OUR APPROACH
THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE
As the saying goes, life is not a dress rehearsal. Goal achievement involves meaningful change and making such changes is typically the greatest -and arguably the most important- challenge we will ever face. A commonplace belief is that making important changes is simply a matter of "wanting it badly enough". But, if that were the case, what heartfelt New Year's resolution would ever go unmet? Meaningful and lasting change almost always requires clearly defined goals and a very strategic game plan for achieving these goals.
Thrive therapists fully appreciate that many clients are willing to give therapy one shot. If therapy is ineffective, the stage is set for clients to reasonably conclude that therapy cannot help them. At Thrive, we take this challenge very seriously. Being well connected and thoroughly supported in therapy is an absolute must at Thrive, but this is simply not enough in our view. All too often, clients have a very positive therapy experience, but nothing really changes. This is a akin to loving the temporary relief your weekly massage offers while continuing to struggle with chronic back pain! Thrive therapists are committed to results, and we define results in terms of positive change with the end point being goal achievement. At Thrive, we work as a team with our clients to identify clear therapy goals and develop a personalized step-wise strategy for achieving these goals.
WHY LOOK TO SCIENCE?
At Thrive, we absolutely draw from science when selecting positive change strategies for our clients. All theories (cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic, psychoanalytic, Jungian, Gestalt, Object Relations, Interpersonal, Dialectic Behavioral, etc.) make a convincing argument that their positive change strategies are effective. Well, it all sounds good in theory, but what strategies have been repeatedly demonstrated to actually work? This is where science comes into play.
Is all science reliable? Sadly no. Like most human endeavors, science varies quite a bit (to put it kindly) in terms of quality and objectivity. As clinical psychologists, Thrive therapists have extensive training in conducting and evaluating research. This allows us to identify effective positive change strategies that have met the highest standards of quality science. At Thrive, we strongly prefer strategies that have been shown to work over strategies that "should" work in theory. Well, "science" can certainly come across as complex and even a bit intimidating. Not to worry! Thrive therapists are strong believers in the art of translating the science of positive change into user-friendly and completely relatable principles. After all, as Einstein so well put it "if you can't explain it simply -you don't understand it well enough."