THERAPEUTIC APPROACH
I approach my work from a strengths-based perspective, focusing on helping clients to access their innate strengths as they progressively gain more insight on how their past experiences, family-of-origin dynamics, and personal challenges might inform and influence the decisions they make today in their relationships and approach to life. My style is interactive, client-centered, and compassionate, and I often incorporate a solution-focused approach through the use of cognitive-behavioral techniques.
In my work with children/adolescents and families, I view parents and
primary caregivers as valuable and indispensable partners in the therapeutic process. Whenever clinically-appropriate and possible, I invite parents and primary caregivers to participate through “check-ins” at the beginning of sessions so that I may more accurately target issues of importance and concern from both the parents’/caregivers’ and child’s perspective. With older pre-teens and adolescent-aged clients, I continue to emphasize the importance of parental input and feedback, but am careful to elicit this in a manner that maintains the confidentiality and sense of trust built with the young client, within clinically-appropriate limits. One of my goals is to strengthen and bridge communication between caregivers and their children so that the young clients are able to develop the insight and skills to express,
or improve their ability to express directly and constructively to their parents and/or other caregivers, any difficult feelings and concerns they may have.
ASSOCIATE CONTENT ARTICLE
"How to Cope With a Parent’s Substance Abuse"
Interview with Psychologist Loriene Honda