Unlock Your Heart
as

Individuals, Families, Parents, Teens

Through Therapy in Livingston

I help teenagers find their path in life.

Your child is suffering.

You know it. It might have turned inward – into doubt, sadness and isolation. It might have turned outward – into anger, disrespect and fighting.

Either way, it’s a wall between you and your child.

They tell you everything is fine, that you don’t understand, that it’s none of your business. But you understand that it isn’t fine.

And it is your business. You’re their parent.

It’s easy to worry.

If your teenager is going out, do you really know their friends? You don’t know what they’re doing. You know that there is pressure out there to do things with real consequences.

If your teenager stays in their room, pulling away from everyone, that’s just as worrying. Isolation has risks, too.

Parents – you want to help.

But you don’t know what to do. Trying to help makes them pull away more. You’ve looked for answers from others and online, and it hasn’t worked. They’re still suffering.

Don’t let it stay this way.

Set aside the worst-case scenarios for a moment: drug addiction, committing or being the victim of crimes, teen pregnancy, suicide.

Even if none of those happen, your child is still suffering, and that could last for years, well past the teenage years. Add in those worst-case possibilities, and now isn’t the time to just wait and hope.

No one has a seriously sick child and thinks, “I’ll just learn to be a doctor with advice from friends and online research and take care of it myself.”

If it’s serious, you get an expert who can help. This is serious.

Therapy is about strength.

We will talk about the struggle, with compassion and understanding. But we will not talk as if that struggle is due to some deep-seated personal flaw, because it isn’t.

Instead, we will go underneath the struggle, and find the strength and wisdom that it was hiding.

You know your child has a good heart. Therapy with me is about their heart.

Change can happen quickly.

The challenge to helping your child is to break past the outer layer of struggle and suffering that is keeping that heart locked up. However, this is a lot like finding the key that fits a lock – it seems impossible as you try one key after the next.

Once you find the right key, it’s amazing how easily the door opens.

It may take Family Therapy to help them thrive.

Teenagers are moving toward independence as adults. A lot of times, that comes out in the form of pushing away parents and other family members… but family is still a source of guidance and strength for teens, even the ones that are pushing away. In this time of uncertainty, teens need that support more than they may realize.

The secret is knowing how to offer help and support in a way that is in harmony with the teenage mindset. That’s where family therapy comes in – it is a place to come together to work on how best to support each other. You have the desire to support your child; I can give you guidance on how to turn that desire into actions that help them to grow.

Individual Therapy can be a joyful process.

People come into therapy with problems. But choosing therapy is taking the first step in the path to overcome those problems. Each person comes to therapy with the potential to excel in life. Through my special training, I know how to reflect back to people in a way that reveals that potential and how to unlock it.

One-on-one, we will find your path. That means getting a clear understanding of what drives you, what your unique strengths are, and how to use your current situation to fuel a transformation towards who and where you want to be in life.

Once you’ve done that, therapy isn’t about a struggle you couldn’t get past anymore. It’s a journey of self-discovery and growth. It’s about embracing the good in life and not being defined by the bad.

More About me

Hi, I’m David.

It’s that moment – when a heart unlocks, and a person sees clearly their way forward – that makes my work rewarding. It takes a certain sort of counselor to work well with teenagers – and their families. Someone who can be compassionate with teen’s struggles, patient with their hesitation, and willing to share a heart full of wonder and joy, to help them reclaim those feelings that are all too often lost in the move from childhood.

Working with teenagers and their families is a calling to me. A lot of teenagers spend too many years caught up in powerful, painful emotions that hold them back. Helping children as they become adults to enter adulthood with confidence and joy isn’t just a job to me. It’s a calling.

If your child is suffering, you don’t need to figure it out alone. I am a call away.

The work I do lends itself to parents, family – and, yes, individuals – who may have issues which also need addressing. No one should suffer alone – let’s come together to honor your struggle, and find your way through it.