Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom.
--Victor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
Psychotherapy
Uncover, discover, discard and replace
The primary goals of psychotherapy are to understand yourself better, to identify and alleviate emotional pain and suffering, to generate more appropriate responses and coping mechanisms, to define your priorities and set goals for creating the life you want.
In psychotherapy, you have the opportunity to get to know yourself on a deeper level, to stop running on auto-pilot and uncover some of the behaviors, attitudes and emotions that keep you from living your fullest life.
This may mean solving a current problem with new coping strategies, or it may entail resolving confusion or pain around past experiences in order to move forward with new beliefs about yourself into the life you want.
Tara believes that human beings are born with an innate predisposition toward wholeness, connection and wellness. That tendency consists of health and vitality in the physical, mental, spiritual and psychological aspects of each person and the ability to enjoy loving, supportive relationships with family and friends.
Negative or traumatic experiences can impede that tendency and create maladaptive responses including depression, anxiety, addictions, low self-worth, anger issues, relationship problems and isolation. Often times people can’t quite put their finger on the exact nature of their discomfort; they just know something isn’t right.
Tara provides warmth, acceptance, open-mindedness, involvement and a safe, comfortable environment where her clients can conduct honest and thorough discovery of their personal obstacles. Through this process, her clients begin to put their behavior, emotions, needs and perceptions into perspective. They can discard that which no longer suits them or their relationships and continue their journey toward peace, wholeness, connection and growth.
Dolendi modus, timendi non item.
(To suffering there is a limit; to fearing, none.)
--Bacon
Addiction and recovery Counseling
Tara McKinney provides support and counseling to individuals battling with addiction and recovery and can help her clients identify and repair the damage the addiction has caused. Tara uses motivational interviewing techniques to help her clients work through their ambivalence about recovery. Their addiction has become their best and often times only coping mechanism and it is a frightening concept for people battling addiction to try something different. Tara helps individuals work through their fears and teaches new coping strategies for people in recovery.
In recovery, people must create a new kind of life for themselves and address emotional, physical, relational and behavioral needs in a new way. Tara believes that creating lifestyle balance is a necessary component of recovery and that changes in social support, exercise, meditation and other stress relieving activities can support and encourage abstinence. Tara offers an expanded set of skills for recovery and facilitates relapse prevention counseling and education, behavior rehearsal and cognitive restructuring.
Often times it is helpful for family members and loved ones to be involved in addiction counseling because it affects the whole family in powerful ways. It is important to educate families and loved ones, dispel myths about addiction and codependency and to arm families with more useful behaviors and tools so that they can support their loved ones’ recovery in a way that works.
Tara can also support families of individuals who are not yet ready for treatment and provide intervention strategies that don’t shame their loved ones or continue to enable the addiction.
The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.
--Albert Einstein
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