Individual therapy is about exploring life stressors and struggles that you may have been having.  It is looking at the symptoms that you have been experiencing related to these stressors.  We look at how you manage those symptoms and cope with the stressors in your life.  Coping skills as a whole become important to assess and develop because the things that we do in our lives to overcome, deal with, and work through our stress helps us vent those emotions that are building in our lives. 

What are coping skills?  Coping skills are those things that we do on a daily basis to help us get through our day and release, or process our emotions and stress.  This can be anything from getting up in the morning and getting ready for the day (our routines), to reading, writing, playing sports, exercising, and any hobbies or even prescription medications.

We may look at past trauma, family issues, difficulties in relationships, struggles with change, but whatever the issue is, we will focus on ways to help you work through them.  You may find that you already have a lot of coping skills in place and we will strengthen them and highlight them.  You may find that you have to add some more, we can explore that.  Or you may find that you have been utilizing a lot of negative coping skills (maybe drinking, drugs, fighting), which we will explore and try to find positive and healthy coping skills to replace the negative ones.