Vicki Goodman

Message to clients

People come for therapy when they are hurting or feeling stuck in unproductive thinking and behavior. Therapy can be a refuge for you to work through conflict, unpack painful experiences, and ultimately gain more understanding of yourself. It is a way of discovering truth and layers of meaning together with someone who offers support, respect, and an unbiased perspective. We will take a collaborative approach to help you identify patterns of thoughts and behaviors that are creating personal challenges. It can be confusing when we find ourselves in situations that seem to make little sense or are preventing us from feeling content. Often these are automatic responses that feel familiar but no longer work for us. We will explore what causes your suffering and what can alleviate your suffering.

Mindfulness based psychotherapy emphasizes and cultivates the capacity to see clearly what is arising in any moment and greet experience with wisdom and utmost compassion. So often there is clinging to an idea of wanting things to be a certain way or avoid what hurts. In this way there is a tendency to add on to the suffering with judgments and self limiting beliefs. Mindfulness can allow for an understanding that transformation comes from changing our relationship to what's happening – rather than trying to change what's happening. In this therapeutic process you can courageously cultivate a willingness to be open to the ephemeral nature of experience with honesty, patience, compassion and lovingkindness. This involves letting go of preconceptions, filters, projections and tendency to not live fully. What is often needed is a safe environment to cultivate acceptance and the willingness to honestly explore the truth of what is unfolding within yourself and the uncertainties of life.