Approaches
What a Growth Model Actually Means
The medical model asks what is wrong with you. A growth model asks what is trying to develop in you. That difference shapes everything about how we work.
Approaches
Why I Left the Medical Model Behind
Early on I worked in a hospital psych department. I saw how insurance dictated how long someone could stay, and I realized quickly that was not how I wanted to work. Even when I was in graduate school, the medical model did not make sense to me.
Present Life Counseling is a private-pay practice, which means the length and shape of our work can follow what you need rather than an insurance company's limits.
Therapy as Adult Development
Development fascinates me: not only child development, but personal development, consciousness development, and the way whole societies grow and change. A growth model sees the struggles of adult life, like transitions, old patterns, and questions of identity, as part of that development rather than as illness.
This does not mean pain is not real or that suffering does not matter. It means we approach it with curiosity about where it is leading, not only how to make it stop.
What This Looks Like With Me
We look for the intelligence in your patterns, the capacities you already have, and the next step in your growth. The hope is not to become someone new, but to become more fully yourself.
Therapy is held online for adults located in Georgia, Ohio or Tennessee. A free 15-minute Connection Call is a gentle place to begin.
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A gentle first step
Start with a Connection Call.
A free 15-minute conversation to briefly connect, explore what kind of support you're looking for, and see whether working together feels like the right fit.