How Therapy Works: Our Process
The Therapy Process: What to Expect
Understanding what to expect in therapy starts with our three foundational principles.
Together, these building blocks create a framework for lasting change, empowering you to evolve, grow, and thrive in all aspects of life. This proven therapy process offers a roadmap to a brighter, more fulfilling future.
INSIGHT, INTEGRATION & INSPIRATION
Insight: Beginning Your Therapy Journey
One of the key benefits of therapy is gaining clarity about what's truly happening in your life.
This can be challenging because when we're struggling, our perceptions and reactions often stem from past pain rather than current reality. This misalignment can lead to unhappiness and feelings of helplessness.
At our therapy offices in San Rafael, Santa Rosa, and Petaluma, California, we help clients become aware of how past experiences and current perceptions impact their lives. By understanding these influences, they can make choices and changes that align with their true reality.
While many therapies focus solely on behavioral changes, our approach also emphasizes understanding the origins of clients' feelings and behaviors. This insight allows clients to make and sustain meaningful changes in their lives.
Integration: Deepening the Therapeutic Process
Insight alone isn't enough to sustain change. Our patterns and responses have been crucial for our survival. While insight is the foundation for change, integration is what solidifies new patterns.
To sustain changes, we must integrate new understandings into our core sense of self. This integration varies for each individual, with no single method fitting all.
When we bring compassionate inquiry into our conversations, clients often report feeling truly seen and heard. This is one of the most powerful benefits of therapy, often transforming how they experience themselves and others, leading to greater well-being and self-acceptance.
As integration progresses, we work together to stay present and aware of what is happening, bringing our deepest feelings and reactions to the surface. Compassion and active presence are essential for emotional expression, and we incorporate these qualities into our work.
Inspiration: Experiencing Therapeutic Growth
Understanding how therapy works leads to this final transformative stage. When clients gain insight into their feelings, actions, and reactions and integrate this understanding compassionately and non-judgmentally, they often experience new inspiration and energy. This can lead to increased spontaneity and excitement, enabling decisions from a place of freedom and possibility.
We observe clients both at our Bay Area therapy practice and in virtual counseling coming alive as they apply fresh perspectives and self-compassion to their lives. Inspiration also emerges as we improve how we respond to old patterns and dynamics. Both clients and we are often moved by the motivating effects of our work together.
While therapists are often stereotyped as distant and unemotional, we bring our full selves into the room, being emotionally available and present. Embracing the full spectrum of human emotions, we are touched by the depth of clients' feelings. Inspiration frequently arises from insight and integration, and we encourage clients to be open to these profound moments in therapy.
