What we do - the scope of our practice
We have many years' experience working with clients seeking counseling and psychotherapy for a variety of emotional, psychological and spiritual concerns.
Individual adults
We offer psychotherapy to individuals adults of all ages and lifestyle orientations. We have worked with children as young as three and adults as old as 84. Anxiety, depression and relationship issues are the main reasons people seek therapy.However, we also offer individual work for a host of other conditions from addictions, eating disorders, personality difficulties, recovery from abuse and trauma to stress management for life transitions, career and work, as well as self-esteem, personal growth and spirituality.
Michael Griffith specializes in men’s issues, particularly in the areas of identity, sexuality, intimacy, relationship and parenting. He also works with chronic pain and illness. A cross- specialization from his dental practice is the treatment of dental anxiety, phobia and TMD.
Frances Verrinder enjoys working with women in their 30s who are professionally successful and unhappily single. She also works with infertility, pregnancy loss, parenting and stepmothering, women’s mid-life issues, aging and grief. A significant percentage of her practice is men in their 40s.
Abbie Endres works with individuals, couples, and teens. She especially enjoys assisting men and women in their 20's, 30's, & 40's focusing on relationship, career, spiritual development, and body image issues.
Marjorie Chaset focuses on issues of transition and couples. Marjie offers groups on Transitions and Intimacy. See workshops page for more information.
Tracie Ruble works with individual adults and couples. She also enjoys working with career and job related issues, maintaining her links to the corporate world while interning with Michael.
Children and teenagers
All the members of our practice (except Tracie) work with children and teenagers. All our offices are equipped with play therapy equipment - toys, sand trays and art materials.We prefer to see children and teenagers with their families. However when appropriate we work with them individually. With kids up to the age of 12, we do artwork and play therapy, which facilitates identifying problems and expressing feelings. We also offer teenagers a helpful and independent connection with a caring and supportive adult to discuss life issues outside the family. When we see children and teenagers by themselves, we also see parents for a session once every 4 – 6 weeks.
Couples
All the members of our practice work with couples.We believe that happy, well-functioning couples are the fundamental basis of society. We work with couples of all kinds - straight, gay, lesbian and multi-cultural. We have worked with couples in all phases of relationship from the power struggle phase to the teamwork phase, from the commitment stage, to deciding to have a baby, infertility and pregnancy loss, sexuality, infidelity, separation, divorce, remarriage and stepfamily creation.
Most couples come to us for help after they have happily bonded in the honeymoon phase, a delicious phase where couples instinctively and unconsciously suppress their differences, disagreements and difficulties. Once they are well bonded, then the couple bring up all the differences and disagreements, which need to be understood, negotiated and accepted.
Instead, what usually happens in that the couple starts to fight, ”If you loved me you would do it my way...” and blame each other. We call this the “power struggle phase”. Dirty fighting can create its own difficulties and resentments, which can begin the downward spiral into distrust, contempt, despair and divorce.
We work with couples on
• communication and fair fighting skills
• developing mutual respect and good will
• deepening love, sex and romance, affection and playfulness
• dealing with family-of-origin issues
• creating the experience of deep, loving connection and mutually satisfying teamwork
We find that the great majority of couples work well with this approach and report happier and more pleasurable lives.
Families
Frances, Michael and Marjorie currently work with families.We offer family therapy for all kinds of families - single parent, two-parent, gay, lesbian, straight, multi-cultural and multi-generational.
Generally speaking, crises in families arise when there is a change in the family life cycle; for example, when children start school, when they become teenagers, leave home, or when there is a major change or loss due to illness, divorce, remarriage or death. In family therapy, we explore how to re-shape roles, behaviors, communications and relationships in a way that leads to a healthier and more resilient family system.
With families with children under 18, we work on
• self responsibility
• communication skills
• parental teamwork (where possible)
• solving family problems and conflicts
• parenting and stepparenting skills
• understanding and dealing with children’s normal developmental issues
• developing love, affectionate and playful connections among all family members
• developing extended family and community support
Individual adult clients often bring in an out-of-town visiting parent or sibling for one or more sessions. We have found that this is often very helpful for both parent and adult child in dealing with past difficulties and developing mutual love and understanding as adults.
Stepfamilies
Another of our specialties (Michael and Frances) is working with stepfamilies. We are Professional Affiliates of the Stepfamily Association of America and we are also the step/parents of two adult sons. We know from our own experience that stepfamilies need a very supportive and specialized approach.Stepfamily relationships can arouse the most primal feelings of hurt, exclusion, disappointment, anger and hatred. Parents often feel torn between their love for the new partner and their biological love for their children. Stepparents can easily feel rejected by their new mate and the stepchildren, who either withdraw or act out their divided loyalties and residual pain from the divorce. Resolving this “normal” stepfamily crisis is crucial for the new family unit’s success.
The new couple has two difficult psychological tasks. They have to engage in the normal developmental processes of couple-hood, which are constantly interrupted by the children and ex-partners. They also simultaneously have to undertake the long-term developmental project of connecting with the children, helping them recover from the divorce, and integrating themselves and the children into a new family group. It is not surprising that approximately 60 percent of remarried families with children subsequently divorce.
It is estimated that at least half the children in the United States will live in a stepfamily at some point in their formative years. We believe that it is crucial to help stepfamilies to develop into a stable, livable and workable family group. Ideally, the kids can be part of two well functioning households with a variety of supportive, loving, nurturing adults, with different skills, opinions and values.