Therapy
WPS offers a diverse approaches to treatment for adult clients with various reasons for seeking support. Some approaches identify a specific problem and involve identifying solutions, such as behavior change. Other approaches are more exploratory and insight-focused. Combining the two often helps with some quick symptom improvement while building an understanding of yourself that contributes to sustained improvements in wellbeing.
Both virtual and in-person sessions are offered. Other terms for virtual therapy include telehealth or telemedicine, which can be done using video-chat or phone. In-person sessions are offered in Aspwinwall (see other team members for additional locations). Some of the areas of specialization are listed below.
Depression, Anxiety and Self-Exploration
Many people seek therapy for low-mood, anxiety, adjustments to life changes or stressors and self-exploration. Dr. Weingarden is trained in various approaches to talk therapy including but not limited to Interpersonal Dynamic therapy, Interpersonal Social Rhythm Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Cognitive Behavior Therapy.
Interpersonal or relational therapy is based on 2 assumptions:
Humans are fundamentally social beings. Emotional problems can be understood in an interpersonal context.
Therapy involves a "therapeutic relationship," which, while in some ways unique to social relationships, also provides opportunity to explore our ways of relating, beliefs about ourselves, others and how relationships work, and our patterns of engaging with others.
Consequently, therapy provides a unique opportunity to explore relationships and ultimately improve the quality of relationships and life.
Eating Disorders, Anorexia and ARFID
People with an eating disorder often have a lot of hesitation about changing their behavior. We can explore this as ambivalence: part of the person wants to change and part of the person is rarely ready. A range of approaches can help a person with an eating disorder explore this ambivalence and decide about changing and having the skills to do so when ready. This can include Focal Dynamic Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Behavior Therapy, combined with skills that would apply to any therapy (understanding self, coping and interpersonal patterns). Anorexia is treated by a treatment team including a therapist, medical doctor or other medical professional and nutritionist or dietitian. ARFID is a fear of negative consequences related to eating (other than weight gain) that significantly limits food intake. This can often be effectively addressed by education about the condition, skills for symptom management and a "fear ladder" to expose the individual to new foods at comfortable pace.
Bipolar Disorder
In additional to broadly effective approaches to psychotherapy, IPSRT (Interpersonal Social Rhythm Therapy) helps people with bipolar disorder, a condition considered to be primarily biological and connect to circadian rhythms, gain a notable degree of control over mood episodes by understanding the impact of their daily routines.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Emotion Dysregulation
DBT includes a set of skills that helps people understand overwhelming emotions. These emotions often spur behaviors that can negatively impact the person's life including work, relationships and their well-being. This can be helpful for a wide range of individuals but is particularly useful for personality disorders (such as borderline personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, and antisocial personality disorder) and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).