Marriage Therapy
Emotional Focused Couples Therapy works with the concept that people are made healthier by emotional contact and need to feel safe in their connections to others. When intimate partners are not able to meet each other’s emotional needs, they may become stuck in negative patterns of interaction driven by ineffective attempts to get each other to understand their emotions and related needs.
Emotionally focused therapy can help people address attachment-related insecurities and learn how to interact with their romantic partners in more loving, responsive, and emotionally connected ways, which will result in a more secure attachment.
Don’t wait! Many coupes have enhanced and enriched their connections by reaching out and going through this wonderful process.
Family:
The theory of Family Systems is that it is the nature of a family that its members are intensely connected emotionally. Often people feel distant or disconnected from their families, but this is more feeling than fact. Family members so profoundly affect each other’s thoughts, feelings, and actions that it often seems as if people are living under the same “emotional skin.” People solicit each other’s attention, approval, and support and react to each other’s needs, expectations, and distress. The connectedness and reactivity make the functioning of family members interdependent. A change in one person’s functioning is predictably followed by reciprocal changes in the functioning of others. Families differ somewhat in the degree of interdependence, but it is always present to some degree.
When family members get anxious, the anxiety can escalate by spreading infectiously among them. As anxiety goes up, the emotional connectedness of family members becomes more stressful than comforting. Eventually, one or more members feel overwhelmed, isolated, or out of control.
In short, when one person in the family is exhibiting symptoms of anxiety, behavioral or social issues, mood disorders, etc; addressing and working with the family unit can profoundly impact the struggling individual as well as the entire family. Working with the family does not mean that the entire family is required to come in for therapy. Most often working with only the parents, or even one parent can help make a huge difference in the family.
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a blend of two therapies: cognitive therapy and behavioral therapy. Cognitive therapy focuses on a person’s thoughts and beliefs, and how they influence a person’s mood and actions, and aims to change a person’s thinking to be more adaptive and healthy. Behavioral therapy focuses on a person’s actions and aims to change unhealthy behavior patterns.
CBT helps a person focus on his or her current problems and how to solve them. Both patient and therapist need to be actively involved in this process. The therapist helps the patient learn how to identify distorted or unhelpful thinking patterns, recognize and change inaccurate beliefs, relate to others in more positive ways, and change behaviors accordingly.
CBT can be applied and adapted to treat many specific mental disorders.
Pinny has had extensive experience working with clients who have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Depression, Low Self Esteem, and Behavioral problems. He has had remarkable success in treating hundreds of clients who have exhibited symptoms from mild to severe.
In more severe circumstances it may be helpful or necessary to do therapy outside the therapists office. Pinny does offer such services and has had much success doing this.
Adolescence
Adolescence is a time of opportunity and growth – a time when young people explore their identities and roles. Through this process of experimentation, learning and development, young people lay down the foundations for physical, psychological and social maturity.
Adolescence is, above all, a period replete with significant life changes and emotional upheaval. Entering puberty and making it through high school can be stressful times for young people. For some, this period of transition can lead to emotional and/or behavioural problems and difficulties with school or other areas of life. Often the pressures of adolescents can lead to social pressures which can lead to troublesome behaviors.
Young people’s ability to cope with and enjoy life and its challenges is strongly linked to their mental health and their overall sense of well-being. If they have mental health difficulties in their formative years, the effects on their ability to function may last for the rest of their lives. Risk factors make it more likely that individuals will experience poor overall adjustment or negative outcomes such as mental health or substance use problems. Risk factors may include biological, psychological or social factors in the individual, family and environment.
Pinny has worked with hundreds of adolescents in navigating their journey and weathering the storm of these tumultuous years. He has helped them set a solid foundation for a very bright future.