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Charlotte Howard, Ph.D.
Licensed Psychologist
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Practice Philosophy:
I believe people are naturally resilient with the right support. Therapy facilitates the healing process by helping you deeply understand yourself, with compassion, so your presenting concerns can be effectively addressed. The approach I use varies to fit the style and presenting issues of each client. Some clients place greater import on alleviating symptoms quickly, while others want to address the underlying causes of these symptoms so that more substantial inner growth can occur. Typically, I take a holistic approach combining in-depth traditional talk therapy with more recent, empirically-validated and present-focused approaches. I sometimes act as a life coach, helping clients change behaviors and discern choices that lead toward the lives they envision. My predominant focus, however, is guiding the kind of deeper exploration that results in real inner transformation and personal fulfillment.
Most of the struggles and pain that bring people to therapy are based on experiences in past and present relationships, and what we learned about ourselves from those relationships. Exploring the grief, losses, joys, and disappointments of your life, how you developed to cope with these, and how they inform how you feel about yourself, leads to insight, awareness, and emotional intelligence that is vital to healing and growth. An important component of this process is the therapeutic relationship—your feelings in relationship with me, and what you learn about yourself through this relationship—as we make this exciting journey together.
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Specialties:
Couples & Groups
Though I also enjoy seeing clients individually, my primary interest is working with couples and groups. Couples and group therapy are ways of addressing in real time the emotions that come up in relationships and how we respond to these feelings
in ways that serve us and ways that don’t.
Groups observe the nuances of how people relate to each other and then understand how these subtleties cause and maintain their problematic patterns in relationships. Members begin deeply understanding who they are in relationships, which allows greater flexibility, awareness, and choice. Exploring how we feel with and respond to others exposes where we need healing of past wounds and no-longer-effective coping strategies, and reveals the way to healthy connections, self-care, and a sense of meaning.
In the safety of couple’s psychotherapy, couples speak honestly about their feelings in the relationship. They are able to understand and address the sources of pain while learning to effectively nurture the seeds of potential. As their communication patterns change, they often find the real compassion and understanding that they have been longing for from each other. Couples are often surprised by how quickly they can return to love and commitment with the right support making adjustments to key outer and inner aspects of their relationship.
Anxiety
I also specialize in relieving anxiety, stress, tension, & panic. My background in movement and body awareness makes it natural to compliment traditional psychotherapy with the latest researched treatments for anxiety. These include mindfulness, cognitive interventions, & relaxation training for clients wanting to learn coping strategies in addition to addressing the underlying causes of their concerns. Occasionally I will use hypnosis.
Existential/Spirituality
Another specialty of mine is helping clients understand their life purpose and feel a sense of meaning and inner sustenance. Recent research shows that therapy is most effective when it incorporates and builds on clients’ strengths. In addition, the majority of actual clients surveyed in large studies report wishing their spiritual lives were addressed in therapy. If you are part of this group, I encourage you to bring this desire up with me. We can utilize your spiritual perspective and experiences in understanding your life and who you are, and in discovering a future
that is consistent with your sense of what is important to you.
Young Adult Psychotherapy
I have a special interest in working with young adults who are seeking to understand their relationships
or their place in the world.
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Background:
I attended Middlebury College in Vermont and was one of two people granted permission to create my own major, which I called "Therapy as a Synthesis of Mind, Body, Spirit, & Sense of Place." This major combined modern dance, environmental studies, literature, psychology, and religion, providing a foundation for my holistic and multidimensional therapy approach. I received a full fellowship to graduate school in Counseling Psychology, only awarded to a handful of incoming students at the University of Iowa. While receiving my doctorate I taught movement improvisation and Authentic Movement, a therapeutic movement form, in the dance department. I also taught Developmental Psychology and saw clients for therapy in several schools and Universities, and one Women’s Resource & Action Center. My internship was at the University of Texas Counseling & Mental Health Center working with college and graduate students and taking referrals from the physicians at the Health Center to address physical health issues that are tied to mental health, such as eating disorders, headaches, tension, panic attacks, digestive problems (such as irritable bowel syndrome), sleep disorders, and chronic pain. In addition to my Ph.D., I also received 5 years of training in holistic healing at the Jaffe Institute for Spiritual & Medical Healing. This training provides the basis for the existential work I do, as well as allowing me to easily incorporate clients’ spiritual lives
into their healing process when they request it.
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• Recipient of the Presidential Fellowship at the University of Iowa
• Presenter at the American Psychological Association, as well as the American Group Psychotherapy Association conference in 2007
• 8 research publications in national & international professional psychology journals
• Special training in Relationship Issues, Anxiety & Panic Disorders, Existential Concerns, & Couples, Group, and Young Adult Psychotherapy
• Additional areas of clinical experience: Depression, Bipolar, OCD, Eating Disorders, Personality Disorders, IBS, parenting, sexual concerns, Sleep Disorders, gender and sexual identity issues, life/career planning & motivation, chronic headaches, loss & trauma, and more.
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New Book!
Awaken to Love combines the wisdom from spiritual and psychological approaches to transform and enrich the love between partners. I wrote this book for spiritual people, of any religion or spiritual path, who are ready to heal or deepen a committed relationship.
“Awaken to Love engages the heart, mind, & soul of the reader.
Dr. Howard has given us a unique, brilliantly-written spiritual
& psychological guide to long-lasting, deeply-felt, heart to heart
relationships.”
--Hannelore Hanson, Order of the Sisters of St. Francis
Available through Amazon.com, by clicking the "buy now" button below to purchase
online through Paypal, or by contacting our office directly.
dr.charlottehoward@gmail.com
508 Deep Eddy Avenue
Austin, TX 78703
512-469-6008
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© 2006 DeepEddyPsychotherapy.com |