relationship, and is most often the key to successful psychotherapy.

I do my best to put into practice those actions, attitudes, and contingencies that demonstrate in your therapy the kindness, ethics, knowledge, and skill that will be helpful.

Kindness in psychotherapy is difficult to develop because it must come from the heart as well as the mind, and determining what is kind and what is not, is not as simple as it might sound. We can be made kinder by understanding our own lives, and by appreciating the diversity of experience and the trials of other people’s lives, that is, empathy. Experience, compassion and support from others can also make us kinder. Having been treated with kindness helps, too.

My professional ethics represent the collective wisdom of the American Psychological Association. Navigating morality and ethics, which are by law always subordinate to state and federal statutes, I try to collaborate with you to do the right thing. You can rely on my discretion and adherence to confidentiality to guard your private experiences, and my fully disclosing any information that you might need, such as the legal limits of confidentiality.

Knowledge is, oddly, the easiest necessity to acquire. Most professionals read lots of books and journal articles, and listen to all sorts of expert lectures. Still, there is a lot to know and no one can know it all. We need to know what we know and what we don’t, and refer to other experts when we don’t.

Decades of training, experience, and practice in applying kindness, ethics and knowledge have developed a level of skill upon which you may rely.

I believe in the collaborative process, that we are working together to achieve your goals. If you have any question about that, I want you to ask and express your feelings and perceptions. I welcome your questions, feelings and perceptions. To me, that is an essential part of kindness, ethics, knowledge and skill. It is putting these elements into our work that gives your psychotherapy treatment the best chance for an excellent outcome.