Being trained in the use of both psychotherapy and hypnotherapy enables me to address client issues from a variety of therapeutic approaches, which I tailor to meet the specific needs of each client. Here is a listing of those approaches:
Psychodynamic Approach
Some clients require some insight into the reasons they feel a certain way or do certain things, which tend to cause problems in their lives, in order to make desired changes. Through a series of questions about their history and both past and present interactions with others, I help them to become aware of their current choices and the potential reasons for making them and then offer them to consider more effective and/or healthier alternative means for reaching their objectives. Why we feel a certain way or act a certain way in our current relationship is usually rooted in experiences from our family of origin. Once we become conscious of how these old patterns interfere with or complicate our current relationships, we can begin to make new choices. In many cases, behaviors that were essential to our survival, or otherwise worked for us in the past, no longer serve us. For most clients, the ability to change requires both insight and allowing themselves to experience the feelings which surface with it.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy ("CBT")
Depending upon the presenting issue or type of client, some may benefit more from a cognitive approach. When clients come to understand a link between their automatic thoughts, their core beliefs about themselves, and their corresponding behaviors and how, by changing their thoughts they can influence their outcomes, they discover a formula that allows them to successfully challenge the negative or irrational thinking that leads to their unwanted actions. Often I will ask these clients to do post-session assignments to aid in deepening or anchoring their understanding of these cognitive processes.
Family Systems Approach
Clients who suffer from troubled relationships frequently benefit from some education about the family system and how family dynamics contribute to supporting or upsetting the fragile balance of that system - depending upon how connected members are in relation to one another. It often helps for such clients to learn about some general birth order characteristics and the developmental stages that individuals and families go through, so that they can better appreciate and anticipate the particular challenges presented by each such stage.
(Therapeutic Approaches are continued on the next page)
Marc R. Bertone, MA, JD, MFT
4010 Barranca Parkway, Suite 252, Irvine, CA. 92604
(949) 683-0412
marcbertone@me.com
