DALLAS PSYCHOTHERAPY CENTER |
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Dallas psychologist • individual psychotherapy • couples & marriage counseling • sexual issues • depression & anxiety • adults & adolescents |
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DALLAS THERAPY & PSYCHOTHERAPY TREATMENT OPTIONS
One of the unique aspects of Dallas Psychotherapy Center is its strong emphasis on individually customized therapy treatment, which may or may not include medication management. Rather than a Dallas counselor simply treating clients "by rote," the individual needs, wants, strengths and resources of each client are carefully considered. In the initial consultation, the client (or clients, in the case of Dallas couples counseling) meets with one of our four therapists. During this meeting, the individual's background, therapeutic concerns and goals, schedule availability and financial resources are discussed, and a treatment plan is agreed upon. This plan may consist of one or more of the treatment formats described below, including your meeting with a weight management coach or a sex therapist in Dallas.
The idea of the therapist as a cold and detached "expert" who has all of the answers is simply one of many common misconceptions regarding the therapeutic process. In actuality, the Robbins believe it essential to explore the client's ongoing reactions to, and ideas about, the treatment process, whether you're speaking to a Dallas therapist regarding depression issues or you're engaged in Dallas marriage counseling. Basic treatment options are as follows:
Typically, individual treatment involves seeing the therapist one to two times per week for a 50 minute session, although other schedules are not uncommon. Due to financial concerns, for example, some patients opt to see the therapist every other week. Similarly, some clients, who are interested in very intensive work, may come as often as four or five times weekly. Scheduling is determined by individual goals, personality style and financial resources. One of the main advantages to the individual treatment option is the way in which it facilitates a very intense personal relationship with the therapist. This allows the client to explore and play out interpersonal patterns that may influence other close relationships throughout his or her life, without the same complications that exist in friendships, family relationships, and other significant interpersonal relationships. In psychodynamic psychotherapy, this process is referred to as "transference," and is essential to the healing process.
Most relationships are imbalanced in certain areas, leading to recurring power struggles and arguments. Areas such as sexual frequency, financial matters and child-rearing are common conflict areas. It can be useful to explore these conflicts and imbalances with the aid of a relatively unbiased observer. Certain power struggles and cooperative dynamics may have become so habitual or automatic in an intimate relationship that the individuals within the relationship may have learned to simply "settle," accepting areas of chronic dissatisfaction within the relationship as "the way things are." The therapist draws the couple's attention to various patterns underlying stubborn conflicts without taking sides or laying blame. Since clients in couples counseling are encouraged to understand their individual issues as they relate to couple dynamics, supplemental individual therapy is sometimes suggested as a means to maximize and accelerate couples work. Dallas Psychotherapy Center openly welcomes both married and unmarried, heterosexual and same-sex couples.
Medication Evaluation and Management Many common issues are best treated with an approach integrating both counseling and medication. Some of these issues might include depression, anxiety, panic, sexual performance, ADHD and sleep difficulty. Dallas Psychotherapy Center works with each client to develop a customized approach, utilizing the most effective combination of medication and psychotherapy. For clients who are potentially interested in medication, a two part consultation process is recommended. First, the client meets with one of Dallas Psychotherapy Center's four therapist for an initial consultation and diagnostic evaluation. During this meeting, the therapist will screen the client for symptoms of depression, anxiety, sexual dysfunction and other issues which might benefit from medication as well as psychotherapy. The client's background, life experiences and medication history will also be examined, and the therapist will provide the client with a diagnosis. After discussing the client's treatment goals and resources, a customized treatment plan will be agreed upon. Second, the client will meet with Brad Musser, MD for a general health and psychiatric screen. This screen will evaluate a number of common problem areas including:
Combing this evaluation with the therapist's recommendation, Dr. Musser will prescribe the appropriate medication and, where needed, medical follow-up. Throughout this process, the psychotherapist and Dr. Musser work in tandem, offering the client a uniquely comprehensive, holistic treatment experience. To begin this process, contact us to schedule an initial consultation.
