For the Greeks, Psykhe was the Goddess of the Soul or “Breath of Life.”  In modern times Psykhe symbolizes self-analysis and personal growth through learning and sacrificing, ultimately leading to profound transformation. The soul, in Greek understanding, wasn’t just about spirit, it was the energy and breath required to motivate a person through life.

A psychologist is a seeker; one who seeks to help a person understand all of the things that factor into who they are and who they wish to be. In this sense I consider myself to be a theoretical orientation nomad.

A clinician’s theoretical orientation (cognitive behavioral, psychodynamic, narrative, psychoanalytic, integral etc) is the “lens” they use to conceptualize therapy. In other words, it’s the philosophy that guides their practice; the glasses they see through. These categories of theoretical orientations are broad and contain many different techniques and types of therapies. I choose a multimodal and eclectic approach to psychology. I will use different therapeutic approaches and modalities based on their effectiveness in resolving my client’s problems, rather than focusing on the traditionally ascribed theory behind each therapeutic orientation.

Psychology was created as a way of studying and understanding all the things that go into determining the foundation, direction, and quality of a person’s life.

I practice psychology from the same traditional foundation as the ancient Greeks who created it; as a holistic and interconnected field that follows along the guidelines of Hippocrates’ idea of what medicine should be: an understanding that emphasizes environmental causes and natural treatments of diseases, the causes and therapeutic importance of psychological factors, nutrition and lifestyle, independence of mind, body and spirit, and the need for harmony between the individual, the societal, and the natural environment.

What Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, knew over 2400 years ago, has been long proven to be true and crucial to understanding our complete health as people. Hippocrates understood that people’s health (mental, physical, and spiritual) were the result of an entire environment of different factors – internal, external, societal, historical, current, and even future – not just a sum various symptoms.

For some, this all may sound very different from what you have come to understand psychology to be, but it’s actually closest to the true origins of the profession. This holistic viewpoint allows for a well-rounded view of the reality and complexity of people’s lives and all the aspects that can create a plethora of illnesses that affect the mind and the body.