The aim of psychotherapy is to open a path to a fresh start in life.  As your therapist I will try to help you achieve a new perspective of yourself and of the specific nature and origins of your unhappiness. You will develop new responses that will minimize your distress.  My goal is to help you change your experience of yourself so that you can be free of recurrent, destabilizing or painful feelings that undermine your peace of mind, confidence, and your relationship with others. 

I will seek to develop a mutually trusting, secure relationship with you that fosters reciprocal examination and sharing of self-reflections and feelings.   I will focus on understanding your experiences from your point of view and sharing my responses to them.  This therapeutic dialogue is likely to facilitate your moving beyond attending to yourself primarily in terms of whether you are either good enough on the one hand, or inadequate on the other.  Putting aside this preoccupation with self-evaluation can open  the way to deeper examination of your feelings about your experiences and development of legitimate empathy toward yourself.  The stifling effect that familiar doubts, vulnerabilities, and shame may have had on you and on your ability to perceive yourself open-mindedly and honestly will be increasingly neutralized.