Group psychotherapy consists of a group of six to eight individuals meeting on a regular basis to discuss both private and group issues. Most commonly, the group meets once per week for an hour and a half, although twice weekly meetings are not uncommon. Group members are selected from a pool of Robbins Psychology Dallas clients and other referral sources to best match the diverse individual needs of all participants. The main advantage to group psychotherapy is its emphasis on multiple relationships with particular attention to how individual personality dynamics play out in a wide variety of situations. Whereas in individual therapy, the therapist is the primary object of transference, a diversity of transference issues and situations are likely to arise in reaction to different individuals within the group. This allows the client to receive multiple perspectives about the way others perceive him or her. Group therapy works well as the primary therapy treatment as well as in conjunction with individual psychotherapy. NOTE: At the time of this update (October 2007), there are no group openings. When new openings are available, they will be listed on this site.
As is the case with couples psychotherapy, individual issues often play out within the family, and family therapy can help address these issues. As with couples dynamics, certain roles within the family may have become so habitual or ingrained that the surrounding conflicts may be obscured. For example, a domineering father may fail to notice that this way of relating interferes with having close relationships with his children. Similarly, children may have learned manipulative, aggressive or self-devaluing behaviors in an attempt to fit in with certain family dynamics. As is the case with group and couples treatment, the therapist does not criticize, blame, or take sides in working with a family. Rather, the therapist helps the family, both individually and as a unit, become more aware of subtle dynamics that may be the source of persistent tensions and power struggles. Of particular importance is learning how such patterns were put into place and examining what hidden "rewards" accompany certain problematic behaviors. The adolescent who drinks or uses drugs to get his or her parents' attention, the father who works excessively long hours to avoid tension at home—these are but two common examples of conflicted individual behavior motivated by deeper disharmony within the family unit.
We offer counseling for children and adolescents of all ages. For younger children, our specialists utilize play therapy and other less formal methods to help the child feel comfortable. For older children, such as teens, the specialist utilizes more traditional "talk therapy," similar to the adult process. A number of issues are typically treated in therapy for children and adolescents. A few of these:
In working with children of any age, there is an integration of family issues. Sometimes the therapist may recommend a few family sessions. In general, child therapy views the family as a "system." Although the child as the "identified patient" may be expressing a specific symptom such as acting out at school, therapy seeks to uncover patterns at home or elsewhere that may be inadvertently motivating the child's problematic behaviors or feelings. Treatment that involves treating the family as a whole, in addition to addressing the child's specific issues, tends to be more effective toward long-term change. Contact us to schedule an appointment, or if you have questions.
In the cases of individual, couples, or family therapy, the emphasis may be either short- or long-term. (Group therapy tends to require a longer commitment in order to establish and maintain group coherence.) In short-term therapy, the therapist and client consider individual goals and needs and agree on an appropriate, relatively brief treatment duration (typically 6-12 weeks). This approach tends to work best when the client has specific, immediate, and relatively concrete issues to address in therapy. The client may be dealing with the death of a loved one, a career change, a recent divorce, or any other life situation which is relatively time-limited in its most acute effect. Similarly, the client may be suffering from a very specific phobia, performance anxiety, recurrent thought or other "compartmentalized" problem that disrupts particular aspects of daily life without significantly limiting his or life experience overall. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is particularly well-suited to short-term goals. As it is very goal-oriented and clearly structured, CBT tends to target and address problematic behaviors quickly. The more directive and active approach the therapist takes in CBT is better suited to certain personality types and issues, and is a practical option when finances are limited.
Longer-term treatments may be applied to individual, group, couples or family treatment options. Whereas short-term therapy tends to be very specific in its goals and structure, long-term therapy is less directive in its methods. In this approach, the therapist does not try to steer the client in any one specific direction so much as facilitate a spontaneous exploration of deeper personality issues. This allows the client to examine issues as they arise, without the constraints of a predetermined time table, while providing more opportunity to develop a close relationship with the therapist and establish consistent support.
Psychodynamic psychotherapy is particularly well-suited to more ambitious, or long-term goals. In this approach, emphasis is placed on early childhood experience and learning which influenced the development of particular adult beliefs and personality patterns. Although an individual may function quite successfully with a mature exterior, he or she may nonetheless suffer childish fears, insecurities and fantasies "below the surface." These more hidden aspects of the personality effect the individual's ability to fully experience adult feelings, sexuality, independence, self-reliance and virtually every other aspect of mature adult life. The ultimate goal of psychodynamic therapy is to unburden the individual of past conflicts which prohibit him or her from enjoying the integrated, spontaneous experience and expression of the core self.
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