INDIVIDUAL THERAPY

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Mary Jane  often uses cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques in her practice with adults.  Research shows that cognitive-behavioral therapy is highly effective in treating issues such as anxiety, as well as other issues. By keeping a daily log of recurring thoughts that upset them, persons can learn to challenge unrealistic thoughts and replace them with more realistic ones based on facts.  Dr. David Burns, author of Feeling Good:  The New Mood Therapy  wrote “we feel the way we think”.  He identified common patterns of thinking which include such things as all or nothing thinking, over-generalization, or a negative mental filter.  Dr. Burns' website is feelinggood.com.

Another resource Mary Jane often uses in counseling is the work of Bill Ferguson, a former divorce attorney in Houston, who made the decision to change careers when he found himself trying to keep couples together instead of helping them  separate.  In his latest book, Get Your Power Back, he talks about a concept he calls 100/100, which focuses on individuals' 100% negative contribution to the dynamic of their relationships (with their spouse, children, family members, friends, etc.) which allows the individual to focus on the power they have to make their own changes instead of having tunnel vision on another person's  negative contribution.  Mary Jane believes that this is a powerful concept that is particularly helpful in individual counseling when the issue has to do with  a relationship with another person.