About Psychotherapy
with Dr. Michael Damian
I offer psychodynamic therapy that treats problems at their root and creates life-changing results.
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Each time I speak with a new patient, it is with the confidence of having helped hundreds of people to significantly improve their lives and relationships. I am honored to do this work and it is my life's calling.
My clinical knowledge is joined with laser-sharp perception into personality structure and the next steps needed for growth. I have a high rate of success helping people find relief, understand themselves and live a more empowered life.
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Love.
Success. Empowerment.
Spiritual growth
and connection.
This is transformative depth psychotherapy.
If you are new to therapy or have been frustrated with therapy in the past, then I welcome you to a highly transformative and practical approach.
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Most of my patients experience major breakthroughs and significant healing. My passion is helping people solve problems and transform their lives in the process. I have broad experience assessing complex issues and helping people get through a crisis.
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My style is warm, engaging, and incisive. I bring a combination of clinical knowledge, humanistic wisdom and pragmatic problem-solving that is highly effective for most patients.
In our sessions you will encounter someone who listens deeply, asks powerful questions, is able to rapidly understand your situation, and accurately diagnose complex problems.
I've helped many people to profoundly transform their lives and I'll be honored to help you too.
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The first step is for you to send an email or call me, so that we can have a brief phone call to assess your needs and whether I can help you.
The Hero's Journey
This is a film about healing and self-actualization that many of my patients have found enriching. Healing is a process of becoming conscious of who we really are, learning to give and receive love, and finding the sacred within the ordinary.
What is depth psychotherapy?
I understand you'd like something to change in your life. I can help you shift your unconscious patterns and grow into a broader vision of who you are and what your life can be.
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Problems ask us to become conscious
Every problem we face in life is asking us to become more conscious. Perhaps you're being asked to discover who you really are and how much better your life can be.
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In the tradition known as humanistic and depth psychology, we do not think only of how to reduce people's pain or helping them "cope."
The main question for healing is not "How can I help this person feel less depressed?" Rather it is, "How can I help this person become more conscious, insightful and empowered so that they outgrow their depression?"
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To help someone become more conscious, I want to understand their personality type. Their type indicates what their main tendencies and strengths will be.
I use the Jungian model of personality type, which is popularly known as the Myers-Briggs system. Despite some rather misguided attempts to claim that it is unscientific, it is in fact the most robust, descriptive and complete theory of personality that we have today.
Naturally there is no perfect, hard science of personality type. The field of clinical psychology and the practice of psychotherapy are not hard sciences like math or biology. They involve using philosophical paradigms of human nature, motivation and emotion to understand people.
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A good psychotherapist is therefore not likely to have the same personality or thinking style as a good chemist or software engineer.
They would be far more attuned to the inner, feeling dimension of life -- the moral, relational and emotional aspects that you don't talk about with your lawyer or family doctor. They would be people who use a broad-minded and humanistic lens to understand the main aspects of human suffering, fulfillment and lifespan development.
Paying attention brings change
Psychotherapy is a process of paying deeper attention to your inner experience. Most importantly, that means paying attention to feelings of stress, sadness and frustration that you haven't been able to fully understand or express on your own.
I'm here to help you pay closer attention to your inner life. It is always emotional pain that gets our attention, and that usually means some form of anxiety, depression or conflict that seems to be getting worse.
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Paying attention is a compassionate response to pain. From attention, comes understanding - and then positive change.
When we understand our thoughts, feelings and actions, we start to experience our innate sanity and well-being. New insights naturally bubble up, and healing happens. Our daily energy and attitude become more fresh and dynamic, full of optimism and courage rather than fear and doubt.
But to get to this place, there is inner work to do. To know who we are, where we are going and how to get there starts with exploring the more unconscious areas and blindspots in us.
A refreshing experience of therapy
The first session or two usually creates a new sense of hope and relief. In many cases, patients are relieved that someone has clearly understood their problem and pointed the way forward.
As therapy progresses, my aim will be to help you understand yourself better and improve your life in many ways. I do this by paying attention to where your opportunities for growth seem to be. I will often recommend books, new daily habits, or activities that I think might be helpful to you.
Therapy helps people know themselves better and think about their lives and relationships in more effective ways. When you feel supported and understood, you will feel more able to know what is right for you in your life.
An ally during difficult times
I am a strong ally for those who are in crisis, who need encouragement and who wish to find a deeper ground of strength and wisdom in their lives. My role is to help you explore what is most true, real and helpful for you.
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Nothing pleases me more than seeing my clients' lives improve, and I will be honored to help you too. Just send me a message or give me a call to discuss your situation.
Any genuine philosophy leads to action and from action back again to wonder, to the enduring fact of mystery.
- Henry Miller
I practice a psychology of Self-Actualization, based on the life-giving and broad-minded philosophy of Carl Jung and other humanistic psychologists.
Jung understood that although it is important to take a "depth" view of a person's psyche and unconscious, the work of healing and becoming conscious must always be centered in the present moment of a person's life.
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Therapy must therefore never be stuck only in intellectual analysis, insights, or feelings. It must always encourage the patient to take new actions and to courageously rise to the challenge of living a full and authentic life.
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In this respect, Jung's vision of self-actualization creates a bridge between inner wisdom and outer living -- between introversion and extroversion, thinking and feeling. To the extent that we balance and harmonize these qualities, we overcome the one-sided development and blindspots that cause our neurotic and dysfunctional issues.