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​PSYCHOTHERAPY
FOR CHILDREN, ADOLESCENTS
& ADULTS

What is Psychotherapy?

The goal of psychotherapy is life lived not in reaction to things, but with intention, purpose, and direction. With good psychotherapy, more energy can be freed up to be curious, autonomous, honest, tolerant, passionate, creative, and capable of intimacy, of work, and of relaxing recreation. That is invaluable and the best gift you can give yourself.

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Psychotherapy is also freedom from inner chatter that is negative, self-defeating, and hypercritical. The task is to develop an inner voice that is a friend and a guide for you, helping you find and maintain the critical balance between love, work, and play.

Children

When children are having trouble psychologically, they can behave in the following ways:

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  • Fighting, anger and temper tantrums.

  • “Regression” or reverting to a behavior such as bed-wetting or fear of the dark that they had already mastered.

  • Crying, withdrawal, sadness.

  • Difficulties paying attention.

  • Obsessional behaviors – checking things, repetitive movements.

  • Social problems, lack of friends, overwhelming shyness.

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Expatriation can be difficult for children in ways that they can’t easily express. Psychotherapists use play therapy in working with children, using games and toys to gain insight into a child’s inner world. Through play therapy, a trained psychotherapist can interpret a child’s struggles and help him or her to work through situations that are painful and overwhelming.

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It’s also important that parents participate in and understand their child’s psychotherapy process. I prefer to meet with parents either before meeting the child, or soon afterward, to hear their experience and history, and help them to better accompany their child's progression in treatment. This often brings families closer together, offering them a better appreciation of their shared story and its impact on each member.

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Because of the nature of child psychotherapy, this work is done in the office on-site, unless circumstances make this impossible. Contact me for more information.

Adolescents

Adolescents have a difficult “job” psychologically speaking. They must learn to be separate, whole individuals without their parents, while dealing with chaotic biological and (therefore) psychical upheavals that can make them feel and behave, at times, outrageously.

Adolescents can seem, justifiably, both extremely competent and woefully immature. These years are tremendously important to their future well-being as adults. Feeling mature, confident and competent are essential to teenagers. Changing schools and languages – even if one has been on the move before- is particularly traumatic at this age.

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This is why adolescents are very vulnerable psychologically, whether they come for psychotherapy or not. They need to feel they possess resources to do things themselves, but they are also easily overwhelmed by the intensity of their feelings, which can cause them to act impulsively, or paradoxically, seek to over-control themselves

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  • Fighting, anger and arguments.

  • Low self-esteem and self-confidence.

  • Disinterest in activities that they formerly loved.

  • Crying, withdrawal, lack of friends.

  • Difficulties paying attention, school difficulties.

  • Obsessional behaviors – checking things, repetitive movements.

  • Losing or gaining weight, seeming overconcerned by food, eating, and weight issues.

  • Sleep issues – strange hours, not sleeping enough, sleeping a lot. (Some of this is part of the biological turmoil of adolescence…!)

  • Suspicious behavior regarding alcohol or drug consumption (evasiveness, sleepiness, absenteeism or truancy)

  • Overuse of a screen – video games/messaging for long periods of time.

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Adolescents in psychotherapy learn to better understand themselves and their reactions to painful situations. Understanding goes a long way towards experiencing more compassion for one’s self and boosting discernment rather than acting out, which in turn helps in feeling resourceful and competent.

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Parental involvement in these sessions is more limited than for sessions with children. Most teens agree to have parental sessions where I explain the therapy process, or to hear more about the child’s home life. However, adolescents need a lot of privacy, and the success of their psychotherapy depends on how well they trust their psychotherapist.

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Adults

People come to psychotherapy for many reasons, but all of them have to do with suffering. Whether you’re suffering from feelings of sadness, melancholy, or anxiety, or if you’re frustrated with overeating, procrastination, or relationship issues, psychotherapy can help you to gain some clarity about your situation. Most people should have therapy at some point; we all suffer simply because life isn’t easy.

Insight oriented, psychodynamic psychotherapy aims to help you understand your “symptom” (sadness, etc.) not as something to be rid of, like a tumor, but as a sign that something in your life isn’t working. If you have noticed repetition in the ways you behave (always dating the same sort of people, or always overeating at night) or feel happy at work, sad at home, then most likely there is something occurring for you psychologically that may not be easy to identify. Just because we desire change doesn’t make it easy to change.

