Individual Psychotherapy

You’re not weak.

In fact, discipline has always been one of your hallmark traits. Everyone has always commented on how tough you are.

You’re used to going it alone, and in a lot of your life, that’s really worked. You proudly identify as a perfectionist, and when left to your own devices, you put forth the effort to make sure that everything turns out perfect. So, you’ve learned to trust yourself and keep your own counsel.

There’s a part of you that doesn’t like the idea of asking someone else for help. You love being independent and doing things for yourself. Truth be told, most days, you’d rather struggle through something hard than ask for help.

But let’s face it: Being tough and disciplined hasn’t even put a dent in your problems.

But can a counselor really help?

I mean… you had a roommate in college that majored in psychology, and he was pretty weird. Do you really want to put your brain in the hands of one of those guys?

You’re in real pain right now, but you don’t want to waste your time with some quack who asks a lot of questions about your mother or what dreams you had last night.

Some of your friends say, “What do you have to lose?” And your answer is, “A lot!” Time, money, and what if you’re no better off at the end of things? Or what if your counselor stirs up a lot of feelings that makes everything worse.

Instead of viewing therapy as a failure, we encourage you to view it as a form of continuing education or leadership development.

Tough, disciplined people need therapy, too.

At Dallas Psychotherapy, we start with your goals at the forefront of therapy.

We spend the first session talking about your last session. We’re not the therapists who want to see you for 1,000 sessions. We want you back in the world, living your life to the fullest. So at the end of the first session with us, we give you a clear idea of our perception of the problem and talk about a plan to help you meet your goals. Everything revolves around you and your goals throughout therapy.

We won’t ask many extraneous questions about things that don’t matter… like that flying dream you keep having.

Some of the clients we’ve worked with have felt really frustrated when it seems like a counselor has their own agenda that has nothing to do with what the client wants. “Have you tried mindfulness?” or “You should read a book by…”

Our treatment is client-centered, meaning that you’re an integral part of the plan that we develop together, and we make sure that you’re on board with the plan.

A key part of the experience at Dallas Psychotherapy is that your counselor values your time, and as a result, we maximize our time by honing in on key issues that you want to work on. We start the process by really listening to you, not just waiting for you to stop talking so we can tell you what to do. When therapy works, it’s because we collaborate with our clients.

We help you identify your unique style of addressing the world.

If you want a cookie-cutter approach, you could go anywhere, but you came to us.

Working with a counselor at Dallas Psychotherapy means you want a counselor who will give you a personal touch with a unique treatment plan. Our job is to step into your shoes and know what works best for your life.

We have several tools at our disposal to help you get a better sense of your personal style, including both formal and informal assessments. Then we tailor everything in therapy to that style. Maybe you’re a busy professional and parent – then we work with the demands in your life to make sure treatment is reasonable because we know that having children and a career doesn’t always leave a lot of extra time.

Or perhaps, you’re in a high-stress leadership position. We will help you get a sense of your approach as a leader and make sure that your counseling plan fits your values. Ultimately, we view therapy as a success if you’re able to go out and live a life consistent with your values without our help.

We give you guided practice as you develop new problem-solving skills to face even your most difficult challenges.

One of the struggles that we often see with our clients is that they are trying to build something new in their lives, and they don’t have all the tools they need.

Imagine that you were going to remodel your bathroom, and I told you, “The only tool that you’re allowed to use is this hammer.” It wouldn’t go so well, right?

Similarly, if you don’t have many tools in your emotional life, it’s going to be hard to build something new. We have a variety of tools for your emotional, cognitive, and behavioral life. The tools we provide our clients range from visualization exercises to ways to apply the principles of logic to your thoughts to de-escalation techniques. And if one tool doesn’t work, you can come back to a session and tell us that. We’ll go digging through our toolbox until we find ones that do work for you.