Women's Issues
I have a particular passion for helping women. I studied women's studies as an undergraduate and feminist-relational models of therapy in graduate school, have given college-campus workshops on the subjects of body image and eating disorders, and wrote my dissertation on sexual agency in women—looking particularly at women's comfort with erotic desire and pleasure. Consistently, my work with couples takes seriously women's unmet desires in relationships. One of the influences of the women's movement has been to change women's expectations in their intimate relationships, expecting more from their male partners than perhaps their mothers or grandmothers did. Men as a group, have not kept up with the evolving roles of men and women, leaving many women frustrated by the lack of intimacy and responsibility. Attending to the political realities of men and women in this new era is an important part of the couples work I do. I help men to understand and respond to the hopes and expectations that their wives, and help women to better communicate what they want and need to their husbands, ultimately helping women and men to be happier together.
I treat the following issues often related to women's experience:
- Low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness
- Poor body image and complicated relationship with food
- Superwoman complex and perfectionism
- Balancing traditional roles with ambitions
- Sexuality and sexual identity, including enhancement, dysfunction, satisfaction, and comfort level
- Dissatisfaction in intimate relationships, wishing for more emotional intimacy and shared responsibility in family relationships than able to find
847-563-4143