About DRSPEI.COM

We are like a kaleidoscope of experiences. They are so diverse that they cannot fit easily into a single picture like an identity or static self presentation. As we are pulled into multiple directions, in order to maintain a sense of internal coherence, we may tunnel our visual field to focus on a segment of our internal experience, sometimes on the dullest part and sometimes on the most exciting one. Then, this invested part of our self carries an absolute value, whether negative or positive, sometimes claims perfection or promises omnipotence. As a result, it may interfere with our self awareness and mindfulness, internal integration and flexibility, and relationships with ourselves and the world around us. For the shake of internal unity, we sometimes shrink and mutilate our internal world, miss and disown important parts of ourselves that do not fit in, while other times we get haunted by one memory, one emotion, one thought, one behavior that represents the leftovers of ourselves. We find security in attaching to a familiar self image (a solid, hard, fossilized object), an identity that we invest with survival value. Yet, we often pay high price, as all the left over unwanted self parts pressure for representation against our conscious will, for instance, sometimes, through symptoms or unexpected and even self sabotaging actions.

In the above context, symptoms are dream like condensed states of mind that allow some representation of our diverse experience beyond our conscious restraints, especially what feels impossible to include into our invested identity. Psychological and emotional problems often originate from our limited capacity to maintain an inclusive, adaptive, and flexible concept of ourselves as well as from desperate efforts to deny internal complexity while hiding behind rigid identities. 

Relief from distressing experiences and symptoms requires: our active efforts to acknowledge  and accept the multiplicity of our internal experience; to employ our creativity in trying to put together pieces that do not easily fit with each other, while we are grounded on our needs; to redefine  states of confusion and cognitive overload into genuine curiosity and hope for learning something new about ourselves; and to re-frame our emotional pain as a signal, a distress call, a request to pay attention to our neglected  and unwanted self parts. 

In general,  psychotherapy aims at fostering:

- a safe interpersonal space, a collaborative and non-judgmental therapeutic relationship, within which problem solving, decision making, and simulation of action taking towards management of needs can occur 

- awareness of multiple needs and acceptance of internal limits and external restraints that are not in our hands in order to optimize and prioritize needs

- openness towards and acceptance of the multiplicity of our internal experience including less favorable self parts

- unconditional commitment to our well-being, self regard, gratitude, and empathy towards current but also earlier versions of ourselves

I am initially trained psycho-dynamically but I grew to appreciate integration of several interventions in my practice, taking into consideration our body mind relationship, the inter-relationships among patterns of behaviors and actions, emotional states, and thinking patterns. 

In my practice, I draw interventions from multiple theoretical frameworks (i.e. Cognitive Behavional Therapy, Mindfulness, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Remediation, Exposure Trauma Therapy, EMDR, Reality Therapy, Motivational Interviewing etc) and use them to foster therapeutic processes within a non judgmental and collaborative therapeutic relationship.