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When we engage in repetitive patterns of thinking, feeling or behaving, there is a reason for this – a “logical” reason psychologically speaking, though this reason isn’t “logical” to our conscious minds. Why not simply eat less? Why not date better people? Why not just stop constantly worrying?

What we discover in insight-oriented psychotherapy is that you have very good reasons for the repetition. Oftentimes, these reasons began in childhood or adolescence, and continue to exert their pressure today. Once you become conscious of the subtle influences that affect your mood or behavior in daily life, it becomes easier to tolerate not repeating those things that are fundamentally hurtful. Psychological energy can be freed up for creative endeavors and more authentic relationships.  

  • Types of Psychotherapy
    There are two main forms of psychotherapy today (I am generalizing for simplicity’s sake): Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and its derivatives (Solution-focused therapies, Acceptance-Commitment Therapy, etc.) and Psychoanalytic/psychodynamic/interpersonal psychotherapies. CBT and comparable therapies are often called “evidence-based” treatment. They focus on short-term goals and concrete solutions. It provides people with a plan to get from point ‘A’ to point ‘B.’ The treatment offers techniques, and a plan, to create change rapidly through following a therapist’s instructions. Because this can be achieved in several sessions (generally ten or less) with simple tools and exercises, it has become very popular with insurance providers - which consider it a “gold standard” in the treatment of depression, anxiety, and addictions. It requires compliance with the therapist’s plan of treatment. However, this simple model of treatment has met with complicated results - unsurprisingly - since people are complicated. CBT and its derivatives have been proven to function less well over time - because like any system/protocol/tool - something that comes from outside of us tends to no longer hold. We simply get tired of it - like a diet, or a new workout. https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-heart-of-addiction/201907/the-fallacy-in-evidence-based-treatment
  • What is Resistance?
    What CBT etc. doesn’t consider is our own personal resistance to change. We all know what we “should” do, and how we would like to feel. But we get in our own way, repeatedly, and fail to sustain change. This is because our so-called “unreasonable” beliefs, moods, habits, etc. ... all make sense at another level. We cling to them for reasons that we can’t immediately see. The therapeutic plan (to get from A to B…) will inevitably hit the brick wall of our own resistance. We can begin another plan, but until we know what we are holding on to - and why - at a deeper level, the repetition will continue. In our minds, our past story and our present functioning our unavoidably and intimately entwined. The idea of analytic therapy is not to visit the past for its own sake, but to free us from old patterns that no longer serve their purpose today.
  • Why I don’t practice “Evidence Based” psychotherapy treatment
    This decision has come through many years of training and psychotherapy in both models and has boiled down to a personal decision based on what I feel is ethical and stands the test of time. Although I sometimes use “techniques” or “tools” from the CBT model, I believe that enduring results from treatment come from a psychoanalytic/psychodynamic model. Here is why. I want people to feel better quickly, but I want them to experience long-lasting results that come from them- not from any tools or plan which require adherence. The more subjective the work, the more one understands one’s own mind and history, the more one can become more authentically oneself. The more authentic you are, the clearer you will feel in your desires, decision-making, and relationships. My training has allowed me to listen deeply to you, rather than give you tools. Over time, you learn what works for you, and create your own set of “tools” such as they are. You will acquire the ability to truly “hear” beyond any symptom, mood, or complaint to something more essential and salient. This is the work I wish to provide for those who seek treatment.
  • Here is a video explaining (from a therapist’s and patient’s point of view) the experience of psychodynamic therapy vs. CBT
  • Articles - For more information on the differences in treatment modalities
    https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2010-02208-012 https://tavistockandportman.nhs.uk/research/research-projects/tavistock-adult-depression-study/ The above link provides access to additional scholarly and scientific articles, should you wish to explore further.
  • Fees
    Because each person has a different situation, I prefer to not put my fees on the internet. The session fees in Nantes can range from 40€ to 80€. Fees can also be adapted should someone choose psychoanalysis rather than once-weekly psychotherapy. The fees can be partially reimbursed through your private insurance, or “mutuelle.” This is not to be confused with the French Social Security System, where only doctors and paramedical practitioners (physiotherapists, nurses) can be completely reimbursed. Note that only mental health clinicians with an ADELI number (a French health-care system number) can be reimbursed through your insurance.
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